Romans 11:6-11:10 - Grace Has Obtained What Most Couldn’t See

Calvin (2/13/02-2/14/02)

11:6: God’s grace and our works are opposites. To declare one must be to deny the other. Paul is looking beyond the immediate and manifest cause of our election, to the cause of God’s initial choosing of us before time. Here, he sees only God’s gracious choice, thus ruling out not only our works prior to salvation, but any foreknowledge on God’s part of works we would someday do. If His choice is made because we would eventually be worthy, then His choice remains a matter of reward for our action, and grace is gone. At best, it becomes a part of the cause in such a scheme. A reward cannot be a free gift, it is a matter of debt. Footnote: The second half of the verse, which many texts exclude, is but a restatement of the first half in the negative. What is true of grace, is true also of works. While many think this a spurious addition to Scripture, it fits with Paul’s style of writing. However, the removal of that text does not make Paul’s argument incomplete in any way. (Ro 4:4-5 – To the one who works, the wage is not a favor, but what is due. But to the one not working, who believes in Christ who justifies, his faith is considered as righteousness. Ro 9:1 – I am telling the truth. I am not lying. Eph 2:8-9 – By grace you have been saved through faith, and even faith is not yours, but a gift of God. Your salvation is not a result of works, so that nobody should boast.) What Paul applies to election applies equally to salvation. It is of grace, and ‘the righteousness of works is annihilated.’
11:7: All Israel’s efforts toward salvation has proven to be in vain, for the task was impossible to him. This being the case, what possible cause can be found for the fact that some are saved, and others not? Only election can serve to answer. It is God’s good pleasure alone that determines. It is for this reason that Paul refers to those chosen as the election, rather than the elect, in this passage, because the cause of their election was not in the elect, but in God. Footnote: Blinding, or hardening is applied in Scripture to both heart and mind. (Mk 6:52 – They had not learned from the event of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. Mk 8:17 – Jesus asked them why they were talking about having no bread. It concerned Him that they still didn’t understand, and He wondered if perhaps their heart was hardened. Jn 12:40 – God has blinded them, and hardened their heart, so that they will not see or understand, and so, be converted such that Christ can heal them. 2Co 3:14 – Their minds were hardened, and even now, they remain behind the veil when Scripture is read, for that veil is removed in Christ.) Those not elected are blinded, their ruin starting at the point God forsook them. The quotations that follow all speak of hardening coming as punishment for accomplished sins, yet Paul uses them to speak of the impact of God’s choice in not electing them to salvation prior to any act of their own. We do not like to look here for the source of man’s condition. Yet, if all is by God’s purpose, this also. It is when His company is removed, when He forsakes us, that we become incapable of anything but sin, and all our actions will not serve to save us then. Indeed, we are punished for our sins, but why the sin at all, except it find its cause hid in God, even as our salvation is hid in God. Footnote: This line of reasoning does not follow from Paul’s text. Rather, it seems Paul likely quoted the verses he did with full understanding of and agreement with their original intent. All he is looking at now is that this hardening comes now for the same cause it did then: because of men’s sins. The why that is asked is asked in regard to the reason that some are hardened and others are saved in spite of their sins, and no more. “It is neither wise nor right to go beyond what is expressly taught.”
