14^th Sunday after Pentecost – September 18, 2011

Praise the God of our Salvation

A sermon based on the words of Romans 11:33-36

Romans 11:33-36 - “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 him?” ³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

He was about 21 years of age when he went off to study to be a pastor. He came from a Christian home, and he was gifted with a keen mind and good looks. Yet in those days he was a bit snobbish and sarcastic. One night, however, something happened that set in motion a change in his heart. While speaking with an older gentleman, he discovered that the poor fellow had only one coat and lived in such impoverished conditions that he didn't even have a bed. Yet he was an unusually happy person, filled with gratitude to God. The young man, being immature, thoughtlessly joked about the man's misfortunes. "And what else do you thank God for?" he said with a touch of sarcasm.  The older gentleman smiled, and in the spirit of meekness replied with joy, "I thank Him that He has given me my life and being, a heart to love Him, and above all, the security of knowing that my eternal bliss rests entirely on this: that Christ has saved me!" Deeply moved, the young kid recognized that this man knew the meaning of true praise.

It really should be that simple, shouldn’t it - to praise the God of our salvation? We listen to the words Paul so poetically writes, the words that serve as our sermon text, and we say “Right on! Couldn’t have said it any better myself, Paul.” We shake our heads in full agreement! Praise the God of our salvation. It should be that simple! But, as you and I know all too well, that isn’t always what we do! In fact on some days, praising the God of our salvation is the last thing we even come close to doing.

Instead, we often can be found second-guessing him. And you know what I mean. We look at the world around us. We look at our own lives and we see heartache and illness; pain, tragedy, evil and violence and we think or say or somehow imply, “God doesn’t know what he’s doing.” When things don’t happen the way we think they should, we angrily demand that he explain himself. “Why, God didn’t you…?” “How, God could you…?” We act as if God needs us to tell him how to run this universe. We imply that he needs our advice to straighten out this mess. And in so doing, we in essence blame God! In essence we say, “God you messed up again!”

But how dare we challenge the all-knowing, all-wise, and almighty Lord God! How dare we make him accountable to us! That’s what Paul is getting at when he writes, “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” With this question Paul gets us to ask ourselves, “who of us has the right to question God’s judgments?” When we do that we suggest that God owes us something. But what does God owe us? Our lives belong to him! We already are in debt to him! We owe him perfect obedience, perfect righteousness. And even if we did every single thing God has demanded from us, we would still have no reason to expect him to repay us. As Jesus put it, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10).

Of course, we haven’t done our duty. Instead we have sinned countless times. Remember how God put it in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If God wanted to, He would have every right to say to us, “wasn’t it enough for me to give you intellect and reasoning ability? But now you want more - you want to question the one who gave you your reason. I cannot put up with you any longer! Now depart from me into the eternal fire!” That is what we deserve.
But instead of giving us the punishment we have earned, God deals with us in grace. This is where God’s ways seem to be completely irrational to the human mind. (Praise be to the God of our salvation!) Instead of giving up on the human race and just annihilating it and starting from scratch, he gave a promise to Adam and Eve and then kept Noah alive through the flood. On top of that, he went so far as to send His own Son to become one of us human beings. He even allowed His own Son to be mocked, flogged and crucified for the sins of the world.

Instead of making us suffer for questioning His judgments, God decided to suffer for us and judge His own Son! He decided to love us when there was no reason to! Why would God send His only Son to die for a world of sinners who hated Him in the first place? Why would He blame His Son for what WE did and cause Him to suffer hell instead? Why would Jesus volunteer for such a thing - when He knew that a majority of the world would still reject His free gift? Who of us can really understand this judgment? “How unsearchable his judgments!” Who of us can really comprehend such mercy? “His paths [are] beyond tracing out!” It’s beyond our mind and our sense of justice. Oh the depths of God’s love. We are to praise God’s wisdom, not question it. He owes us nothing, including an explanation behind His actions.

