Paul’s letter to the Romans on all things working together

Sources

• Romans 8:28 (NASB) (opens in a new tab)

  Romans 8:28, NASB

Objections & responses

“God works all things for good” is unfalsifiable. If good comes of a tragedy, God did it; if nothing does, the good is hidden or future. A claim compatible with every outcome explains nothing.

This is a fair point about how the verse is often used. Romans 8:28 is not an empirical prediction to be tested case by case; it is a promise whose truth depends on the whole Christian story being true: God exists, the resurrection happened, a renewal is coming. It is falsifiable in the sense that Christianity is. If Christ was not raised, Paul says, the faith is worthless and the promise with it. Read this as a promise inside the Christian framework, not as evidence for the framework, and it does its real work.

The promise is limited to those who love God. So for everyone else, evil is just evil? That’s a narrow comfort.

The verse is addressed to believers and should not be universalized. Christian theology does hold that God’s care extends to everyone (Matthew 5:45), but the specific promise of Romans 8:28, that all things serve one’s final good, is tied to being in Christ. The honest thing to say is that Christianity’s answer to evil is an invitation as well as an explanation: the promise is available, not automatic.

Appears under 1 claim in this case

• Scripture does not promise believers an easy life, but it does promise that God can work even evil toward good.