What Romans 8:28 Actually Means

"For God works all things together for the good of those who love him." -Romans 8:28

This statement made by Paul in the New Testament is packed full of hope, isn't it? I love the promise of the idea that no matter what happens in my life, God will bring something good to me through that. An ugly situation will be weaved into something beautiful. Bad things will be turned around. That's the power of YHWH, the one who trades beauty for ashes.

This idea isn't limited in origin to Romans 8:28. Joseph told his brothers that what they had intended for evil, God had used for good. So I'm not saying that the common understanding of this verse is wrong. But it is limited. There is more to it than what sits above the surface.

Most of us have heard, or experienced ourselves, first hand accounts of this. The person that claimed the awful car-accident was the wake up call they needed to fix their marriage. Someone insisting that getting fired from a job was the best thing that ever happened to them. And yet...all of us have experienced deep heartache, grief and loss that can feel too heavy to bear.  There are certain pains in life where it seems cruel to say, "Not to worry - good will come from this." 

And that's where we need to see the deeper meaning of Romans 8:28.

The point of this passage isn't limited to all things somehow working out to be beneficial to followers of God, even if they don't see how in the world that could be true until eternity. Romans 8:28 also means that no matter what happens, it is our job to work with God to bring about good in this world.

Again, while I firmly believe that God is faithful to turn around the mess in our lives, we are also called to work with him in that! That means there is tremendous hope in each of our lives! Not just for good to happen to us. But to overcome the hard things and heartache, and continue to be faithful servants of YHWH, doing everything we can to bring about good into the world.

Many of us struggle to take our eyes off their hardships and the brokenness of our world. And I get that. There are far too many overwhelming situations and heartaches for most of us. And there are scary statistics and predictions about society, the economy, depression rates, and the environment on the news every day. It's easy to want to throw your hands up in the air and say "What's the point?" But truthfully, as the body of Messiah this is our time to step into the role that God created us for. It is your job to work with God to bring about good in your life, your family, your community, and our world, no matter what unwanted circumstances may arise.

Here's a better rendering of Romans 8:28

"We know that God works all things together for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose."

Related posts:

What Does 'No Greater Burdens' in Acts 15:20 Mean?
The Real Meaning of 1 Corinthians 14:34
The Beautiful Detail You've Never Heard from the Prodigal Son Parable

Misconceptions that Keep Us from Understanding the Bible

The Bible has been a controversial and misunderstood book. 

Why is the Bible confusing? Why do so many people, sects, and denominations disagree about what certain passages of Scripture mean or how the word of God should be applied to our lives? This post will address what I believe are the most common misconceptions that lead to misunderstanding the Bible today, and help us to see the deeper meanings of the Scripture.

Now to be clear, I am not saying that many people don't understand much of the Bible. But I do believe that all of us have room to grow and better understand the words that we have been given. 

I don't know if you've ever looked through eyeglasses that weren't quite your prescription, but if you have you may know that even if you can see the general layout of your surroundings, the details are fuzzy at best. Looking through the wrong lens can very well lead to a headache. I think a lot of us have spent much of our lives looking at the Bible through lenses of wrong beliefs or incorrect assumptions like those below. Recognizing these misconceptions as incorrect is the first step towards correctly seeing both the Old and New Testaments

Misconceptions about the Bible that lead Christians to misunderstand God's word:

-Jesus was against Biblical commandments. I spent most of my teenage years believing that the Savior's interactions with religious leaders in the Gospels were him telling them to chill out about keeping Biblical law, and that idea could not be more incorrect. Jesus's words were always, always about restoring the word of God, and absolutely never about changing it.

-That the religious leaders of the day were doing what God wanted. I used to picture the culture the Messiah was born into as the perfect example of people following the Bible, but truthfully things were not going well when Jesus arrived on the scene. Leaders were a long way from perfectly implementing Biblical instructions. In their run-ins with the Messiah he called them out for ignoring commandments, greed, making a show of doing good deeds, focusing on small instructions while disregarding larger ones, and replacing God's commands altogether with their own laws.

-There's only one type of law in the Bible. If you believe this, then there is simply no way to read through all of the New Testament and have it make cohesive sense. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:20 something like, "I am not under the law...I am not free from the law...I am under the law." Have fun figuring out what that can mean if those are all the same kinds of law. But if we recognize that Scripture frequently references Biblical law, laws for the Levitical priesthood, and manmade traditions, then passages like these come into better focus.

