“The mystery made known to me by revelation” (Ephesians 3:3).
As I mentioned in our last visit the title I gave for Romans 9-11 was, The Sovereign Rule of God in Redemption. After seeing this theme developed from God’s perspective in chapter 9 and man’s perspective in chapter 10 Paul shows in chapter 11 how God pulls all of this together.
Paul says in verse 25 that he doesn’t want the Roman believers to be ignorant of the mystery of how God will pull it all together. It truly is a mystery. I have read this chapter over and over to try and understand what Paul is saying. I must confess I’m not sure I grasp all of it. I would agree with Peter who wrote in 2nd Peter 3:15-16; “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him…His letters contain some things that are hard to understand.”
After reading the chapter and studying some commentaries on it I decided to give chapter 11 the title: The Mystery of God’s Master Plan. In looking for a key verse I finally selected verse 32, though others might have been chosen. It reads, “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”
The first part of that verse reminds you of the conclusion of the first section: Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The second part reminds you of what Paul said in Romans 5:15, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”
Increasingly we see that God knows what He’s about!
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.
H.W. Longfellow