11:8: Clearly, Paul looks to the same verse that the book of Acts makes reference to, although the wording is changed. Paul looks deeper, and sees that every sense available to the reprobate is dulled to the point of uselessness by his condition. That dullness overtakes every sense, and as they give up to the madness, they become virulent enemies of truth. By God’s secret judgment they have become so demented as to be incapable of making a right judgment, so stupefied are their senses. Footnote: The quotation combines two Scriptures, but not precisely. ( Isa 29:10 – The LORD has poured out a spirit of sleep over you, and shut your eyes in silencing the prophets. He has covered your heads in no longer giving visions to your seers. Isa 6:9 – Tell this people that they will keep listening, but not perceive, they will keep looking, but not understand.) Paul adds that this blindness has continued even to his day, lest any should argue that the prophecy had long since been fulfilled. Footnote: If the quote is from Dt 29:4, rather than Isa 6:9, then the words are part of the verse quoted.
11:9: Again, Paul modifies the wording of his quotation. David did not expressly mention retribution, yet the sense of the passage is the same. The table and peaceful things of which David writes were symbolic of God’s blessings, and his prayer in that place is that these blessings would be as curses to the ungodly. Footnote: Some have taken the table to be representative of those who join us at table, of friends and associates. The verse also alludes to the imagery of being ensnared, trapped, and caused to stumble. As they had been to others such snares and traps, so would their associates become to them. This is attested to by Jeremiah. (Jer 38:22 – The women that remain in the king’s palace will be taken to the king of Babylon by his officers. They will say “your close friends have misled you and overpowered you. While you were stuck in the mud they turned back.” Both Gospel and Law prohibit such cursing of others on the part of God’s people (Mt 5:44-45 – Love your enemies, and pray for your persecutors, because you are sons of your heavenly Father, and he allows His sun to rise on both the evil and the good. He allows the rains to come to both the righteous and the unrighteous. Ro 12:14 – Bless those who persecute you, and do not curse them.) Christ blessed His enemies on the cross, yet God also curses transgressors. (Dt 27:26 – All who will not conform to this Law by their actions will be cursed.) Both Jesus and David pronounced curses upon various places and enemies. (Ps 5:10 – Find them guilty, God, and cause them to fall by their own ways. Throw them out because of their sins, for they rebel against You. Ps 109:7-15 – Let the judgment be that he is guilty, consider even his prayers to be sinful. Shorten his days, take away his office. Cause his children to be sterile, and his wife a widow. Allow others to take all he has, and leave none who will be kind to him or his family. Cut off all posterity from him, and remember the sins of his ancestors continually, until all memory of him is gone from the earth.) Paul, also, cursed others, and John asks that we remove some from our prayers. (2Ti 4:14 – Alexander hurt me greatly. The Lord will repay him as he deserves. 1Jn 5:16 – There is a sin that leads to death. I don’t require that you pray for one who commits such a sin.) It is the circumstance that makes the difference. It is forbidden us to so curse another, except it be a pronouncement of God’s own prior judgment, in accord with God’s own directive to us.
11:10: The whole people is given up by David, because the whole of the people had rebelled against him. Considering Whom David is the type of, we ought to see the spiritual import of this curse. Footnote: Ps 69:22-23 – May their table become a snare, and their peace a trap. May their eyes be dimmed such that they cannot see, and their loins weakened to continual shaking.) Paul follows the Septuagint fairly closely in his quote, but there are changes. (Isa 34:8 – The LORD has a day of vengeance, and a year of recompense for Zion’s cause.) The close of v10 is completely different from the Hebrew, but both phrases are indicative of a removal of strength. That curse remains for all who are adversaries of Christ. Thus, it is not so strange that the majority remain so blinded.

