Establishing Our Own Purpose
After all that Paul wrote in Romans 9, what is his reaction? He prays that many might know Christ and be saved. He sees God’s sovereign will and His powerful grace, but also sees a people zealous for following God’s law, not knowing that they are truly incapable of following it and need, rather, to zealously pursue the righteousness offered to us in Christ. We need not try to establish our own righteousness because Christ has established it for us. We need not die for Christ because He has already died for us.
Protesting Our Purpose
If God is in control of everything and over everything, but not everyone in the world comes to a saving knowledge of Christ, is God unjust? If God is fully sovereign, how can we be found at fault? As we have seen, Romans 9 is tough and easy answers are hard to come by, but the way we approach these questions speaks volumes. Is our highest priority God’s glory or own personal comforts and conceptions of fairness? Do we seek answers out of humility or out of hard-heartedness? Do we want to know our God better to worship Him more and feel His peace or do we want to assert ourselves and seek after our idols?
God’s Purpose
Romans 9 is tough. These verses can either be the most offensive words in all of Scripture or some of the most soothing comforts of God’s Word, addressing one of the most foundational questions of our faith: How is it that we are saved? Is it truly a work of God alone or does it depend, in part, on our works? If it is God alone, does that make the God we serve a cruel and fickle deity, choosing at random who to save and who to burn, or does it make Him the most powerful and merciful, showing great mercy to redeem even those furthest from Him back to Himself?
Purpose for My People
Paul is heartbroken for the lost in Rome and in Israel, as Moses was anguished over Israel’s sin, and as Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Paul was burdened for his brothers and kinsmen, to the point that he would give up his own salvation to see them saved. Do we feel that burden for Columbus? Do we see the people of Columbus as our people? Do our hearts break for the lost in our city? In our neighborhood? On our street? All of the promises to Israel are ours in Christ, but are our hearts in anguish that our brothers and sisters in Columbus don’t have them?
Laodicea
“Would that you were either cold or hot!” Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea cut at our attempts to act out the Christian faith without a zeal for Christ. Jesus—who is and always has been the true and faithful witness—rejects that kind of “Christianity” and the “Christians” that practice it. We must examine our hearts to see if we have that zeal for Jesus or if we are living for our own morality or prosperity. Am I trying to live self-sufficiently without Jesus? Am I trying to live for merely my own prosperity? Do the things that I seek success in really matter? Am I lukewarm?
Philadelphia
The church in Philadelphia wasn’t all that impressive. They weren’t very big. They weren’t the most popular. They were weak. But Jesus loves them. They were strong in their weakness because of Him. They needed only to hold fast to Him. Do we believe that? Do we believe that the church is a place to be broken and weak—a place to fall apart? Do we believe that Jesus — knowing our works, our weakness, our sins — not only can, but wants to work in and through us?
Thyatira
Some at the church at Thyatira had been led away into sexual immorality by the lies of a false teacher. Someone had come into the church and tried to say that you can be a Christian and still give yourself to sinful sexual desires and to the will and whims of the culture around them. Jesus says in this letter that there are consequences. These things only lead to deeper sin, pain, and death. But He doesn’t leave them to bear His wrath. Jesus gives the gracious call to repent and go back to Him, their true source of joy.
Unshakable Claim, Unbreakable Chain
Everyone seems to know and love verse 28 (which is great), but what does it actually mean? Yes, God works all things for good, but for whom? What is that “good” that He works everything toward? Scripture clarifies this astounding claim with a beautiful chain of events from God, using words that have a ton of baggage lumped in with them. Stripping away our misconceptions and idols, we can see that what God is working all things toward is not only good, but that it far outweighs all of the other “goods” we try to put in its place.
Future Glory
At the end of verse 17, Paul hints at the suffering that we can expect being heirs with Christ. Now Paul gives us the perspective of that suffering as the birth pains leading to our future glory in and with Jesus. Creation longs for the glory of Christ that will set it free from its futility. The church longs and groans for the glory that will finish our redemption as sons of God. The Spirit, God Himself, longs and groans for us, giving Himself to us and interceding for us.
Anxiety Makes Us Orphans
Jesus presents two kinds of living: anxious living and Kingdom living. We all know the anxiety he’s talking about. We worry when we have plenty and when we have little. What things do we worry about? Where does our money go? The things that we worry about and direct our money toward lead a trail to our idols. And even when we worry about things that we actually need (putting dinner on the table, making rent, etc.), do we really believe that God knows our needs and promises to provide what is most necessary for us? God gave Himself—His Son, Jesus—for us. Believing that, and that that proves that God will not abandon us as orphans, is the key to Kingdom living.