-Only those of a certain bloodline were eligible for salvation before Jesus. It's a popular belief that before Christ, only those of a certain bloodline could be included among the people of Israel, or would have eternal life. This idea is not found in Scripture. Instead, we have many examples of all people being permitted to join the people of YHWH. From the idolatrous backgrounds of Abraham and Sarah, to the Egyptians that joined Israel during the Exodus, to Caleb the Kenezite. The authors of the Messiah's genealogies purposely included women like Ruth and Rahab - women who were not Israelites by birth or bloodline, but nonetheless great-grandmothers of the Savior himself, to dispel this idea.

-There was only one tribe of Israel. Most Bible students know that there were twelve tribes of Israel, yet we act like there was only one. Beliefs such as, 'Everyone in the Old Testament was Jewish,' or ignoring the split in the kingdom of Israel, and subsequently, the different kings and happenings in each kingdom, are direct reflections of this wrong idea. This myth also causes us to miss the true meaning of the Messiah's statement that he was sent "only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel"(Matthew 15:24).

-Scripture speaks of money and finances from a capitalist perspective. It's really easy to read the passages of the Bible that relate to money and assume God's plan for the financial structure of society is modern capitalism, but Biblical law has some huge differences from how things are today. As just one example: in capitalism, anyone with enough money can purchase property, and anyone who owns property could potentially lose it. While under Biblical law, land is not something that is bought, but given by YHWH. And no one can lose their land! If we are looking at Scripture through a lens of capitalism, it's going to be difficult to understand passages like 'render unto Caesar,' and 'a day's wages for a loaf of bread.'

-The Scripture being referenced was our New Testament. So often when Paul, Peter, and even the Savior's own words make reference to Scripture or what is written, we forget the fact that the New Testament did not yet exist. Authors of the New Testament spoke highly of the Old Testament!

-All priesthoods are the same. I used to read Hebrews and think that what was "fading away" was the Levitical priesthood in the Bible and everything else from the Old Testament. But there is another priesthood that was operation in Abraham's day and that is the Melchizedek priesthood that the Messiah is now high priest over.

-Individuals going to heaven is the point of Scripture and the work of God. While it's absolutely true that God loves each individual in the world and that the Bible does address eternal life, looking at the Bible like its only concern is about individuals getting to heaven is a lens that needs to be adjusted. This is an important topic to be sure, and, yes, I would gladly prefer someone know that Jesus loves them and died for their eternal life as opposed to nothing of God's promises. But that doesn't mean that there isn't more going on in this holy book.

Please hear that there's no shame in having had these beliefs! I grew up going to church every Sunday and most Wednesdays and these were things I was taught by pastors, youth pastors, and Christian authors and speakers. Thoughts like these are common and unfortunately, they lead to making the Bible difficult to impossible to understand. As we realize that the beliefs and customs that were passed to us are not necessarily Biblical truth, we can start to better understand the word of God.

Related posts:
The Three Types of Laws in the Bible
Commandments or Traditions - Understanding What the Messiah Spoke Against
Comparing the Melchizedek and Levitical Priesthoods

Here's When the Biblical Holidays Happen in 2025

This is when the Biblical holidays happen in 2025.

If you're looking for this year's dates for Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Shavuot, the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Tabernacles you have come to the right place. These holidays have historic and prophetic meaning in Scripture and believers today can take part in that by adding these dates to their calendars!

While the Bible gives specific dates for each holiday, the Gregorian calendar doesn't match up with the Creator's calendar so the dates land a little bit differently each year on our modern calendar. There are also a few different ways to calculate the start of the year and because of that some groups will observe them at slightly different times. What I'm sharing here is the most commonly used set of dates. Whether you go by this calendar or another, mark your calendars for these set apart times!

When do the Biblical holidays happen in 2025?

Passover - April 12-13

Unleavened Bread - April 13-20

First Fruits - April 13-14

Shavuot - June 1-3

Feast of Trumpets - September 22-24

Yom Kippur - October 1-2

Feast of Tabernacles - October 6-13

A couple of things about this: according to this calendar, days start in the evening at sundown. This means that Passover starts on the evening of April 12 and goes through the evening of the 13th. If you do not observe days as starting in the evening, then celebrating Passover the day of April 13th would be appropriate. This calendar also gives an extra day to both the Feast of Trumpets and Shavuot, even though in the Bible they are both just one day events...feel free to just celebrate the first day of those!