Matthew Henry (2/14/02)

11:6: The choice of some to eternal election is the beginning of differentiation between people, and the cause of that difference is found solely in God’s grace. It is neither for works accomplished, nor for works foreseen. (Eph 1:5 – He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus to Himself, according to His will.) Faith is indeed the reasonable cause of our justification, yet even that has no part to play in our election. Election is solely by His gracious choosing.
11:7: Election has obtained what Israel had failed to achieve with all their effort: acceptance with God, and justification in His sight. (Ro 9:31 – As hard as Israel pursued the Law of righteousness, yet it failed to uphold that Law.) Yet, the Law is fulfilled in the election, and the blessings of that fulfillment are given. Those chosen are called the election here to remind us that the only foundation for our hopes is laid in God’s election of us. Some are so chosen. For others, the very Gospel message which should have so helped them has only made them worse. “The same sun softens wax and hardens clay.” Simeon understood this. (Lk 2:34 – Behold this Child is appointed the cause for many to fall and many to rise in Israel, He is appointed a sign to be opposed.) So it is that many are hardened to the touch of grace. Their spirits are made stupid. It was this very willful blindness that was their sin, which God punished in like form, by continuing and deepening their blindness.
11:8: To support this harsh statement, Paul looks to Isaiah, (Isa 29:10 – The LORD has poured a spirit of sleep on you, shutting up the prophets and seers who are your eyes and heads. Isa 6:9 – Go tell this people that though they continue to listen yet they don’t perceive, though they continue looking yet they don’t understand.) They had become uninterested both in their duty and their own good. They were determined to continue as they were. They had their faculties, but would not use them. They both saw and heard Christ, yet they did not believe Him. Ever since Isaiah’s first speaking of these words, the process has been ongoing, stronger still after the coming of the Gospel.
11:9-11:10: David is also brought as witness to this truth. (Ps 69:22-23 – Make their table a snare for them, their peaceful situation, a trap. May their eyes be blinded, and their strength sapped.) This is the Psalm in which David foresaw the treatment Christ would have of His own people, which vision was fulfilled. (Mt 27:48 – One of them ran, and soaked a sponge in sour wine, which he lifted up to Christ to drink.) The curse David pronounced was God’s judgment upon those who had so brutally and utterly rejected His Son. So we should always understand David’s prayers against his enemies. They are the prophetic speaking forth of God’s judgments against His enemies. It was not his own resentment he expressed, but God’s justice. All their comforts will be ruined. (Mal 2:2 – If you don’t listen, and honor My name, then I will curse you, I will curse your blessings, and have already done so because you are not taking My words to heart.) All their faculties will be ruined, leaving them no way to seek the right path, nor to walk it should they stumble upon it. Having rejected Christ, the Jews got caught up in their politics, and so hastened their own ruin at the hands of the Romans. They lost their spiritual backbone, and became bowed down to worldly and sinful matters. So it remains to this day. The divine curse continues, serving as a sign to us as to what we may expect, should we become likeminded.

Adam Clarke (2/15/02)

11:6: That remnant of Israel that remains, that has believed in Christ Jesus, need to recognize that their footing is the same as those Gentiles who have believed in Him. Both stand only in God’s free grace, not in observance of the Law. All who are saved are saved by grace, the sole means God provides to man. This being the case, no connection remains with the prior works of the Jews. This grace is not a matter of God sovereignly electing some to salvation, while leaving others. It is a matter of God receiving any and all who will believe His Son.
11:7: The great body of Israel had failed to gain the continued blessings of being God’s chosen by all their efforts. Yet those among Israel who had believed, who had accepted the salvation offered in Christ Jesus, had attained that continuation. That’s the plan. God accepts those who believe, and none otherwise. Those who refuse to believe are precisely the ones Isaiah wrote of. (Isa 29:10 – The LORD has caused in you a deep spiritual sleep, blinding the eyes which the prophets are, and covering your heads, which the seers are.)
11:8: Willfully, they close their eyes to God’s light. In judgment, He gives them a spirit of slumber in their darkness. The word of God should have awakened their conscience, but instead it has hardened them further, becoming the scent of coming death to them. So it is still today.
11:9: Given this present disobedience, we can expect that they will suffer the same eventualities that have visited the disobedient in former generations, even as David wrote in his day. (Ps 69:22-23 – Their tables become a snare, their peace a trap. Their eyes grow dim unto blindness, and their strength is gone.) Blessings become curses to them, even earthly blessings becoming a cause of stumbling as they are enjoyed without the Lord. They looked for a worldly Messiah, and so ‘rejected Him whose kingdom was not of this world.’
11:10: These words are not a curse pronounced by David, but a declaration by God of what shall be the case for the unbeliever. Until Jesus is acknowledged as Messiah, until they submit to the plan of redemption, they shall always be bowed down in slavery and oppression.

Barnes' Notes (2/15/02-2/16/02)

