Do My Past Sins Work Toward My Future Good?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Do our past sins work together for our future good?
00:00:09.220 | It's a question from two different listeners today.
00:00:11.340 | Tim is one of them.
00:00:12.680 | Dear Pastor John, hello.
00:00:13.920 | Paul writes in Romans 8.28,
00:00:15.800 | and we know that all things work together for good to them
00:00:18.700 | that love God to them who are the called
00:00:20.960 | according to his purpose.
00:00:22.700 | I know that all things includes the so-called bad things
00:00:26.360 | as well, like suffering and death.
00:00:29.040 | However, I'm confused as to whether the all things
00:00:32.000 | also includes my specific sins.
00:00:36.600 | A similar question came in to us from Cliff.
00:00:38.680 | Pastor John, can you explain something?
00:00:40.320 | Does the all in the all things of Romans 8.28 include my sin?
00:00:44.720 | I hate my sin.
00:00:45.960 | I long for the day I won't sin.
00:00:47.920 | But is my sin too working for an eternal good in me?
00:00:52.640 | Pastor John, how would you answer Tim and Cliff?
00:00:55.480 | - Well, before I answer directly,
00:00:58.280 | which I hope to do,
00:00:59.840 | let me lay down a biblical warning
00:01:02.520 | because Paul is very much aware of a danger
00:01:07.520 | in answering this question with a yes,
00:01:10.520 | namely that our sins can do work together
00:01:15.520 | for our eternal good.
00:01:17.920 | He sees a danger and he warns against it at least twice.
00:01:22.240 | So that's where I feel like I should start.
00:01:24.480 | So here's the first one, Romans 3.5.
00:01:26.840 | If our unrighteousness serves to show
00:01:30.360 | the righteousness of God,
00:01:32.400 | what should we say?
00:01:33.400 | That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?
00:01:37.840 | By no means, for then how could God judge the world?
00:01:40.960 | But if through my lie, God's truth abounds to his glory,
00:01:45.960 | why am I still condemned as a sinner?
00:01:51.400 | And why not do evil that good may come
00:01:56.660 | as some people slanderously charge us with saying
00:02:00.240 | their condemnation is just?
00:02:02.240 | In other words, Paul is very aware of the danger
00:02:07.240 | that in answering this question,
00:02:10.280 | I might lead people to do,
00:02:13.880 | what here is the quote,
00:02:15.120 | do evil that good may come.
00:02:17.600 | And he says, and I say,
00:02:20.240 | anybody who infers that from anything I'm gonna say now,
00:02:26.020 | from me or from Paul,
00:02:27.960 | they're making a slanderous charge.
00:02:30.580 | I am never going to say,
00:02:33.160 | let's all do evil that good may come
00:02:35.800 | since he turns all of our evil for his glory
00:02:38.920 | and for our good.
00:02:40.700 | That's the first warning.
00:02:42.140 | Here's the second one from Romans 5.20-6.2.
00:02:47.140 | The law came in to increase the trespass,
00:02:51.000 | but where sin increased,
00:02:53.360 | grace abounded all the more.
00:02:57.320 | So that as sin reigned in death,
00:03:01.120 | grace also might reign through righteousness,
00:03:04.940 | leading to eternal life through Jesus our Lord.
00:03:09.520 | What shall we say then?
00:03:11.520 | Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
00:03:16.520 | By no means.
00:03:19.780 | How can we who died to sin still live in it?
00:03:24.380 | In other words,
00:03:25.740 | if we use our presumed human logic to say
00:03:30.740 | that more sinning means the display of more glorious grace,
00:03:35.860 | so let's all be about more sinning,
00:03:39.500 | we are dead wrong.
00:03:42.820 | And the first reason he gives why we're dead wrong
00:03:46.820 | is that dead people don't do that.
00:03:50.620 | Dead people don't think that way.
00:03:52.480 | Dead people don't act that way.
00:03:54.460 | He says, how can we who died to sin still live in sin?
00:03:59.460 | Dead people don't sin like that,
00:04:02.860 | and we have died with Christ.
00:04:05.860 | So double warning.
00:04:08.320 | Let's heed Paul's warnings
00:04:11.540 | as we try to answer the question,
00:04:14.180 | does Romans 8:28 mean
00:04:18.460 | that even our sins work for our good?
00:04:23.460 | Now, the next thing to notice, I think,
00:04:27.220 | is the precise wording of Romans 8:28.
00:04:30.900 | Let's make sure we get it.
00:04:33.100 | We know that for those who love God,
00:04:38.100 | all things work together for good.
00:04:42.300 | For those who are called according to his purpose.
00:04:47.300 | So it is a crucial question to ask,
00:04:51.000 | well, what's the effect of sinning
00:04:55.940 | in the heart of those who love God,
00:05:00.940 | in the heart of those who are called by God?
00:05:04.960 | And surely part of the answer is brokenhearted repentance
00:05:11.700 | and self-humbling and a resolve to hate sin more seriously
00:05:15.900 | and fight sin more valiantly.
00:05:18.160 | And those responses are good.
00:05:23.180 | They're good.
00:05:24.340 | So yes, sins work for good
00:05:29.340 | for those who love God and are called,
00:05:32.340 | at least in that sense.
00:05:34.260 | But this is different from saying
00:05:38.260 | that sinning works for our greatest happiness in eternity.
00:05:43.260 | The promise of working for our good
00:05:49.920 | is not the same as the promise
00:05:52.940 | of working for our maximal happiness.
