Romans 11:22-32
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Grace and mercy. We love those words. This is what I have been studying as I teach through Romans. These words are essential to salvation; "By grace we are saved through faith". Every religion in the world teaches salvation through works except Christianity. Christianity alone says you can't be good enough; Jesus was and is righteous for us. That is grace - getting what we don't deserve and mercy - not getting what we do deserve. So grace and mercy deal with salvation yet we find that the grace and kindness of the Lord deals with our daily living. It is so great to know that God loves me as His son even when I mess up royally. What freedom to know that I am not under the judging eye of God as I go through life because I've already been judged and found not guilty. I don't have to appease God because He is appeased. I live to please an audience of One who loves me so much He sent His only Son to die for me. He will never disown me.
So there are 2 dangers I see. One is like the people Paul is writing to in Romans 6 have already stated this one and been refuted by Paul - "If God's grace forgives our sins, lets just keep on sinning". We won't backtrack to deal with that one. Paul handles it well! The second one is more insidious. It sneaks up on us and although we don't want to admit it, if we think about it, this grace trap has snared us. It says this to us, "If God is already pleased with you and You can't do anything to make Him love you more, why are you doing so much for Him...just relax." The first grace trap is sinning and the second trap is laziness. As an experiment I taught today in Sunday School that we don't have to perform for God's favor and we had a neighborhood visitation this afternoon to pass out flyers for an egg hunt. One family showed up. Now if we were Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses who believe you have to earn your salvation, we would have had the whole 144,000. Or if we were Muslims who believe the only sure way to Heaven is Jihad... well I won't even go there.
What is to keep us from being lazy or for that matter - sinning? Is this where the sternness of the Lord comes in? Sternness is even implied in the word mercy - not getting what we deserve, which implies some will get that. Most, in fact. My father was stern but loving. I knew he loved me but I knew he didn't love laziness. Therefore, when his eye was on me, I had to look busy - even on Saturdays. It wasn't to get him to love me more or become his son - I already had that, it was to keep him from yelling at me or not being pleased by my behavior. I guess we could call this reverence - we don't fall into the lazy trap out of reverence for the Lord. His sternness, knowing that His eye is always on us and He doesn't approve of laziness keeps us working not for Him but in Him. In His strength, doing the activities that His Holy Spirit is prompting us to do we serve Him to make Him proud, to lift His name high out of reverence for Him.
Lord, it is easy for me to sit back and chill knowing that I am Your son and nothing I could do would make You love me more or less. Help me not to fall into that trap. Amen
Grace and mercy. We love those words. This is what I have been studying as I teach through Romans. These words are essential to salvation; "By grace we are saved through faith". Every religion in the world teaches salvation through works except Christianity. Christianity alone says you can't be good enough; Jesus was and is righteous for us. That is grace - getting what we don't deserve and mercy - not getting what we do deserve. So grace and mercy deal with salvation yet we find that the grace and kindness of the Lord deals with our daily living. It is so great to know that God loves me as His son even when I mess up royally. What freedom to know that I am not under the judging eye of God as I go through life because I've already been judged and found not guilty. I don't have to appease God because He is appeased. I live to please an audience of One who loves me so much He sent His only Son to die for me. He will never disown me.
So there are 2 dangers I see. One is like the people Paul is writing to in Romans 6 have already stated this one and been refuted by Paul - "If God's grace forgives our sins, lets just keep on sinning". We won't backtrack to deal with that one. Paul handles it well! The second one is more insidious. It sneaks up on us and although we don't want to admit it, if we think about it, this grace trap has snared us. It says this to us, "If God is already pleased with you and You can't do anything to make Him love you more, why are you doing so much for Him...just relax." The first grace trap is sinning and the second trap is laziness. As an experiment I taught today in Sunday School that we don't have to perform for God's favor and we had a neighborhood visitation this afternoon to pass out flyers for an egg hunt. One family showed up. Now if we were Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses who believe you have to earn your salvation, we would have had the whole 144,000. Or if we were Muslims who believe the only sure way to Heaven is Jihad... well I won't even go there.
What is to keep us from being lazy or for that matter - sinning? Is this where the sternness of the Lord comes in? Sternness is even implied in the word mercy - not getting what we deserve, which implies some will get that. Most, in fact. My father was stern but loving. I knew he loved me but I knew he didn't love laziness. Therefore, when his eye was on me, I had to look busy - even on Saturdays. It wasn't to get him to love me more or become his son - I already had that, it was to keep him from yelling at me or not being pleased by my behavior. I guess we could call this reverence - we don't fall into the lazy trap out of reverence for the Lord. His sternness, knowing that His eye is always on us and He doesn't approve of laziness keeps us working not for Him but in Him. In His strength, doing the activities that His Holy Spirit is prompting us to do we serve Him to make Him proud, to lift His name high out of reverence for Him.
Lord, it is easy for me to sit back and chill knowing that I am Your son and nothing I could do would make You love me more or less. Help me not to fall into that trap. Amen
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