11:6: If any have come by their salvation because of grace, then it cannot be a reward for merit on their part. Obedience to the Law has justified nobody. As it was God’s choice that reserved a remnant in Elijah’s time, so it is now. Clearly then, the doctrine of merit could not and cannot stand. (Ro 4:4-5 – Wages are not a favor to the worker, but his due. However, for the one who doesn’t work, but only believes in the Justifier of the ungodly, faith is counted as righteousness. Gal 5:4 – When you seek to be justified by the Law, you have been cut off from Christ and fallen from grace. Eph 2:8-9 – You have been saved through faith because of grace. Even faith is not yours, but a gift from God. Salvation is no result of works, lest one should boast.) If works worked, justification would be a debt repaid, rather than a gift given. It cannot be both wages and gift without redefining what it means to be a gift. If salvation were a debt paid for conforming to the Law, it could not be considered a gift any longer. It cannot be partly this and partly that, no claim can be offered that requires God’s favor, there is only unmerited favor. If you will not have eternal life by this means, you will not have it at all.
11:7: Israel had chased after salvation by the merit of obedience to the Law, but that remained an impossible goal to attain to, so they failed of gaining His favor at all. God’s choice, however, has attained the goal for those He has chosen, even though the majority have rejected Messiah. They are like bone in their responsiveness to His call, totally unyielding. (Mk 6:52 – They had not learned from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. Mk 8:17 – Jesus knew they were discussing their lack of bread, and questioned their ability to understand. He asked if their heart were hardened. Jn 12:40 – God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see and perceive, and so be converted and healed.) These are the only occurrences of the word in the New Testament. Never is the means of hardening discussed, only the result. Election is affirmed to be of God, but the cause of blindness is never explicitly noted. (Ro 11:4 – I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed to idols.)
11:8: We are told that their blindness is a matter of prophecy. (Isa 29:10 – The LORD has poured a spirit of sleep upon you, shut your eyes, and covered your heads. Dt 29:4 – To this day, the LORD has not given you a knowing heart, seeing eyes, nor hearing ears. Isa 6:9-10 – He said to tell the people that though they continued listening, they never heard, though they kept looking they never understood. Their hearts were insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes blind, preventing them from seeing and hearing, understanding so that they could repent and be healed.) Paul’s quote is not exact, but the sense is kept. It is not unusual in Scripture, to find God represented as having a hand in producing the wickedness of sinners. (Ro 9:17-18 – In regard to Pharaoh, God said that He had raised that one up for a purpose: to demonstrate His power, and cause His name to be proclaimed throughout the earth. In this, we see that God has mercy on whom He wishes, and hardens whom He will. Mt 13:15 – This people’s heart has become dull. Their ears can barely hear, and they close their eyes, lest they should see and hear and understand and return, so that I should heal them. Mk 4:11-12 – He told them that they had been given to understand the kingdom of God, but those others would hear only in parables so that their sight would not perceive, nor their hearing bring understanding. 2Th 2:11 – For this reason God sends them deluding influences which they will believe, even though they are false.) That spirit of slumber is a matter of insensibility. As to the unseeing eyes, this is not a literal quote from anywhere, although it is reflected in those places noted earlier. It is a reflection of that same sleeping state, for in sleep, our senses are unresponsive, even though their function be unimpaired. So it was with the Jews. Their faculties were fine, the Gospel should have penetrated, yet they rejected it, being insensible to its truth. As in Isaiah’s day, so in Paul’s. This insensibility was nothing new.
11:9: (Ps 69:22-23 – May their table be a snare, and their peace, a trap. May their eyes be blind, and their strength wholly dissipated.) This verse is often spoken of in the New Testament as referring to the time of Christ, (Ac 1:2 – the day when He was taken up, after giving the apostles their orders by the Holy Spirit.) The previous verse of that Psalm is clearly Messianic (Ps 69:21 – They gave me gall for food, and vinegar for drink.) It is for this sin that vengeance is called for. Even their sacrifices become offensive. Where joy and refreshment are expected, punishment and retribution will be found. The Jews have become like birds which walk carelessly into the trap, seeing no danger even as their ruin approaches. Temporal pleasures had led them so far from God as to leave them indifferent to spiritual concerns. David’s curse is to be considered a prophecy, which was being fulfilled in Paul’s time. All that they had and enjoyed should have been leading them to God in gratitude and praise, but instead the benefits were abused, and became a cause of ruin. In this same way, riches often lead a man to forget the One who gave him those riches, and God must send barrenness and loss to them as a reminder. (Eze 16:49 – This was the guilt of Sodom: She was arrogant, having abundance of food, and an easy life, but she didn’t help those in need. Dt 6:11-12 – When the time comes that you have all manner of good things that you have not had to labor for, when all is coming easily to you, be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. Dt 8:10-14 – When you have eaten your fill, bless the LORD for the good land He has given you. Don’t forget Him by ignoring His commandments, which I am commanding you today, lest in the time you have all these good things you heart becomes proud, and you forget the LORD who brought you out of the slavery of Egypt.) This warning continues to be valid to us today, when we are well satisfied with all our desires. Again, all that David had prophesied in that Psalm was coming to pass in Paul’s day.
11:10: This portion was fulfilled in the Jews’ blindness to the Gospel. Paul shows that this was long ago told as the punishment for giving the Messiah vinegar to drink. The bent back of Paul’s wording matches the idea of the Hebrew tottering and shaking. Both speak of the effects of a heavy and oppressive burden on the one so burdened. It is an image of servitude because of sin. Many struggle with the curses pronounced in the Psalms, wondering how they can line up with the New Testament spirit. It may be that not every curse can be seen as a prophetic announcement of God’s intent, but it seems likely that many do fall into that category. It may also be that David was wrong to have said such things in many cases. “Every doctrine delivered by the sacred writers is true; every fact recorded is recorded as it was.” None of those we read about were perfect, nor were their histories recorded so as to make them seem so. Scripture is no less inspired for having accurately recorded their imperfections. They serve to show the true nature of fallen man, even with the best of religious influence. The words and actions of these men of history are often not commented upon in Scripture, but merely recorded to show us the character of man. Yet, there is another aspect to the prayers of David. They were the words of the magistrate, the one entrusted by God with the punishment of the criminal. How then is it wrong to pray that justice be done by the one whose job justice is? Is it revenge to pray in that way in that position, or is it a seeking that God’s will be done?

