Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

Awesome Mercy

You might want to skip the next few Sundays. I’ve thought about it myself. In our journey through the book of Romans we’re coming up on chapter 9. This chapter deals with some controversial issues—especially the vexing questions of predestination, election and the sovereignty of God in salvation. It seems that we have a built in resistance to these subjects. Little wonder then that many commentators try to tone Paul down a little, and make him say what they want him to say. And some people would rather not face what Paul says here so they prefer not to study these chapters at all. And it’s not just the rank and file who would like to avoid Romans 9. So controversial is this chapter that some commentaries skim right over it. More than a few famous preachers have sidestepped Romans 9 altogether.

So, if many of you don’t want to study Romans 9, and I’m apprehensive about preaching and teaching it, why don’t we just skip it? I’ll tell you why. Because it’s my duty to believe and teach what the Bible teaches, not what I might like it to teach.

If we skip Romans 9, we’ll avoid some controversy. That’s a given. But we’ll also avoid the subject of mercy. In Romans 9-11 we see the awesome mercy of God. In fact, the key word in all of Romans 9-11 is “mercy.” The word “mercy” never appears in chapters 1-8, and then suddenly it pops up as the key word in chapters 9-11. Who doesn’t need God’s mercy? We can gloss over Romans 9 and maintain a certain level of comfort. That’s for sure. But God’s mercy will never be awesome to us. And if we are not awed by God’s mercy, we can never be deeply comforted by it.

Contemporary American Christianity fails to inspire awe. Contemporary American Christianity miniaturizes the Lord Jesus Christ and gets us thinking, “Sure, he loves me and forgives me. That’s his job.” This fabricated Jesus is neither satisfying nor stunning. Remember how Mr. Beaver described Aslan, the Christ-figure in The Chronicles of Narnia: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” Christ is good, but he is not tame.

You might think about skipping church the next few Sundays because Romans 9 will push you out of your comfort zone. But we don’t come to church to be made comfortable by a Jesus of our own making. We come to church because we want the real Jesus. Romans 9 will show all of us more of him than we’ve ever seen before. We will rejoice, and we will tremble. And as we accept more of who he really is, he will give us more of what he can really do. Our future is the real Christ and the real us coming together in his awesome mercy, so that we find out what the untamed Lion can do for us.