Romans 8:28 and Its Implication on the Doctrine of God’s Eternal Reprobation

 

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 (Romans 8:28). This verse is most quoted for the Christian’s comfort and assures us that whatever circumstances we experience in our lives, God always works all things for the elect’s good, who are called to the unmerited salvation of the soul since before the foundation of the world for the glory of His grace. The lack of understanding of this verse causes some to lose faith when they encounter trials and tribulations. Even for the elect who is not justified yet in time (i.e. currently a hater of God, but a sure lover of God in the future), the glorious promise of Romans 8:28 is upon them because the goodness of God will lead him to repentance according to His perfect timing (Romans 2:4). His goodness will never separate the elect from the love God. The universe exists for the good of God’s elect and ultimately to manifest the glory of God. "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). He, whom God loves, shall never perish.

The opposite is true for the reprobate (i.e. those who are called to eternal damnation since before the foundation of the world for the glory of God’s justice) that all things work together not for the good of them that do (or will) not love God and who are not the called according to His salvific purpose. This is a necessary and logical deduction of Romans 8:28. If God is good to the reprobates, why aren’t the reprobates led to true repentance as Romans 2:4 has assured us? If God is good to the reprobates, why doesn’t God’s goodness prevent them from being separated from the love of God as Romans 8:38-39 has assured us?

The simple truth of the matter is that God has no desire to save the reprobates at all. The existence of the whole universe is a means of justice for the reprobates. It is not out of the goodness, love, compassion, mercy, and grace of God that He provides for the physical needs of the reprobates, but it is out of His hatred and wrath (Psalm 73:20). The universe exists as a platform for the fulness of the iniquity of the reprobates. "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever" (Psalm 92:7). God caused the reprobates of the past to grow and flourish as the grass (some to great prosperity and a ripe old age) and not sending them to hell immediately in order that their iniquity be full like the Amorites (Genesis 15:16) to the end that they will be destroyed forever. The universe is a "slippery place" for the reprobates where they can slip and fall to destruction anytime according to God’s command (Psalm 73:18). 

There is no mercy of God applied to the reprobates in view of the aforementioned purpose of God in providing for the physical needs of the reprobates, contrary to some people’s definition of mercy as simply God not sending people to hell immediately. Mercy is God not giving the elect what they deserve i.e. hell. Therefore, the opposite of Romans 8:28 is true for the reprobates and there is no such thing as God’s non-saving universal or common goodness, love, compassion, mercy, and grace towards the reprobates. This is applicable to the reprobate angels as well as the reprobate men and God is just for not granting them the ability of will to truly repent of their sins. 

The Genevan theologians of the 17^th century agreed as they wrote the following in Geneva Theses (1649) to refute the Amyraldians:

Rejection of the error of those: 1. Who teach that in God there is granted, under the condition of faith and repentance, some good will of saving those who perish. 2. Who, using economy (ὂικονομίας) for an excuse, ascribe to God the inclination or volition or disposition or affection or less ardent love or power or intention or desire or will or counsel or decree or covenant or necessary or universal conditional loving kindness, by which He wills each and every man to be saved if they believe in Christ. 3. Who assign to God a design previous to election in which He determined to be merciful to the whole human race without limit. 4. Who attribute to God a twofold loving-kindness, one clear or first and universal by which He willed each and every person to be saved: the other more clear, second, and particular towards the elect.

(Dennison Jr., James T.. Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: (1523-1693). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition) 

Is there any injustice in God in hating the reprobates when they have no free will? God forbid. Is there any unrighteousness with God in making the reprobates responsible for the sins which God ultimately caused? God forbid. Though God is the ultimate cause of everything including evil (yet He is not the author, doer, or actor of it), man is created and predetermined as a willing, rational creature with the knowledge of good and evil which no animal can ever have. As long as man wills to sin (though their sins are ultimately caused by God), man cannot avoid being the immediate cause of their own evil and God will judge them for it. Man’s will, rationality and knowledge of good and evil are the basis of responsibility, not man’s free will that is independent of God’s predestination.

Is there any unrighteousness in God in causing man to have a will, rationality and knowledge of good and evil? God forbid. Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock (Jonathan Edwards).

Man has no right to complain. This is God’s world, and He has the right to do anything, being the Creator and Almighty and Sovereign of the entire universe. God is His own definition of righteousness. He does not abide by any external moral code. God is ex-lex. He is above the law which is only meant for men. "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" (Romans 9:13-21).   

This is the frightening doctrine of God's eternal reprobation.