Wycliffe (2/16/02)

11:6: Selection is by God’s grace, not by men’s works. Works are legalism, and thus they nullify grace.
11:7: From all that has been said, we must conclude that in Israel there is even now a faithful remnant and a faithless majority. What Israel was striving for in vain, Paul has already told us. (Ro 9:32 – They did not pursue righteousness by faith, but by works, and so stumbled. Ro 10:3 – Not knowing God’s righteousness, they sought to make their own, and would not be subject to the righteousness of God.) Those selected by God did gain God’s righteousness.
11:8: “When a man is confronted with the righteousness of God, but is determined to go his own way, dullness, hardness, and blindness are the outcome.” It is God’s justice in action. (Dt 29:4 – To this day, the LORD has not given you a heart that understands, nor eyes and ears that work. Isa 29:9-10 – Blind yourselves and be blind. Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not because of drink. For the LORD has poured a spirit of sleep upon you, shutting up the prophets and seers who are your spiritual eyes and heads.)
11:9-11:10: (Ps 69:22-23 – May their table be a snare, their peace a trap, their eyes blind, and their labor overwhelming.) Although divine judgment is upon the majority of God’s people, the existence of an elect minority is proof that God has not abandoned His people utterly.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (2/16/02)

11:6: There is a reversed phrasing of this statement appended in many translations [which is not so appended in NASB] Those who retain it note that such repetitions of thought in changed phrasing are hardly unusual for Paul. The doctrine expressed here is of fundamental import: Only two possibilities exist to bring salvation – works or grace, and these two are so fully opposite as to disallow any mixture one with the other. Salvation must be either wholly of grace, or wholly of works.
11:7: Israel had long sought justification with God, but not found it in their works of Law. The election, the chosen remnant had attained to that justification, and the rest were under a judicial punishment of hardened blindness.
11:8: It is not a spirit of remorse God has given them, as some translations suggest, but one of stupor.
11:9: The Psalm quoted (Ps 69) is so clearly Messianic in nature, that those referred to in the quoted verses must be those who reject Christ. For them, their very blessings prove to be curses, and their enjoyments become a torment and a vengeance upon themselves.
11:10: Here is represented the decrepit and servile state that must come upon a nation that lays under God’s just judgment. What Paul had said of Israel was no more than what had already been laid open to their eyes by their own Scriptures.

New Thoughts (2/17/02-2/18/02)

The only foundation for our hopes is laid in God’s election of us, no claim can be offered that requires God’s favor. This is the sum of all Paul tells us. This is the point we need to have driven home, because we really don’t want to believe it. When God declared that there was nothing good in us, He wasn’t kidding. Our best efforts remain so marred by failure as to be totally unacceptable. Even on those rare occasions when our actions seem to be completely right, there remains the problem of heart and attitude. Assuming we were capable of obeying the Law, why would we be doing it? Out of fear? Out of a sense of obligation? Just to prove Him wrong? I suspect the greatest incentive would be that obedience has such great rewards. But how is this different from acting due to bribery? If the only cause for our compliance is a hope of being paid off, our attitude is still not right.

