Do you ever think it is too late, that you are somehow beyond God’s reach?
Do you ever think there are some people that are beyond God’s reach (I know we are not supposed to judge, but maybe there are those moments)?
Chapter 11 of Romans answers that question not merely for God’s Chosen People, but in fact for all of us.
Paul has been dealing with the troubling situation that many of his own people—people from whom Jesus’ earthly parents descend—are rejecting Jesus.
Paul has been asking and answering questions as he has probed this dilemma.
In chapter 9 he deals with the paradox that they are both uniquely privileged while entrenched in unbelief (Stott p.291). He explores whether God has somehow been unfaithful or unjust in the matter; the answer is “of course not,” but rather this is all part of God’s plan and purpose.
In chapter 10 he presses further into their human obstinacy in the face of God’s advances.
As I have been reading about Israel, I cannot help but ask myself questions, “Where am I? When have I, a baptized member of the Body of Christ, similarly rejected him?”
When have I been content to be “culturally Christian”?
Beyond this mirror gazing, I meet many people who have rejected Jesus because they have been hurt by the Church. They confuse Jesus with his Church.
I meet others who have been dealt a difficult hand in life and so struggle with how a loving God could allow such a situation. The people of Paul’s day had those and other issues.
As we turn into chapter 11, Paul looks at the implications of this situation by asking two questions, and keeping it at this level keeps it somewhat simple:
1. “I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means!” (verse 1a) and he continues to unpack this question in verses 1-10.
2. “So I ask, did they stumble that they might fall? By no means!” (verse 11a) and he continues in verses 12-32 culminating in a song of praise, a doxology, for the balance of the chapter.
The point for Paul’s kinsman and for ours is quite simple: No one is ever beyond God’s reach.
God has not rejected; he is waiting.
Regards rejection, has God rejected us—or we God?
If any rejection is involved, it is we who reject Him.
I so often want it all to work out now. By that I mean I want people who are rejecting Jesus to accept him now. But God has a plan and a purpose. Our job is to keep praying for those we know and those we don’t who have yet to fall in the merciful loving arms of God. And to pray that those things, those issues that have gotten between them and God will dissolve away, and then God will be able to connect with them. For no one is ever beyond his reach and love, as revealed in this gem from verse 33:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
You are never beyond His reach. Who are you praying for?