Don’t You Hate It When God Causes You to Stub Your Toe?
Romans 9 and 10 says: 30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousnessdid not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
10 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Even the most devout Christian struggles with something when it comes to understanding God, His Will, or how/why He works in a certain way among us.
I was walking down Firestone Blvd. a couple of weeks ago with the family, and I was amazed at how uneven the sidewalk was. There were great gaps and jagged extrusions which made pushing a stroller that much harder. I would have to lift the front of the stroller up every few feet because the sidewalk slabs jutted up at least a few inches. There were numerous times the wheel of the stroller got caught and it felt like when you run into a wall.
There was a period of time in my life where I wasn’t sleeping very well, and because of it, my balance was off. I would walk into doorframes and I stubbed my toe on the couch and other things more times than I can count. I figured out that my perception was off by about an inch, so I would clip the doorway as I walked through it. I lamented one night, after the umpteenth time I had stubbed my toe, that I had never been this clumsy in my life. When I finally started sleeping better it went away. If that happens now, it’s generally because I’m in a hurry and not paying attention to how close I am to the doorframe or couch.
Does understanding God often feel like stubbing your toe or hitting a jagged piece of sidewalk? Or maybe hitting a brick wall? Sometimes you stumble and other times you hit a barrier which leaves you at an impasse.
There will always be things about God that are hard to swallow or understand because: (1) we’re human and we have the limitations of not being able to fully comprehend God, and (2) our sinful nature which wants to reject what we know we should be believing or doing. But, are we meant to stumble?
Why would you reject the grace and message of Jesus Christ? Why would you reject the free gift of eternal life? Because Jesus Christ calls us to something different. Things can’t be the same. Things won’t always remain in the same, smooth pattern that we have been coasting along in when our world collides with the will of God in Christ Jesus.
The Jews collided with Jesus because He conflicted with much of what they believed. They stumbled over His message and often hit that brick wall when it came to His corrective measures of the Jewish faith. Their religious structure had simply become a system of trying to stay within the lines, but in a way that allowed very little freedom in the way the people could follow God or even live. When Jesus talked of how the Jewish faith had strayed from God, it was hard to swallow. But it was what they needed to hear, because God always calls us back to His way and His directives.
God’s Word is always calling us back from our misunderstanding of His ways; we’ve either rebelled, not fully grasped the freedom He gives, or been hurt by the world and unable to receive His mercy. Even the most freeing of invitations from God can feel like a stumbling block because of our current circumstances. His way is not in the right place for where we want to walk. And it does cause us to stumble when a righteousness by faith is not our intentions.
It’s amazing that a people of faith, called in Christ, could become as the Jews 2000 years ago. Life in God is a difficult balance and we find our sinful hearts continually rebelling against the free grace of God and living as holy people. The righteousness of living by faith can seem like an oddity, especially as we sense the world around us becoming more chaotic and we just want to obey and live rightly. The Jewish people and their world is not that far removed from our present circumstances. They lived amongst moral malaise and they were tired of the bad stuff. They wanted to be holy and separated from the filth of the peoples around them. But in the process they had forgotten so much of what it meant to be the ambassadors of the living God to a world that continued to be far from Him. It’s amazing that the chosen people of God could now be further away from God than the (gasp!) Gentiles.
At some point, Jesus will be an offense and stumbling block. In our hurriedness we just don’t notice the things we should until we stub our toe or trip and fall flat on our face. For some it’s different living and for others it’s the message of the Gospel, whether it’s too freeing or too limiting.
So, are we meant to stumble? God doesn’t want us to, but He knows that there will always be something that we don’t want to do or believe. So, even for the best of us, we will stumble. But we pray that God in Jesus Christ will not create an impasse for us which leads to our rejection of Him. Some cannot stomach what He calls us to believe. And for that we must pray: pray that hearts are softened to what grace is, and pray that those same fears or mistrusting hearts do not become our legacy. God’s grace is so much greater, and to receive it with joy is somehow an alien endeavor to a lot of people.
The stumbling block will always be there. But let’s help people identify the cracks and the jagged road in their way. Amen.
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