00:05:57.780 | Now, I know that this introduces a distinction
00:06:02.780 | that many people have not perhaps thought about,
00:06:07.260 | namely that in heaven, there will be varying rewards,
00:06:12.260 | which correspond, I think,
00:06:14.780 | to varying capacities for happiness,
00:06:18.900 | meaning everyone in heaven will be fully happy.
00:06:22.540 | That's the meaning of heaven,
00:06:24.480 | but that some will have capacities of fullness
00:06:29.480 | greater than others.
00:06:31.300 | We talked about this way back in episode 1188.
00:06:35.660 | If anybody wants to go check,
00:06:37.980 | but let me quote Edwards here,
00:06:40.060 | just a few sentences to make the point.
00:06:43.080 | Jonathan Edwards, he says this,
00:06:45.660 | "Christ tells us that he who gives a cup of cold water
00:06:50.260 | to a disciple in the name of a disciple
00:06:53.700 | shall in no wise lose his reward.
00:06:57.980 | But this could not be true
00:07:00.420 | if a person should have no greater reward
00:07:04.020 | for doing many good works than if he did but a few.
00:07:08.220 | It would be no diminishing to the happiness
00:07:11.700 | of those who have lower degrees of happiness and glory
00:07:16.460 | that there are others in heaven
00:07:18.420 | advanced in glory above them.
00:07:20.940 | For all shall be perfectly happy.
00:07:23.620 | Every one shall be perfectly satisfied.
00:07:28.380 | Every vessel that is cast into the ocean of happiness
00:07:32.980 | is full, though there are some vessels
00:07:36.620 | far larger than others,
00:07:38.460 | and there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven,
00:07:43.460 | but perfect love shall reign throughout the whole society."
00:07:48.140 | That's the end of Edwards' quote.
00:07:50.320 | So there's a picture of how there can be perfect happiness
00:07:55.320 | in everyone in heaven,
00:07:57.820 | and yet there can be also degrees of reward
00:08:03.820 | greater or lesser capacities for happiness.
00:08:07.980 | And the point of saying that right here
00:08:11.380 | is to open the possibility
00:08:13.780 | that when Romans 8:28 says
00:08:16.580 | that everything works for our good,
00:08:19.820 | it does not guarantee that all of us who love God
00:08:24.820 | will have the same capacity for happiness in eternity.
00:08:30.820 | In other words, good in Romans 8:28
00:08:34.860 | does not mean as good or as happy as conceivable,
00:08:39.860 | since our capacity for happiness may have been greater
00:08:45.300 | if we had lived differently.
00:08:48.100 | But the good of Romans 8:28 does mean
00:08:51.820 | enjoying God as fully as your capacity allows.
00:08:56.280 | So when Paul says, for example, in 1 Corinthians 3:15,
00:09:01.040 | if anyone's work is burned up at the final judgment,
00:09:05.360 | he will suffer loss,
00:09:08.200 | though he himself will be saved,
00:09:10.300 | but only as through fire.
00:09:14.200 | When he says that, the implication is that sinful behavior
00:09:19.200 | may diminish our capacity for some eternal happiness.
00:09:25.520 | Now, why do I say may diminish
00:09:30.520 | our capacity for eternal happiness?
00:09:34.520 | I say may because it is possible
00:09:38.520 | that after some season of sinning,
00:09:41.520 | say teaching false doctrine,
00:09:44.520 | we might recognize in this life our failure
00:09:48.520 | and repent and be broken and be humbled
00:09:52.520 | and turn and be all the more fruitful
00:09:57.520 | because of having failed and gotten so much clarity
00:10:02.520 | about our mistake that the rest of our lives
00:10:04.520 | is more fruitful.
00:10:06.520 | In other words, it is an oversimplification to say
00:10:10.520 | every failure to do the very good deed
00:10:15.520 | that would have been rewarded with future joy
00:10:19.520 | necessarily means that our future capacity for future joy
00:10:23.520 | is diminished by that failure.
00:10:26.520 | That does not follow because God may take that very failure,
00:10:33.520 | that sin, which forfeited the eternal reward
00:10:38.520 | of the good deed that it failed to do
00:10:41.520 | and cause the very sin to break us and humble us
00:10:47.520 | and turn us into a path of even greater devotion
00:10:51.520 | and obedience and fruitfulness and eternal joy.
00:10:56.520 | So I'm not saying every sin has this remarkable effect.
00:11:02.520 | I'm not. I don't think that's true.
00:11:04.520 | That would be an overstatement.
00:11:06.520 | Some sins of God's people simply work
00:11:10.520 | for our good and God's glory
00:11:15.520 | because they bring about forgiveness and justification
00:11:19.520 | and thankfulness.
00:11:21.520 | So I conclude every sin in those who truly love God
00:11:26.520 | works for God's glory, which is our joy.
00:11:32.520 | And in his amazing grace, God makes some sins
00:11:39.520 | gloriously devastating to our ego
00:11:44.520 | and thus exceptionally fruitful for our eternal joy.
00:11:51.520 | Thank you, Pastor John, for thinking this one through.
00:11:54.520 | And thank you, Tim and Cliff, for the excellent questions today.
00:11:57.520 | Keep those wonderful questions coming in.
00:11:59.520 | And thank you for listening to the podcast.
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00:12:10.520 | And to find other episodes in our archive
00:12:12.520 | or to submit a question to us of your own,
00:12:14.520 | do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:19.520 | And speaking of all things working together for our good,
00:12:22.520 | this obviously includes suffering, as we mentioned at the outset.
00:12:26.520 | So what is God's good design in our pain?
00:12:30.520 | That's the topic up next time on Wednesday when we return.
00:12:33.520 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you then.
00:12:36.520 | [Silence]
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