It's also important to note that while all of these are special times, some of these days are considered Sabbaths which means we shouldn't work on them. These Sabbath days are the first and last days of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot, the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and the first and last days of Tabernacles. This means that believers should request off from work or arrange to be away from their business on those days, as well as refrain from shopping, errands, and yard or household projects and chores. 

Sabbath days for 2025:

April 13-14
April 19-20
June 1-2
September 22-23
October 1-2
October 6-7
October 12-13

As well as all weekly Sabbaths, of course.

You have the opportunity to celebrate what God has done by joining in on the Biblical holidays this year!

Related posts:
The Beginner's Guide to the Biblical Holidays
Why the Biblical Holidays Are for All Believers
Six Reasons Believers Should Keep the Bible's Holidays Today

The Prodigal Son Detail You've Never Heard (Parable of the Running Father)

The story of the prodigal son may be some of the most well-known words of the Messiah. It tells the story of a young son who asks for his inheritance, leaves home, squanders the money, finds poverty and despair, before returning home to a father who, after all that, welcomes him back. That's lovely right? We can see how the father in the story represents God and the amazing, freeing, healing forgiveness he offers us...no matter what our choices have been before this.

You can read the full parable in Luke 15:11-32.

The basic understanding of the prodigal son is rich and meaningful, and so often the salve our hearts need. But if we stop here we will miss more of what Jesus intended to show us through this story.

There are many interesting extra details in this passage that you may have heard from Bible commentaries or sermons. The younger son demanding his share of the estate while his father was still alive wasn't just rude, it was akin to telling him that he wished he were dead. And the two sons symbolize the two houses of Israel. The job of feeding the pigs being an extremely low point since the word of God does not consider pigs to be food. There's a lot going on here! And yet, still, there is more.

I used to read this story and when I would get to the part of the father running to his son, I assumed it to be an emotional response. After all he had done...the demand, the abandoning, the squandering of the money...the father still was so happy to see him that he couldn't wait for him to make his own way to the house. I thought it was about an overwhelming feeling of love, that the father couldn't stay still. And that's not necessarily wrong. Heaven does rejoice when we repent. And no one has more joy than YHWH!

But if we knew the culture of the time and place when Jesus told this story, we would recognize something else. I had always assumed this to be a family matter, with what transpired between the younger son and his dad to be of no concern to anyone outside the family...like something similar would be if it happened today in our culture. But at the time, these actions were seen as a community issue.

The Talmud records that there was a customary response to the younger son's actions. The extended family, or sometimes larger community, would perform a 'cutting off' ceremony against someone who had violated community standards in some way. This was called kezazah in Hebrew, and it was a formal way of severing connections with someone who married unconventionally or who sold off part of their family estate, according to the Talmud. Relatives or members of the community would bring some sort of pot or container to break at the feet of whoever they wanted to cut off. So when the father took off running when he saw his returning son, it wasn't just because he was happy to see him. He ran to get to him before anyone tried to cut him off. He ran to save him!

Please note that the cutting off custom was a cultural tradition at the time, and not something the Bible ever calls for or suggests! But it was prevalent enough that both the community members and the Messiah's audience expected the father to cut off the son who had been disloyal to him. The elder brother in the story certainly seemed to expect that, and stated that he begrudged this welcoming back and receiving of his brother. 

But the father did the unexpected and not only accepted the son again, but ran (at the cost of his own personal comfort and perhaps his own dignity) to him to stop anyone who would try and keep his son away from his presence. When the father ran, he was running to the rescue of his beloved son.

I love how this insight into the culture of the time paints a richer picture of the unfathomable depths of God's love for each of us. He doesn't let our own traditions or expectations stand between us and him. When we turn ourselves around from our poor decisions, and walk back to YHWH (the picture of repentance, by the way), he runs to us. He runs because joy fills his heart, and he runs to rescue us. Praise God for the beautiful details inside Biblical truth.

Related posts:

The Parable of the House Upon the Rock (Understanding Matthew 7:24-27)
Biblical Law and the Woman Caught in Adultery
The Two Houses: Israel and Judah in Scripture