Stumbling Stone

Today's Writing on the Doorframe comes from my new book, 

52 Days of Grace:

Stumbling Stone

As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;

    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,

    ‘You are not my people,’

    there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,

    only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out

    his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty

    had left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

    we would have been like Gomorrah.”

What then shall we say?  That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness,

have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness,

have not attained their goal.  Why not?

Because they pursued the law as the way of righteousness,

have not attained their goal.  Why not?  

Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.

They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble

    and a rock that makes them fall,

    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:25-33

A woman in our church told me the story of her family’s heritage of faith which reached back to a time before the reformation.  She went on to describe how her ancestors left the faith and that she, in the 20^th Century, was somehow returned to her descendant’s legacy through faith in Jesus Christ.  She couldn’t understand why she, out of all of her family (her unbelieving parents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins) was plucked from the fire.  She is committed to praying for the rest of her family, pleading God to change their hearts and draw them to Jesus. (John 6:65)

What a sobering illustration of the path of salvation.  None of us comes to the foot of the cross on our own steam.  Under the old covenant given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God’s people were required to do (and not to do) many things.  These actions and lifestyle were, in part, what set them apart from the rest of the world.   Their hair was different, their eating practices peculiar, their rituals of sacrifice seemed strange.  By doing as God had commanded, they were showing themselves to be God’s chosen people.  God, however, was always the One who chose His people and it was this designation that truly set them apart.

Under the new covenant, we are saved by a simple faith in Jesus.  Through this grace we receive the Holy Spirit which, in turn, produces fruit which sets us apart from the rest of the world.  But this grace is a stumbling stone because it takes us fully out of the picture and places Jesus solely in the center.  

We play no part in our salvation.  Our family heritage plays no part in our salvation.  Our ability to make a wise decision plays no part in our salvation.  To God’s glory alone, we as believers are labeled as His chosen people. (v 25-26)

The work God does in our hearts is what gives us the faith to repent and be saved.  Preacher and Civil War Chaplain Thomas Brooks illustrates this truth well.  “Saving grace makes a man as willing to leave his lusts as a slave is willing to leave his galley, or a prisoner his dungeon, or a thief his bolts, or a beggar his rags.”

God inclines our hearts toward Jesus,

shines a spotlight on the narrow gate of salvation

and propels us through to glory.

Why is it important that you understand that you played no part in your own salvation?

When is it most hard to believe that you cannot save yourself?

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the gift of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  Without this unspeakable gift, I would be destined to live a life devoid of hope, peace and love.  Help me to keep my true identity as a sinner saved by grace always at the forefront of my mind.

In Jesus’ Name I pray,

Amen.

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