A New Kind of Christianity - Brian McLaren [76]
Like someone who has lost something precious, he retraces his steps to see if he has missed something. Maybe Jews never heard the good news? No, that’s not it. Maybe they heard, but didn’t understand? No, that can’t be it either. So he comes to the possible conclusion that God is responsible. God has hardened their hearts to achieve some greater good. Paul is finally comfortable with this conclusion, right? No, not completely!
Something fascinating happens at this point. Paul realizes that just as the Jews may have been proud because they had the Law, the Gentiles might become proud now because they are coming to faith in Christ in greater numbers than his fellow Jews. Paul still can’t conclusively explain the problem of widespread (though not universal) Jewish coolness toward the gospel of the kingdom of God. But even though he can’t explain it, he now decides to use it—to warn the Gentiles that if the Jews could wander from the path, so can they, so they shouldn’t be proud; rather, they should be humble and careful—“stand in awe,” he says (11:20). Paul introduces a new term into his discourse at this point: mystery. Does it suggest some new insight, some new secret to disclose, that might lead to a breakthrough in understanding?
Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.5 (11:30–32)
These conclusive words, after this agonizing journey in the fifth move, seem too good to be true. Yet now, finally, his mind seems to be at rest. No, it is not at rest. Better than that, with this realization his mind is not at rest, but is (I think a slang expression works best here) blown, as his final words in this move make clear:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given to him, to receive a gift in return?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. (11:33–36)
Sixth Move: Engage all in a common life and mission (Rom. 12:1–13:14). A “therefore” signifies a move now from the “what” of God’s amazing mercy to the “so what” of how we should live in light of that mercy. We should present our entire selves to God as a “living sacrifice,” Paul says, a new kind of sacrifice in which Gentile and Jew can equally share. We shouldn’t be conformed to the patterns of the world, but should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We should use our gifts for the common good, loving others without hypocrisy, living the way Jesus lived and taught: sharing, giving, practicing hospitality, breaking down class barriers, forgiving, reconciling, overcoming evil with good.
The resonances between this passage and the Sermon on the Mount are loud, strong, and beautiful.6 The Jewish and gentile community in Christ, while radically “nonconforming” to its culture, is not a group of Zealots plotting violent revolution against the Roman Empire. They live and work as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens within the kingdom of Caesar, even though they are now citizens in God’s kingdom. But they must remember that their highest law is neither the Jewish Law nor the law of Caesar. Paul describes it as the “law of love,” clearly echoing Jesus’s teaching for disciples of the kingdom of God. This is the life to which “we”—Jew and Gentile together—are called:
Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall