Immeasurable in a Good Way
Read: Romans 9:30 – 10:4
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
As a young believer I remember feeling completely overwhelmed when trying to read Romans; all these years later, I am still overwhelmed at times. I think though, on this side of things, I now read hard passages through a different lens: a lens that has walked with Christ for over 30 years, a perspective that has learned to trust in the goodness of God, and a belief that God’s justice and compassion are not opposites but rather attributes that work together.
Why do I say these things? When we come to hard or confusing passages or passages that make us think, “Well I don’t think I like what that is saying,” it can be easy to ignore, skip, or simply change the meaning to fit into the box we have for who we believe God is. There is a word of warning that comes with that: we miss out on learning about God and becoming more like Christ if we skip the hard parts. Even if you walk away and think, “I am so confused,” you can still walk away praising the Lord that He is beyond our comprehension, and yet He calls us to know Him and love Him and commune with Him. That is a wonderfully beautiful thing.
But do we consider these passages wonderfully beautiful things, or do we walk away from them discouraged because we don’t have full understanding? To borrow from Carson’s bingo card, let’s consider what C.S. Lewis has to say:
“In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that-and therefore,know yourself as nothing in comparison- you do not know God at all.”
In no way do I think Lewis means for us to think of ourselves in a deprecating, woe is me sense, but instead I think he means for us to come to grips with the fact that compared to God and His glory, we hold nothing. We can bring Him nothing that He needs or does not already possess. Michael Reeves says that if we served a God who needed us, then He wouldn’t be an all sufficient God, and therefore wouldn’t be a place of refuge and comfort for us because He would be lacking.
But that is not who we serve. We serve a God who is immeasurably superior to us, and in Him we can find all that we need.
Therefore, whether it be this passage or another that you find hard to understand, grasp, or be comfortable with, be encouraged that even in those times you can worship God for being more than you can comprehend.
Not too far into the future we will read this in Romans 11:
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
I wonder if Paul wrote these words to encourage the readers and remind them that there is joy and freedom to us, His children, when we pause to remember God’s exaltedness. Please don’t let the “hard” passages discourage you; instead, find in them the wonder of God’s immeasurable grace that He who is beyond our comprehension would call us to know Him, would send His son to save us, and would bless us with His Spirit to live in us. For those things are truly immeasurable in the best possible way.
