By The Rev. Dr. Paul A. Leggett
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Sermon Text: Romans 11:28-36
Sermon Theme
Paul, in summarizing God’s eternal plan of mercy and salvation, acknowledges in praise how awesome and incomprehensible God truly is. We can never fully understand God. He is infinite, eternal and all powerful, things we can never grasp in this life. We only understand God through his revelation of himself. God has spoken to us in his word. He has sent Jesus Christ to bring us the gift of new life. God then is the ultimate lover. He loves us in spite of ourselves and our failures. God’s love is infinite. God expresses himself through love that suffers everything, hell itself, for us. This is God’s chosen path. We cannot comprehend it. We can only praise him for it.
Sermon Outline
- Message. Paul summarizes the whole of the gospel as a mystery. Left to ourselves we have no capability of knowing or understanding God. Our first difficulty is that we are finite and mortal whereas God is infinite and eternal. More seriously, sin has blinded us so that we cannot perceive the God who is holy and perfect. Rather than serving God we have, in our pride, sought to become “like God” ourselves (Genesis 3:5). This has led to all the sin and sorrow in the world. God breaks through our barriers to him by revealing himself to us through his word. God first calls Abraham. This is the beginning of God’s plan of redemption. Ultimately God speaks through Jesus Christ who is the Word of God (John 1:1-14). The totality of God’s word is the message of new life and salvation. Without God’s word we would have no knowledge of him.
- Mission. God has a mission to the human race. As Paul states, this mission began with Israel. It then came to the Gentiles. Yet both Jew and Gentile in their pride reject God. In spite of this Paul maintains that God’s plan has never failed: “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). We need to understand the final purpose of God’s mission. This plan was to show mercy to all, both Jew and Gentile.
- Mercy. God is the only one who loves unselfishly and unconditionally. God created a world he knew would rebel against him. Why did God do this? There can only be one answer. God has chosen to express God’s fullest self – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – through redemptive love. Love that redeems, that sacrifices to bring the beloved back, is the highest expression of God’s love. Jesus endured the hell of rejection by his Father on the cross to express this love. God is the supreme lover. God allowed sin to come into the world so that he could express his love in being merciful to all. The greatest tragedy is to reject God because in our pride we insist on being God. This is a danger for non-believer and believer alike. Yet God’s purpose cannot fail. That purpose is to be merciful through God’s love. Who can comprehend this? Paul proclaims, “To him be the glory forever.” This praise is our joy and our hope now and forever.
Questions for Us
- What are some of the ways we try to become "like god"? Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that the true God is ultimately incomprehensible? Why?
- What hope and assurance do we get from the fact that God has an unfailing plan and that "he gifts and calling of God are irrevocable"?
- How does it help us to understand God to think of him as a self sacrificing lover? What difference does it make to us both in our faith and in our relationships with others to realize that God's ultimate plan and purpose is to show mercy to all (Romans 11:32)?