The Wycliffe commentary suggests that works are legalism. That claim, by itself, is not true. However, works that are done solely in hope of reward, works that are done only because we think our salvation depends on it, works that are done only out of fear of punishment; these are indeed legalistic works. They follow the letter, but ignore the spirit, the intent. Yet, we know that works remain a valid thing for the Christian. God has prepared specific good works for us to do, and has prepared us for the doing. James keeps us in balance by pointing out that faith without works is dead faith.

What makes the difference? The attitude in which we operate. Proper works are not a matter of obligation, they are our heart’s desire. Proper works are not done in fear of our commander, but out of love for Him. Rather than a deed done in hopes of reward, the works that God finds pleasing are done out of an overwhelming thankfulness for our salvation. Rather than viewing salvation as a reward given us for our works, they become more a matter of a reward given God for His saving us. We sing of how He deserves the glory and the honor. By doing the things He desires us to do, we bring Him a measure of that glory and honor He deserves. This becomes the sole motivation of good works; that they will glorify God.

The question remains, though, as to why it is that some are saved, and so many not. If it’s not a matter of our deserving salvation, what, then, made the difference. Calvin puts the deciding factor squarely on God’s choosing, His election, and indeed, this seems to be the only option open to us. If it’s not about us, it must be about Him. There’s not a third choice available. Oh, but we don’t want to think of God as being the cause of their condemnation! We’ve grown used to the loving God who saved us, and we don’t want our image of Him spoiled by seeing that condemnation is a matter of His working as well. We must ask ourselves: Do we truly think that everything is in His hands? Do we truly believe that He is all-powerful, ruler of all nations and principalities? Do we truly believe that He created all things, and by Him all things have their being? Do we really accept that everything that occurs, occurs according to His unopposable purpose? If we do, then we must recognize that even this, even the rejection and condemnation of so many, is part of His unopposable purpose.

But, why? Why would God condemn so many? 2Th 2:10-11 begins, at least, to answer that question. Satan’s worker comes to those, we are told, who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. Notice, it’s not that that love wasn’t sent and made available to them. It is that they rejected the truth, rejected the offer of salvation! They have rejected God, and His reaction, as so often is the case, is to punish strictly in accord with the crime. They having chosen falsehood, He sends them greater delusion, that they may believe greater falsehoods, and stray even further. Note well that what Paul tells us in that passage is that God sends those deluding influences. Unlike so many today, he doesn’t point the finger at Satan and lay the whole blame there. No. He wants us to be clear that God is truly supreme over all of creation. He is the judge, not Satan. He passes judgment, not Satan. Satan may bring charges, but God determines the case. Satan may carry out the punishment, but God determines the sentence.

Their crime was willful blindness. Blindness isn’t force upon the lost, they choose it. Modern man is not forced to believe that there is no God, he chooses to believe it because it’s more comfortable. He chooses to believe it, because the existence of true God would interfere with their own self-worship. This is the reality of the situation. This is the true nature of the crime, and God’s punishment ever fits the crime. As they have chosen to blind themselves, God punishes their sin by furthering the blindness they have chosen.

“When a man is confronted with the righteousness of God, but is determined to go his own way, dullness, hardness, and blindness are the outcome.” This is the indictment, as the Wycliffe commentary words it. It becomes more and more clear that the problem is not a lack of evidence for God, nor is it a lack of ability in man to see and understand that evidence. It is a willful and active choice by man in refusing to use the faculties God gave them. Exposed to the light of God’s truth, they willfully close their eyes, and refuse to look. So determined are they to pursue their own course, that they cannot bear to look on God’s righteousness. It is no more than an obstacle to them. It stands between them and their goal, so they look away, and seek another path. But all other paths lead to ruin, and with their eyes closed against the light, they cannot see the approaching darkness, either.

