Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 23, 2023

23 Jan 2023

Text: Rom 11:25-12:13

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul explains the “mystery” of the “partial hardening [that] has come upon Israel” as Gentiles are being grafted in.  “In this way,” says the apostle, “all Israel will be saved.”  The “this way” that Paul is referencing is found three verses earlier, when he said, “if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.”

What Paul calls “election” is indeed a “mystery.”  It is beyond our understanding.  God saves us by grace and through faith (Eph 2:8-9), but exactly how He makes that happen is “above our paygrade,” as the old saying goes.  The tension between the universal nature of sin and of Christ’s sacrifice – combined with the individual necessity that we receive the gift by faith – creates vexation for Christians who want a perfect, rational, and systematic explanation for everything. Some things are simply beyond our human limitations.  Hence the “mystery.”

Indeed, St. Paul reminds us of the divine quality of omniscience: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways?”  Paul paraphrases God’s rhetorical questions to Job (chapters 35, 36, and 41): “Who has known the mind of the Lord?”  Who counsels God?  Who shows grace to God, and then says that God owes him something?  The reality is that God owes us nothing.  He will save whom He chooses to save (Matt 20:1-16), and yet, God is not arbitrary.  He calls us to receive the “Deliverer… from Zion” by faith.  And instead of trying to know the mind of God beyond what He reveals, we should simply pray, “To Him be glory forever.  Amen.”

And as a result of our salvation, and because we are not given to know His mind or His ways, we are called to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.”  We no more offer the blood of slain animals, but rather receiving the sacrifice of “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23), we offer our flesh with our blood still in it: not death, but our lives to God as a thank-offering.  And this “living sacrifice” consists of our good works based upon our callings: teaching, exhortation, contributions, leadership, mercy.  And all Christians offer “love” to God and to their neighbor.  We are called to “brotherly affection,” honor, zeal, service, hope, patience, and hospitality.

Israel is no longer limited to a single nation, and Israel’s worship is no longer blood sacrifice in the temple.  Spiritual Israel transcends ethnic boundaries, as our spiritual worship is no longer found in the killing of animals.  Instead, we offer our lives in service to the God who saved us, by His offering of blood, and by the mystery of His unsearchable and inscrutable grace!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.