Is Romans 8:28 a Promise?

"All things work together for good..."

Throughout my life, Romans 8:28 has always been an uplifting Bible verse.

It reads, “²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (KJV). I’ll use the King James Version here because many people have memorized this exact wording.

When life gets rough, lots of Christians look to Romans 8:28 to get some perspective and help them weather the storm.

Photo by Volkan Olmez on Unsplash

The folks in Hollywood even used Romans 8:28 as the premise for a TV show, Manifest, about some people that disappear on airline flight 828 and then reappear years later. The main character’s mom repeatedly references Romans 8:28. (The rest of the show abuses Christian theology and mixes it with occult tarot reading, so I don’t recommend it.)

Further, did you also know that the question “Is Romans 8:28 a promise?” is one of the most-Googled-for phrases pertaining to Christianity?

I think that probably has to do with people looking for hope in the midst of a bad situation and wondering if God will really show up.

So, I want to answer that question here. Is Romans 8:28 a promise?

Here’s the short answer: Yes, Romans 8:28 is a promise. And you can be sure that God will fulfill it.

Here’s the long answer.

Unfortunately, most people have an incomplete understanding of God and the way that he makes promises and how he often fulfills them. So, let’s start by unpacking that.

First, let’s make sure we’re reading the whole text. Many people think Romans 8:28 says that “all things work together for good.” They will throw that around as a sort of feel-good phrase, akin to “it’ll all work out, you’ll see.” Certainly, the text does include “all things work together for good.” But there are some conditions on the promise and those conditions are important.

Let’s read the whole verse again: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The first condition is that you have to love God. If you don’t love God, then Romans 8:28 is not a promise for you. Maybe it could be in the future, if you believe in God and come to love him, but perhaps not yet.

Second, the promise is given “to them who are called according to his purpose.” In other words, you have to be a Christian, “called according to his purpose.” God is not saying that everything will work out well for everybody in the world, Christian and non-Christian alike. In fact, He knows that it won’t, because judgement is coming. That’s going to be a very bad day for a lot of people that have ignored Jesus’s free-gift of salvation.

So, then, if you love God and you’re a Christian, it’s a promise, right? Yep, definitely. Count on it.

“Then why is my life a mess?” I hear you ask. “I love God and I’m a Christian. Shouldn’t everything in my life be good?”

No, not necessarily right now or in the way that you want. The issue is that you’re focused on the immediate timeframe and your definition of “good” is too limited.

Let’s take your timeframe. Many people think that if God makes them a promise, he should deliver on it right this moment. “God, if you’re saying that you’re working things for ‘good,’ then everything in my life, or at least something in my life, should be coming up roses. And it isn’t. So what’s wrong? Am I not loving you? Was I not called according to your purpose? Do you not love me? Is it not a promise? Do you exist at all?” Because God hasn’t made everything good in their lives right now, they worry that God won’t keep his promise.

Have no fear!

Remember that God sees human history, including your whole life, all at once, beginning to end. He already knows how everything is going to work out for his Kingdom and for you as a part of that. The promise in Romans 8:28 says that everything will be good in the end. At some point, you will look back and be able to see how God worked it all for good and you’ll be immensely satisfied. But in the moment, you may still hurt and struggle. In fact, God may ask you to endure amazing hardship and even death.

The apostles are good examples of this. If anybody could be said to have clear line of sight to loving the Lord and being called according to his purpose, it would be those people that Jesus hand-selected. And yet, all the apostles except John were put to death. John is the only apostle to die of old age. According to church lore, Peter was crucified upside down, because he was “not fit to be crucified in the same way as his Lord.” Paul was executed in Rome.

Imagine Peter, hanging upside down on a cross and thinking about Romans 8:28. Was he thinking “God, you let me down.” No, I don’t think so.

Or imagine Paul, who actually wrote the book of Romans itself, meditating on what he had said before he was executed.

God knew that Peter and Paul would die and he wasn’t going to save them from that, because God sees the whole impact of somebody’s life, down to the last, smallest detail. God knew that the testimony of these men would be strengthened if they died for their beliefs, and that would in turn strengthen you and me in our knowledge of the faith thousands of years later.

I have no doubt that Peter and Paul are both in heaven now saying, “Yes, God, you did work it all for good, even our deaths!” And I’m sure they would die all over again if just one more person would come to Christ.

Now, let’s talk about what “good” means. The verse says “all things work together for good…” We have a tendency to think that good should mean that God will relieve my present suffering in the way that I want, typically by taking it away, almost like a pain reliever for a headache. If you’re hurting, then pop some Romans 8:28, God will come to your rescue, and you’ll be feeling better soon. In other words, we tend to think that “good” should be relative to me and my current situation, right now. We confuse our version of good for God’s version of good.

And God’s version of good is so much bigger and so much better than our version of good. God will seek to maximize your good, the good of everyone around you, and the good of his kingdom. God may withhold some immediate good from you in favor of delivering a far bigger, far better good later. In the case of Peter and Paul, he used their deaths to strengthen the faiths of those around them, even those thousands of years later like you and me.

But in the moment, you can almost hear God dialoging with Paul in prayer while he’s under arrest in Rome and awaiting his execution. Paul, like Jesus before his crucifixion, might be saying, “Hey, Lord, I really don’t want to die right now. But I’m willing to do it if you need me to.”

“I know, Paul,” God replies, “Here’s the thing… there is so much downstream goodness that is going to result from your death that I’m going to have to ask you to do it. I’m not going to save you. Like Jesus, I’m not going to take this cup from you. But I’m here for you and I’ll be your comfort as you go through it. And I’ll welcome you into heaven with open arms.”

And all of that is 100 percent compatible with the promise of Romans 8:28.

Does that mean that you won’t find any immediate satisfaction in Romans 8:28 or that God is always playing the long game? No, not at all. Sometimes, you’ll pray and God will relieve your present condition immediately. Hallelujah! Rejoice in that and thank Him.

But sometimes, he won’t. And it’s an important point to understand that in spite of God saying “No” to changing your immediate circumstances, Romans 8:28 is still a promise that He will fulfill. If you’re a Christian, then when you get to heaven, I can guarantee you that you’ll look back on your life and know with absolute certainty that God delivered on Romans 8:28 all over the place.

God made promises to people throughout the Bible, to people like Abraham, David, Daniel, Isaiah, the Apostles, and others that would not be fulfilled for hundreds or even thousands of years. Those people may not have lived to see the payoff, and yet the promise was ultimately fulfilled.

Perhaps, instead of praying “God make my life good,” you should shift your prayer to, “Lord, help me understand the good that you are trying to accomplish here, and give me the strength to do what you need me to do.”

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