Even as David had prophesied, their blessings have become a curse to them. All the abilities, all the freedoms that God has blessed man with, all the means He gave us to come to greater knowledge of Himself, have been turned to a curse. Man has been given a great mind, but to what purpose? For most, that mind is being wasted on pursuits of worldly profits, and self-aggrandizement. All the efforts of the mind are spent on trying to deny the God who made the mind. We don’t want to depend on a Creator, so we make every effort to set ourselves up as creators. We don’t want a great Judge over life and death, so we seek to make ourselves judges over life and death. We want control. But the more we seek to gain that control, the more we lose it, for as well as we are fashioned, we are not fashioned for that.

I’ve focused long enough on the lost. There are things here that ought to concern the found, as well. Two things here (at least) should stand as warnings to us. First, though God has pronounced curses on those who reject Him, it is not ours to curse. As we noted with creation and governance, we are not sufficiently wise to allow ourselves to stand in the place of passing such judgments on another. It’s tempting, yes, but it’s wrong. There is one and only one exception to this, and that is the case of God’s prior judgment having been declared. Even in those cases, when He has already stated His curse upon the enemy of His kingdom, we are not given to add our curses to His, but only to speak forth His judgment unchanged.

Finally, I would call us, the Church at the top of the twenty-first century, to consider the words of Ezekiel (Eze 16:49 – This was the guilt of Sodom: She was arrogant, having abundance of food, and an easy life, but she didn’t help those in need.) The charge against Sodom was self-satisfaction. She was happy to rest in her own benefits, and ignore those of lesser means. Have we, the Church, not largely become proponents of this same mindset? Some decades ago, there began the movement of the social gospel, the effort to get out in the community and help the helpless. This was ok, as far as it went, yet the focus remained firmly on the world, and that, I think, was the failure of the social gospel. It ignored the eternal consequences, and focused solely on temporal symptoms. It offered relief to the hurt of a few years’ time, but left the gnawing disease of sin unaddressed for all eternity.

Do we have our food pantry, our twelve-steps, our helping hands? That’s wonderful. That’s good. Don’t stop doing good. But there’s a greater need, a greater concern. We may share our temporal goods with those less fortunate, but what of their souls? Are we satisfied to sit in our salvation, happy to be saved, and unconcerned about the lost? Are we comfortable leaving the Great Commission in the hands of somebody else? Do we excuse ourselves, assuming that somebody else must be doing the job? We stand forewarned.

We stand forewarned by the history of Israel, a people who failed at that same task. Given the most noble assignment of bringing God to the world, they chose to keep Him to themselves, but God would not be kept. He has passed that assignment to us, but if we follow in Israel’s footsteps in keeping it to ourselves, we will also necessarily follow in their footsteps in being rejected. If we will repeat the sins of Sodom (and note that the focus is not on their fleshly, sexual sins, it’s on their self-satisfaction, their resting on their laurels), we will undoubtedly repeat the end of Sodom.

Lord, we are warned. You are ever giving us warnings, but entirely too much like the lost, we choose not to hear, we choose not to act. I pray that You would empower us to act. Empower us to make the changes. Empower us to care like we are supposed to. Lord! How can we look at the lost and aimless around us, and not be moved to give them direction? How can we know that You have required of us that we preach Your Gospel fearlessly to one and all, and yet ignore every opportunity You send us? How can we claim to love You, and yet refuse to follow Your greatest commandment to love our neighbors? I stand accused by this, my God. I know it. I feel powerless to change, I feel I may never know the boldness that You ask me to walk in. I feel these things, but I must reject these things, for Your truth speaks otherwise. Oh God! Open my eyes, give understanding to these ears! You’ve given me a heart that knows You, now, I pray that You would so soften and recreate that heart that it obeys and follows hard after You!

I confess that in my mind, I don’t see this happening. I don’t see how it could happen. But, I confess also that I never saw myself becoming a follower of Yours in the first place. I would have said that was an impossibility too, right up to the day You changed me. I would have said it was impossible that I would be who I am today, but here I am. You have wrought amazing and wondrous things in my life, before my eyes as it were. Today, I choose to believe that You will also do what must be done to make me the disciple, the obedient son, that You have called me to be. May it be pleasing in Your sight to do so soon, my God, and may You find me a willing and pliable clay to work with. Amen.