Do you know the Japanese
traditional craft technique called “Kintsugi”? Instead of throwing
away broken pottery, Kintsugi restores it by filling the cracks with lacquer
mixed with gold powder and bonding the pieces back together.
Remarkably, a vessel
repaired with gold is reborn as a far more beautiful and noble work of art than
it was before it broke. The wound doesn’t remain a scar—rather, it becomes the
most radiant “pattern.”
Our lives are the same.
The fragments of failure, the pain of separation, and sufferings we cannot tell
anyone may seem scattered in every direction. Yet when the touch of God reaches
them, all of it becomes “working together for good.”
Today, through Pastor
David Jang’s (founder of Olivet University) exposition of Romans 8,
we want to look into the deep providence of how the broken pieces of our lives
are being completed into God’s masterpiece.
1.
Your pain is never wasted
“And we know that for
those who love God… all things work together for good.” (Rom. 8:28)
In life, there are moments
when trials come that we simply cannot understand. Complaints like, “Why is
this happening to me?” rise up from deep within.
But the apostle Paul
speaks with clarity and conviction: even those tears and sighs will ultimately
become material that accomplishes “good” within God’s plan.
As Pastor David Jang
explains this verse, he emphasizes that it is not vague optimism. What matters
here is the identity of “those who love God.”
It is not because we are
perfect.
It is not because we are qualified.
When Scripture says God “foreknew”
us, it does not mean He looked at our potential or our morality and decided we
were worthy.
It means that from before
the foundation of the world, He has watched over our very
existence—insufficient, weak, full of flaws—with the warm eyes of love. That
loving gaze is at the heart of “foreknowledge” and “predestination.”
Some misunderstand the
doctrine of predestination as a cold fatalism. But Pastor David Jang sees it
differently. He describes it as “an absolute safe zone given to
believers.” Because God’s love for me does not depend on what I am
like, but rests entirely on His sovereign choice, we can finally exhale and be
at peace.
2.
The greatest defense for you standing in court
In the courtroom called
life, the prosecutor named “guilt” sometimes indicts us:
“How can you call yourself
a believer?”
“You failed.”
When the voice inside
condemns us, Romans 8:31 thunders like a defense attorney’s declaration:
“If God is for us, who
can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31)
This is not a simple
comfort. It is a cosmic proclamation.
At this point, Pastor
David Jang urges us to meditate deeply on the love of the cross.
The One who did not spare
His own Son but gave Him up for us—if He sacrificed His most precious
only-begotten Son to save us, what could possibly be too costly for Him now?
How could He ever abandon us?
Even at this very moment,
the risen Jesus Christ is interceding for you at the right hand of God. When
you have no strength left even to pray and you collapse, the Lord’s
prayer sustains you. Therefore, no accusation and no condemnation can
destroy you.
Because we do not live by
our own righteousness, but by a grace that cannot be overthrown.
3.
A cord of love that cannot be cut
Paul’s letter to the
Romans surges toward a moving climax in verse 35.
Tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword… The worst scenarios life can
bring are listed. For the early church, these were real threats of death. For
us today, they may look like financial collapse, broken relationships, or the
terror of illness.
But borrowing Paul’s cry,
Pastor David Jang declares with confidence:
“In all these things we
are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Rom.
8:37)
It is not victory by a
hair’s breadth.
It is not merely surviving by hanging on.
We conquer abundantly—not
because we are strong, but because the love of God holding us is overwhelmingly
strong.
Neither death nor life,
neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come… no
created thing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
This is the peak of faith.
Through this passage, Pastor David Jang stresses that the doctrine of the
believer’s perseverance is not a cold theory, but “God’s relentless
love that refuses to give up on us.”
Epilogue:
You are not alone
Just as broken pottery
becomes a more precious vessel when its cracks are joined with gold, your
wounds and tears will become the most beautiful testimony within God’s love.
Today, does the weight of
life feel especially heavy? Remember the message of Romans 8 that Pastor David
Jang proclaimed. You are not an existence thrown into the world by accident.
Within God’s meticulous plan and burning love, everything is working
together for good.
So do not be afraid.
Nothing can separate you from His love.
Have you ever had a moment when a pain you could not understand later came to you like a “gift”? Please share that warm story in the comments.
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