Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

Pepto Bismol Sermon Series Continues

Last week we began what is becoming known as the Pepto Bismol sermon series. There’s no doubt about it—Romans 9 is upsetting. For the first sermon in this mini series within the larger series I brought a bottle of Pepto Bismol to help me get through the sermon. This week’s sermon promises to be just as upsetting as last week’s. Perhaps more so. So if you dare to come, come prepared.

This week in Romans 9:13-18, we’ll see that God’s mercy is free, not deserved. What’s so upsetting about that? Well, by emphasizing the awesomeness of God’s mercy, these verses actually deconstruct our sense of entitlement. But they also create a new sense of wonder and gladness and relief. It is such a relief to stop trying to make God behave the way we think he should behave and let him be God. If we will let God speak to us through Romans 9, it will flip our view of God on its head. In a theological essay, C. S. Lewis helps us see how far we’ve drifted, especially here in the modern world:

The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge; God is the one on trial. Man is quite a kindly judge. If God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war, poverty and disease, modern man is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is the judge and God is on trial.

I hate to say it, but Lewis is right. We do put God on trial. We hold him accountable for his behavior. At the same time we expect him to overlook our failures. Romans 9 helps correct this faulty view we have of God as the defendant and of ourselves as the judge. We may think that by putting God on trial, or holding him accountable for his actions, forces God to find himself guilty, repent, apologize to us for his behavior, and make amends. But putting God on trial doesn’t accomplish any of that. The only thing putting God on trial accomplishes is the blocking of his mercy. It’s not as though God is someone we can put pressure on. He is King of the universe. He can do whatever he pleases. For some that’s a frightening thought. But no thought can be more comforting than that, since whatever God does is always absolutely right.

I cannot fully explain God. But Romans 9 actually helps us understand the God who is. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. Is there a better basis upon which mercy should be poured out than the character of God?