Romans 8:28 (Revistied)

I have great friends.
James commented on a post I did with regards to Romans 8:28 and revealed some things that I was not aware of. Kevin, also spoke with me, and gave me the book, The Epistle on Romans by Douglas Moo. It is quite a tome.
As I have now read and talked to both of my seminary grads, I have this to comment.

Holy Moly!

The KJV does not have the word "God" as the subject.
The NIV adds the word "God" as the subject.

From what I now understand, the key to the verse is what you believe the subject is.
If you assume "God" is the subject, then "all things" becomes the object of the verb "sunergi"
The thought would then be: "God works all things together"

If you assume "all things" is the subject of the verse,
The thought would then be "all things work together.

From my reading I have discovered that the thought of some is that "all things" cannot work together without God's direct involvement. It does not just "magically come together". That was the reasoning for adding God as the subject. If you hold to that idea, then the verb "sunergi" can then be applied the way I did in an earlier post. But just so you know, Moo gives two other application renderings too!

If you stick by "all things" as the subject then you have to believe that the word "God" is implied. Especially in the context of the whole chapter. Paul describes our suffering as Christians earlier in the chapter (see James' comment on my post) and then comforts us in verse 28 by revealing to us that that all that suffering - "all things" works together to bring us good.

Like I said, Holy Moly.

Piper explains when he studies scripture, he finds the subject first, then the verb and objects, gets all of words defined, and then works outward in concentric circles from that verse as he attempts to ascertain the meaning of that verse. In other words, He would not go to Genesis first to interpret a verse in II Timothy. Kevin added that I should also look at what the author meant in other books or epistles too.
All of this fuels my hunger to dive into the scriptures deeper.

Another comment. It would be difficult to slip into theological error with a community around you. I also want to state that you, who are reading this post, are part of that community too. I hope you are growing with me.

So the million dollar question is, where am I now on this verse?....
Studying to show myself approved and I'll get back to you.