All The Glory to God
Sunday, 24 August 2014 -
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado ☩ www.hclchr.org
A psychiatrist was making his rounds on the psych ward one day and he was conducting a little test to ascertain how connected they were with reality. So he asked the first patient, “What’s 3 times 3?” “274,” replied the patient. The doctor just shook his head and made a note on his evaluation sheet then turning to the next patient, he asked “What’s 3 times 3?” “Tuesday,” replied the patient. Once again, the doctor just shook his head and jotted down another note. Finally, turning to a third patient, the doctor asked “What’s 3 times 3?” “That’s easy,” replied the patient. “It’s 9.” “Excellent,” said the doctor, thinking that he had at last found a patient who had made some progress. “And how did you come to that conclusion?” “Simple,” replied the patient, “I just subtracted 274 from Tuesday.”
At first glance, the third man seemed to be perfectly normal. He seemed to have it all together. He seemed to be wise enough to get the answer right. But as it turned out, he was just as confused as the other two. He wasn’t wise at all, but foolish. So it is with those who live under the power of sin and think according to the sinful ways of this world. To give in to the passions of the flesh like taking God’s name in vain, or skipping church and Bible class, or drinking to excess, or lusting after someone or something – those things seem like the ‘normal’ thing to do, because everyone else is doing them. In fact, the world makes us think that that’s the ‘wise’ thing to do, because then we can selfishly get whatever we want and to the sinful human nature, somehow it all makes sense. But the Scriptures clearly tell us that it is really all the height of foolishness, because when we give ourselves over to sin the only ones we are really fooling are ourselves.
On the other hand, following the ways of God and doing things like worshipping Him, studying His Word, and praying to Him, or treating our fellow human beings with kindness and respect, or going to extremes and actually forgiving those who hurt us, those things are -- according to Scriptures -- the truly wise things to do. Yet, to the world they seem like utter nonsense. It isn’t logical to give up our will to follow God’s will.
However, as the Bible reminds us: “The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.”
And that is the basic thrust of St. Paul’s in our text for today as he exclaims to the Christian church in Rome, “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Here Paul likens God’s wisdom to all of the world’s treasures rolled into one. When my children were little they used to watch a cartoon where one of the lead characters was a very weathy fellow called Scrooge McDuck and one of his favorite activities was to go down into the basement of his mansion where he had a huge olymic-sized swimming pool full of gold coins and he would waddle up to the diving board and jump off head first into his obscene amount of wealth and swim around in it for awhile.
Well, beloved, that is what the wisdom and the knowledge of God’s is like. It is staggering and overwhelming and yet it is not something that we cannot understand. No, God’s wisdom shows itself to us simply and perfectly in the work and in the person of Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord. In other words, the cross of Christ we see what God’s wisdom is truly all about. It was God’s wise, eternal plan to save the whole world through the atoning death and resurrection of His Son. When Jesus died on the cross, He put an end to our dying. And When He rose again, that was the beginning of our living with Him eternally. As Paul wrote in chapter six of this epistle:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his for we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Yes, God’s wisdom, that is, His grace and mercy, is a treasury so rich that we could never deplete it. No matter how much we sin, we could never run out of God’s forgiveness. For every time we repent, He is right there with His mercy, because when Jesus died on the cross, He took the ink pad of His blood and stamped our bill: “Paid in full.” All our sins have been cancelled out for good
This is what Paul is getting at when he asks, “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” The answer, of course is: “No one.” None of us have ever given or will ever give God more than he has given to us. This, by the way, is the folly of all the religions of the world which hold that somehow, someway we can make ourselves right with God through our own works or preparations. It is utterly ridiculous, because, if the truth be told, all we ever do is sin. We sin against God and one another continually and this has been the case with all mankind since the fall into sin as we read in Genesis chapter 6:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Is it any different today. Look at what is going on in the Middle East. Look at what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri. Look at our own community. Look at what goes on in our own households and within our own hearts. All we do ever do is sin against God which is why he owes us nothing. All we deserve is His wrath and condemnation. Nevertheless, out of His grace He freely gives us all that we need, most especially the forgiveness of all our sins. As a matter of fact, in our text the word ‘given’ literally means in the Greek: ‘to pay in advance.’ And that’s exactly what God has done. Through Christ He has paid off all our debt of iniquity in advance, as guaranteed proof that He will give us the rest of what He has promised; namely, eternal life with Him in heaven. That’s why Paul exhorts the Christians at Rome and us, by the power of God the Holy Spirit who has worked faith in our hearts, to seek to glorify God in everything we think and speak and act. As the concluding doxology of our text puts it: For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
My friends, that’s what you and I were created for – to give glory to God. Why? Because He deserves it. He deserves it all, as we put at the end of every worship folder “Soli Deo Gloria!”
(to God alone be the glory) because He has done all things well and every good thing we have or ever will have is a gift from His gracious and loving hand.
This is why we as Christians seek to do good works. This is why we worship frequently and read our Bibles more diligently and pray more fervently. This is why we show our love for one another by being kind and generous to eachother. This is why we give generously and volunteer our time and talents around church. We do not do them to earn God’s favor or to gain our salvation, we already have those things as a free gift by His grace, through faith in Jeuss Christ our Lord. No, as Christians we do good to others out of thanks for what God has done for us.
It is as a former Army Ranger, Seattle Pastor Tom Allen described in a special connection he felt with the characters in the WWII movie Saving Private Ryan. He writes: “I was extremely proud – until the last minute of the movie. I felt proud watching the valor of the American soldiers as they faced death taking Omaha Beach. Then they received a mission to go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan. They bravely fought skirmish after skirmish and some of them were killed along the way.
When they finally got to where Private Ryan is holed up and they said, “Come with us. We’ve come to save you and take you home.” But he said, “I’m not going. I have to stay here because there’s a big battle coming up and won’t leave my buddies here to die without me.” What did the Rangers say? “We’ll stay here and fight with you.” And so they did and almost everyone dies, except Private Ryan.
Then at the end, one of the main characters – played by Tom Hanks – is sitting on the ground. He’s been shot and he’s dying. The battle has been won. Private Ryan leans over to him, and Hanks whispers something to him. Everyone in the theater is crying because Tom Hanks was shot. But I was crying because of what he said – it was terrible. Ryan bent down and Hanks said, “Earn this!” The reason that made me angry is no Ranger would ever say, “Earn this.” Why? Because the Ranger’s motto is “Sua sponte”, which means: ‘I chose this.’ or ‘I volunteered for this,’ because every Ranger volunteers three times: once for the Army, once for Airborne School, and once for the Ranger Regiment. If Hanks was really an Army Ranger he would have said, ‘Sua sponte.’ In other words, ‘This is free.’ I willing gave up my life for you, because that’s what I chose to do.”
And Pastor Allen concluded: “And so when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging there, you do not hear ‘earn this.’ You never heard Jesus say, ‘earn this.’ He didn’t say, “I’ve given everything for you . NowI need you to gut it out for me.” What He says instead is, “Sua sponte. I chose this. I chose you. It is all yours free of charge. ” What a beautiful understanding of the Gospel. Jesus freely gave His life, so that we might have forgiveness, life and salvation. He gave His all for us to pay off our debts and trespasses and to set us free. And there’s nothing we have to do to earn it. It’s a free gift by His grace through faith in His name. May that move us, then, to live our lives to His glory – not because we have to, but because we want to, we freely chose to, in Jesus Name. Amen.