Yet, it isn’t only second-guessing God that we are guilty of – sometimes we even like to think that we are God. How many times haven’t we tried to put God on a leash and then declare ourselves the master? We think we have the right to set down rules and so tell him there are certain areas of our lives, those that we love more than him, where he can’t go. Then to appease him we give him a good work or two in the hope it will keep him happy. We get mad at him and scold him when he gives us warnings from the law, because we want the privilege of indulging in the behavior the Bible condemns. We even become irritated and annoyed when he calls out for love and attention. But I’ve got news for you – you are not God. You are not the master and God is not on your leash. He never has been and he never will be.

There are times when my children, when they want something, will say, “Dad, you need to…you have to…” And my response, especially on stressful days, is often, “I don’t have to do anything. I am the Dad.” You know, God has every right to say the same to us. Remember what Paul wrote, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” Were we there when he laid the foundations of the world? Did he ask us how we should be created? Did he come to us to find out how our salvation should be won? If you are tempted to think you should be God, go and read Job 38. We are not God! Yet, because we dishonor him by seeking to replace him God has every right to be done with us. But he does just the opposite.

It’s no wonder Paul breaks into this doxology – this hymn of praise. He had just got done reviewing Israel’s past, present and future. He had just got done talking about how God had turned the rejection of Jesus as the Savior by Israel for the benefit of the non-Jewish world. And he had just got done talking about how, even though Israel had rejected Jesus, in repentance and through faith in Jesus they could still be saved. God’s great plan of salvation for Jew and Gentile was amazing. It was incredible. It was beyond understanding. So Paul breaks into this hymn of praise.

And it is amazing, isn’t it – God’s plan of salvation! And he is worthy of praise! Just consider…by nature we are both outwardly and inwardly repulsive to the holy and righteous God. We are born hideously deformed by our sinfulness. We are not lovable, not even tolerable to the almighty God. Spiritually we are stinking corpses. We hate God. We seek to overthrow and destroy him. We despise his love and his goodness. We are loyal slaves of Satan, violently opposed to all that is godly. Then, even after we have been made new creatures through faith in Jesus, there are times we still second-guess God and even try to dethrone him from our hearts. So why should God love us?

God’s perfect law makes it absolutely clear that the Holy One ought reject us and punish us both here and now in the eternal flames of hell. And yet the Bible teaches “Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:7-8,10).

Incredible! God is able to do whatever he wants and yet he wants to love us! God doesn’t owe anyone anything and yet he freely gives us everything he has! That is why we call it grace: undeserved love freely given when it doesn’t have to be given at all.

Who of us can begin to mine the depths of such love? For us – the unlovable, the intolerable, the damnable – God sends his Son. Who of us can understand it? The perfectly innocent, holy Son of God takes to himself our sin and guilt. Who of us can even begin to grasp His infinite knowledge? Christ offers himself as Substitute for us who hated him. Who of us can even begin to comprehend how wise He is? His only begotten Son, his beloved Son, the Father condemns and punishes in our place. Who of us can even being to fathom the riches in store for us? We the guilty have our guilt removed and hear God declare us righteous in Christ Jesus.

No, we cannot fully comprehend such love. No, we cannot fully reason out God’s judgment in deciding to save us. No, we cannot trace his paths. But we gratefully believe and receive by faith what he himself has revealed – we are forgiven, righteous saints whose security; whose eternal bliss rests entirely on this: that God has saved us. And so we praise him. We praise him, because, as the author of the People’s Bible on Romans states: “We would never have been able to plan or devise anything like [God’s plan of salvation]. And even after God in his infinite wisdom devised it, we would never have been able to figure it out if he had not graciously revealed it to us. And even after he revealed it to us, we would never have been able to believe and accept it had he not sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts to work that faith.” All the responsibility; all the pain; all the suffering; and thus all the glory belong to our Triune God. Oh, dear Christian friends, praise, praise some more, and then keep on praising the God of our Salvation. Amen.