Text: Romans 11: 29-32
Focus: Mercy
Function: to help us overcome our shame
29for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. 32For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Good morning to the beloved of God. In my prayer time, I was reminded by God of the fact that God’s love was the power that brought Christ to earth, I realized that Jesus came to teach us how to love and live in faith.
It takes faith to walk this Christian journey. And faith is given to us by God by God’s providence and love.
Sometimes it comes to us in the midst of suffering and trials as we learn to depend on God with our basic needs to provide for us our daily bread.
I am doing a bit of bible study on these verses this morning and I need to unpack the 2nd and 3rd verse from our text by explaining its context.
When I was in college studying the scriptures, I took a whole class on the book of Romans. And the professor drilled into our heads that this passage answers an age old question about God’s covenant with the Jews now that we gentiles, non Jews, are included into the family of God. He wonders if the Jews who rejected Jesus will be restored in the end. And he indicates they will because God loves them. God loves everyone.
Now, Paul is Jewish and he loves his people and he wants them to follow the teachings of Jesus like gentiles who were readily accepting the good news about how love for others will bring about the justice that everyone needs and deserves.
And in the passage he says that from the Jewish faith, we get the root of salvation, what it means to live by faith in the God who cares about justice for everyone and will judge fairly on our behalf, or against us if we oppress others.
God cares about justice and fairness. And when Paul says in the passage that everyone is imprisoned in disobedience, he means that no one is perfect and we all need mercy. Everyone needs mercy. No one is perfect. Grace is mercy undeserved. It is the gift of God’s love. God forgives us in God’s love.
So, instead of worrying about whether or not God will get even with our enemies on our behalf, and it is true, all of us have a God-given longing for justice. But don’t worry about revenge for yourself, ask God to give you mercy for the times that you have failed to care for the least of these. Don’t ask for judgment for your enemies, ask for mercy for yourself.
God handled judgment for us on the cross. God sent the Christ to take the sin of the world on him.
I believe that we will all be restored to God in the end because the scriptures tell us so. But, I also believe that those who do not do good works and commit acts of evil against others will spend eternity without the rewards set aside for those who practiced unconditional love for others.
But let me be clear. We don’t practice love in order to get a better reward in heaven. Love is our reaction to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But the reward in heaven still stands. Part of living by faith is remembering that when we suffer unfairly, God sees and has a blessing for us, if not here on earth, then in heaven.
Jesus said our works will be tested with fire and those that are pure and loving will survive, those that aren’t will be burnt up and many will suffer the loss. I believe the loss will be their pride and vanity in building a life focused merely on themselves instead of the love that shares freely the blessings that God has given to us.
Remember, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. It is a Biblical principal that started with Abraham and he is the father of all of us who live by faith according to Paul in this book of Romans.
That is enough about works in this sermon. This passage is about mercy.
And our first verse nails it on the head.
The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. God is not going to take them back. God gives and gives and gives.
We can reject the gift and not benefit from it, but that doesn’t mean that God does not keep on giving to us.
The bible says that God has carved our names on the palm of his hands so that God won’t forget us.
I picture the scars on the palms of Jesus and think of the same thing for us. God has us in God’s own hands and we can rest in that.
When he says that these gifts and callings are irrevocable, he is promising us that in his power we will not fail.
I am pleased that during this next Kairos weekend, I get to talk to the guys on Sunday morning a talk about how with God’s help they can live this Christian life right there in the prison compound.
It is a message of faith. And I am reminded that there are many times that they are going to err. And here is the thing. Most of these guys are covered in shame. They got to prison honestly. Most of them were never loved with the kind of love that we experienced in our families. Most of the abusers are victims of abuse themselves and have a screwed up view of life. And shame is the issue.
So, when I read that scripture that the and the calling of God cannot be taken away even though we are all imprisoned in our own brokenness.
Jesus is the Christ and he came to heal and restore us to God and to each others. And if salvation comes, even in the prison, how much more can it happen out here at Painter Creek with and for us?
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