The Big Answer

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[h] for those who are called according to his purpose…31 What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ESV

I would guess most of us read and ponder the Bible for answers so it seemed like a remarkable thing that there was a question to be answered in every single verse of this passage.  I had planned to skip right over the familiar verse 28 and get right to the “What shall we say to these things?”  But what things?  Turns out these simple questions are related to some very big things from verses 28 -30.  Things I wish I knew more about so I had better answers for them. Things like love, foreknew, predestined, conformed to the image of his Son, called, justified, and glorified.  Impossible things, really.   

Then I spotted the footnote [h] to Verse 28 [Some manuscripts; God works all things together for good, OR God works in all things for the good] for those who are called according to his purpose.  Both of those footnoted translations made a simple change that drew my attention away from those “things” I don’t know to the BIG answer to “What then shall we say to these things?”  God works!