Romans 3:21-31
What are the limits of God’s ability to act? Where are the boundaries of God’s power? Is there any place God cannot be God? People of faith will recognize these as silly questions. God has no limits, no boundaries, nowhere the divine will cannot be exerted. As the psalmist reminds us, “Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6). God is able to act anywhere and in any way God chooses.
Paul, for one, sees how the limitlessness of God affects our lives. “Or is God the God of Jews only?” Paul asks his readers in Rome. “Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:29-30). Throughout its history the church has wrestled with lines and boundaries. Who is qualified to be a part of the community? Who is acceptable before God? All too often the body of Christ at work in the world has suffered the wounds of schism and alienation over questions of inclusion and of what it means to be a child of God. Clearly there are activities or perspectives that are inappropriate if one wishes to live a life of faith, but it is just as clear that there are no limits on what God can accomplish in changing lives, renewing hearts, providing increased understanding, and that these things may need to happen to those already within the church.
The call to discipleship is an invitation to allow God to be God, to watch and see what the Lord will do. If we are in too big of a hurry to pronounce the divine intention we will very likely fail to see the mighty acts God is performing already. We may not realize it, but we sometimes place our own limits, our own boundaries on what God can do. Until we embrace the grace-filled implications of God’s limitlessness we will continue to struggle with unity.
Prayer: Lord, help us to serve you and your coming reign instead of our own opinions and attitudes. For it is in the name of Jesus Christ who calls all people to himself that we pray. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment