This morning I am reflecting on a few verses from the end of the eleventh chapter in Paul's letter to the Romans. I love the depth of Paul's thinking, yet there is so much more. Here are the verses - Romans 11:29,33-36 NIV:
[29] "for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable."
[33] "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
[34] “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
[35] “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
[36] For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen."
In this chapter Paul has been reflecting on the Jews and Gentiles. For those of us living in these days, its hard to imagine the complete surprise it was to the Jews that Gentiles would be offered salvation, for we have lived in this dispensation for 2000 years, but during the days of the early church this was a major issue. We this topic in several of the letters, Galatians and Acts two of the most prominent, and while they describe some of the angst, confusion and outright disagreement, I don't know if we can really grasp the depth of this all.
The only thing that I have seen in my life that comes close, is my conversation with a Chinese man who grew up under the teaching of Mao, but then in his 20s was told that was all wrong. He no longer had any trust for any belief system, for he was told that everything he had learned, his whole foundation of thought, was wrong. The Jews had lived their whole lives believing they were the "Chosen People", God's nation, His possession, and they were and are! And Yet, God was not limited, and had bigger thoughts and ideas, and this included welcoming the Gentiles into relationship with Him.
This brings us to the verses for reflection, for Paul was speaking of the selection of the Jews, in verse 29. However, we know that God's heart towards us Gentiles is the same in love, mercy and forgiveness. In the same way that the gifts and calls of the Jews are irrevocable, so are ours! We have turned our back on the Lord, grown hardened in our hearts, become dull in our faith, but all the Lord has given us and called us to are still ours! That is such great news! We can't lose these things from disuse, or disinterest! We can't give them back, for they are ours! We may not deserve then, in truth, none of us deserves anything from God, and yet He gives them to us freely! Just as His mercy is extended to us in the Gospel of Grace, not because of anything we have done, but because of His love, so are the gifts and calls!
Finally as Paul was reflecting upon all of this, He waxed eloquent, in describing the unknowable, unfathomable God, whom he loved. We would be well severed to take this same approach to God, for we are constantly trying to figure Him out, to limit Him to working in certain ways, through certain people.
We believe these days that science can explain everything, and yet daily there are new discoveries made, often completely unexpected. We are observers, and recorders, even sometimes understanding how some basic things work, but there are whole sections of scientific thought that are for explaining why the things we think we know don't work that way all the time, like quantum-mechanics. They have what's called the "uncertainty principle", that basically says we can't actually know where something is located and its momentum at the same time. Think about that, one of the core principles of deep science says we can't know these two most basic things about a particle at the same time, which simply means we can't explain everything through science.
Anyway, sorry for the deep dive there, my point is that we don't understand God, we never will fully understand God, He is beyond knowledge, and yet He invites us into life with Him, making Himself knowable, embracing our human limitations, and extending us grace and mercy in the face of these limitations. He is and was and always will be, and we are well served to acknowledge this, and acknowledge our limitations. His gifts, callings and invitations to life with Him are ours always for He is unchanging.
We can't fully understand all God's ways, but we can embrace the truths that we do know. He has laid a solid foundation that is unchanging, and never will change, unlike the teachings of Mao or whatever other human thought we follow. We can depend on His mercy, His Love, His Grace and His Faithfulness forever.
Let us allow His greatness, His mercy to us to rise up in gratitude! Let our minds be renewed and our hearts become soft, and let us embrace Him who loves us eternally!
Amen!
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