Saving Grace Kills Spiritual Pride (Romans 11:13-24)

Our gospel reading this morning comes from Matthew 15, verses 21 to 28.

Matthew 15:21–28

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

But he did not answer her a word.

And his disciples came and begged him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.

He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.

And he answered, It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

She said, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

Then Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you desire.

And her daughter was healed instantly.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let's confess our faith in the ancient words of the Apostles' Creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen.

And let us pray.

Keep your church, O Lord, by your perpetual mercy, and because without you the frailty of our nature causes us to fall, keep us from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable for our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, if I asked you to think of one word that describes Christianity, or maybe better yet, one word that describes Christians in your experience, what word comes to mind?

Would compassion come to mind?

Or love or kindness?

Grace?

These are important words.

For 87% of folks surveyed in a Barna group survey, this is 16 to 29 year olds, 87% would use the word judgmental to describe Christians.

Christians are so judgmental.

How does it feel when you hear that?

Have you heard that before?

Maybe someone's even said that to you in real life.

Christians are so judgmental.

How do you respond to something like that?

Can I share how I'd like to respond to that?

Here's how I'd like to respond to that.

I'd like to say, I'm not judgmental.

I belong to a compassionate, loving savior.

You're judgmental for calling me judgmental.

That's how I'd like to respond to that.

But you can see where that spiral goes, right?

I'm not judgmental, I'm just better than you.

Friends, how do we answer something like that?

Because this survey was done in 2007.

These 16 and 29-year-olds are growing up and having children, and likely they're teaching them that Christianity is a judgmental religion, and no one wants anything to do with judgmental people.

How do we answer this indictment of being judgmental, of being arrogant or hypocritical or superior towards others?

Well, friends, we could get defensive, we could point fingers, but I think Paul has something else in mind for us.

I think Paul goes right to the root of where this comes from, our self-satisfied self-righteousness.

In a word, our spiritual pride.

Paul writes this to the church in Rome from our text in Romans this morning.

He says, do not be arrogant.

Don't be prideful.

Don't think yourself as superior to others.

Don't be arrogant.

It is not you who supports the root, it is the root that supports you, the root being God's saving promises.

See, it's the good news of God's saving promises, his saving grace that uproots our spiritual pride.

In a word, saving grace kills spiritual pride.

It's kind of like a weed killer.

We spray that onto spiritual pride and we watch it wither because spiritual pride cannot handle how generous and consuming God's radical grace to us in Christ is.

First off, we see it in God's covenant grafting.

We're going to explore a little bit of Paul's metaphor of this wild olive tree and this cultivated olive tree, and we're going to see what that means for how it kills our spiritual pride.

Saving grace kills our spiritual pride.

But we're also going to explore God's character a little bit, his severity, his kindness, which also uproots our spiritual pride.

Because it's so easy, friends, isn't it?

So easy to try and seek to establish our own righteousness, our own self-interested, self-established, self-satisfied self-righteousness.

That's what we saw in our Romans reading last week from Romans 9.30 to the early part of chapter 10.

We saw God's people try and seek to establish their own righteousness.

They pursued righteousness as though they were the ones who were going to claim it, claim the prize for themselves.

And yet the Gentiles pursued righteousness in faith.

Faith is the vital connection that we're talking about here.

And faith, faith in a saving grace, it kills our spiritual pride.

It can't leave us alone.

So let's explore this text a little bit this morning.

Maybe we're coming in and maybe our hearts are convicted a little bit that there might be folks in our life we find very difficult indeed to love.

Maybe there are folks that we think are beyond God's saving reach.

Perhaps these are the folks that we want to have prayerfully on our hearts as we consider God's radical and generous grace, which has called us to the cross, is the very same that calls them as well.

So let's zoom out the lens a little bit.

Let's talk about this saving grace that God has shown to his people, Israel.

Paul's been exploring in chapters 9 and 10 the implications of God's saving relationship with his people, Israel.

God has given saving promises to Israel through their patriarchs, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with a mind that these saving promises are going to spill out into the nations.

