August 26, 2020
What Can We Say We Know?
Romans 11:25-36
Jill McCormack
Central Truth
God knows every human will be disobedient. But He expects believers to obey Him so that those disobeying can observe His mercy through His children. Knowing who God is shows us why we should obey Him. His mercy and wisdom are beyond anything that we could think or know.
Key Verse | Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
Romans 11:25-36
The Mystery of Israel's Salvation
25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: 1 11:25 Or brothers and sisters a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
27
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now 2 11:31 Some manuscripts omit now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Dive Deeper | Romans 11:25-36
I've needed much counseling in my life. I struggled through my parents' divorce when I was seven, I was an unguided and gloomy teenager, and I made a string of bad decisions in my twenties that led me into a deep depression. When I met my now-husband Anthony, I was an unsaved pessimist with a very worldly approach to life. Our marriage was tumultuous from the word go.
About ten years in, I didn't want to be married to him anymore. No amount of counseling was helping, and I was ready to walk away, even knowing that I'd be putting our two boys on the same broken path of a divorced family that both of our parents did to us.
But Anthony and I found and went through re|engage, an amazing ministry that walks married couples through biblical principles about marriage and provides godly counsel. It helped prevent our divorce. Our marriage started to turn in the right direction.
Then, on December 27, 2015, we were hit by a semi truck that was driving 85 MPH in bad weather. It jack-knifed and careened into us. There is no reason that any of us should have survived, except that God ordained it. I was forced to abandon my perfectionism and need to control as I laid helpless in the ICU for 12 days and for the next few months while I wasn't able to do much for myself because of a broken neck, back, and arm.
As Anthony waited on and served me day and night for months during my recovery, my eyes were opened to how selfish I was in my marriage. Through more experiences than I have room here to share, I was compelled to submit everything to God in a way I never had before. I saw how much I needed Him, how loved I am, and how the control I thought I had was an illusion.
What I thought I knew was overturned when near-divorce and near-death experiences became blessings. One way to explain God's upside-down kingdom is by recognizing "the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!"
Discussion Questions
1. What are you still not giving God control over?
2. When you need help, do you ask the Holy Spirit for counseling?
3. If everything comes from God and exists by His power, when was the last time you submitted to Him and acknowledged that in prayer?
4. Without God, we wouldn't have thoughts, words, or breath. We wouldn't even be alive. So, what can we take credit for?