All nations are going to be called into a saving, right relationship with God.

As God works through his people, the blessings will spread to all the nations.

But what we see through the history of Israel is we see a history of rejection.

Israel seeking to establish its own self-righteousness and spiritual pride, rejecting God's promises and pursuing righteousness in their own accord.

And this culminates at the rejection of the Messiah, Jesus, who is the fulfillment of all God's promises.

And now because Israel has rejected their Messiah, the doors for salvation have been flung wide open to the Gentiles.

And that's what Paul is talking about a little bit in the early verses of our Romans 11 reading.

If we back it up and go from verses 11 to 14, we read that Israel stumbled.

Yes, it's true, they stumbled over the stumbling block that is Christ, but not in such a way that they would fall away from God's promises, that they would be cast out forever, but in such a way that they would realize that this is not the way to pursue righteousness, and they would look up and see the Gentiles receiving by faith those promises made to the patriarchs, those that saving grace, so that they might be inspired and desired to do the same.

That's why Paul uses this tricky word jealousy to describe what's being stirred up in the people of Israel.

When I think of jealousy, probably when you think of jealousy too, we don't think of something that's positive.

We usually think of something that's a sin.

And it's true, jealousy can be a sin when I'm self-interested at your expense.

That's a sin.

But the kind of jealousy Paul is talking about is a sort of inspired ownership.

God has given you these promises.

To Israel belongs these saving promises, and now the door has been flung open to the Gentiles who are receiving them.

Would you be inspired to desire the same?

Israel, you've stumbled over this stumbling block.

Look up and see those who are pursuing righteousness in accordance with Christ, who is the end of the law.

Be inspired to chase after them and chase after those promises by faith.

This is the kind of jealousy that calls desire forward.

It's kind of like um, it's kind of like like I play a little bit of guitar, like I can strum a little bit.

But um I went a couple summers ago and I saw Dave Matthews in concert.

If anyone loves Dave Matthews, you know that he's one of the he's just one of the best guitarists, I think, in the world.

He's just amazing the way he just he goes for it.

And so when I watch this guy on stage, I might play guitar, but I am inspired to think, wow, that is the kind of guitar playing that I would like for myself.

That can inspire me to pursue that kind of of that that kind of skill.

Well, God is calling his people Israel to pursue that kind of saving grace by faith through opening up the door to the Gentiles.

And now Paul turns to address the Gentiles in this young Roman church, this young divided Roman church.

He wants to understand that saving grace kills spiritual pride.

Just like Israel was prideful to think they could establish their own righteousness, Paul wants to make sure that the Gentiles guard themselves against a similar kind of pride, thinking that they're God's favorites, thinking that they've done something to earn this righteousness for themselves.

And Paul uses this metaphor of God's covenant grafting to show us how saving grace kills our spiritual pride.

This is a tale of two trees, this grafting.

It's a tale of a cultivated olive tree, and it's a tale of an uncultivated or wild olive tree.

Maybe we just want to think of a something that's overgrown and kind of outrageous.

I'm thinking about my hedges in my front lawn right now.

It's something that's just going beyond control.

So Paul invites us to picture these two trees and see something of God's saving grace at work.

Verse 17, 1117, if some of the branches were broken off of this cultivated olive tree, you know this tree that God's been cultivating and gardening from generation to generation, this tree we call Israel.

And you, although you were a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share the nourishing root of this olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches.

If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.

Paul is using a very common illustration for this uh Mediterranean environment.

Olive trees would be everywhere, and for anyone who's moderately uh familiar with agriculture, they'd know that the process of grafting in a branch takes place for the health of the tree.

If a tree is not producing the kind of fruit we want to see, and yet in the wild, an uncultivated olive branch is doing the same, we're gonna take that branch, we're gonna graft that into the healthy tree so that we can see life in the tree flourish, we can see it produce that kind of fruit that we want to see.

It's for the overall health of the tree that we're gonna that we're gonna graft that branch in.

So Paul wants the Roman Christians to see that it's it's for the overall health of this one singular covenant family, this one olive tree, that this wild branch of the Gentiles has been grafted in.

They belong to a single tree.

But Paul's also playing with familiar imagery here because olive trees uh represent to the people of Israel their national identity.

It's kind of like how we see a maple leaf and we go, oh yeah, Canada.

Like the people of Israel see an olive tree, and that represents something about their cultural identity.

It's why a giant golden statue of a of an olive tree is at the door of the temple in Jerusalem at this time.

It represents their cultural identity.

Their roots are in God's saving promises to the patriarchs, and now they're producing fruit in keeping with God's righteousness and his glory.

So Paul is playing around with Israel's identity, making it clear that the Gentiles have been grafted in and now belong to this multi-ethnic family of faith.

The root is God's saving promises.

And Paul reminds these Gentile Christians that it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.

It's not any kind of fruit you've gone over here and produced, any kind of good works or self-righteousness that earned you this place in the tree.

No, no, God, by his kind initiative, has brought you into this family, into a vital, saving relationship, so that you can be sustained by that same, those same promises of blessing and salvation that God gave to Abraham.

He's bringing you into this family, not because of anything you've done, but because of his kindness.

So here's how Paul expects the Gentiles to respond.

He's pulling out some of their spiritual pride here.

Verse 19, Paul plays his own opponent.

He says, Then you're gonna say, Branches were broken off, so I might be grafted in.

That is, these branches, they rejected you, but we're something special over here.

God saw that we had it going on.

And so God came over here and he brought us into that covenant family because we're really something special.

We're the real favorites here.

And in this divided Roman church where Gentiles are at in tension with uh this minority of Jewish Christians in the same church, Paul sees a narrative playing out that's so familiar in Roman culture.

A narrative of anti-Judaism or anti-Semitism, and Paul's saying the gospel means none of that.

The gospel has no room for anti-Semitism.

The gospel has no room to reject God's covenant people, and that's just as true today as it was in Paul's day.

Paul is writing to these Christians to say, You're all brought into the singular tree by God's grace, not by anything you've accomplished, as if you could brag about it, but God's brought you in by his own covenant kindness.

Why were the branches torn out?

They were torn out, Paul says, because of unbelief.

Because they did not pursue this righteousness in accordance with faith, is what he says in chapter 9, verses 30 and 32.

They sought to establish their own self-righteousness.

So let's get clear, Paul's saying, God's sovereign saving compassion, his election, happens unconditionally.

It's not because of anything you did previous to his grafting you in, it's purely because of his kindness towards you, his love and overflowing generous grace that you've been brought into this vital, saving relationship, and you receive that by faith.

Period.

So don't become proud, Paul says in verse 20, as though you've got something to brag about.

Instead, fear is what Paul says.

And fear can be a tricky word for us too, because I hear fear and I think afraid.

I think horror movie, and I don't want anything to do with that kind of afraid.

Paul is talking about reverence, he's talking about a sense of awe that we're inspired to have by this sovereign, saving God who took us an uncultivated wild olive tree and brought us into this vital saving relationship with his promise that culminate in Jesus.

He's brought us into this singular covenant family.

That's an amazing thing.

That means we've got no room for pride, no room for arrogance, no room for superiority, because that's God's initiative, not ours.

The fruit we bear is because we're supported by the root of God's saving promises, not because of anything special that we have to offer.

So don't get proud.

Don't get looking around at others thinking, man, I'm so much better off than they.

No, this is all God's generous, wild grace towards you.

Even in how we think about others outside of the faith, because we've been brought into this saving relationship by grace alone, God's radical grace extends to them as well.

That invitation to come to a saving faith in Him extends to them as well.

We've got no permission to think ourselves better than unsaved family members or coworkers, whatever their life might look like.

Whoever comes to mind.

We've got no permission to think we're any better off, to look down our nose at these people.

That's spiritual pride.

That's a fatal mistake to make.

Instead, it's God's wild, generous grace that brings us into this covenant family.

That's our source of assurance.

And that happens because of his initiative, not ours.

Spiritual grace, or pardon me, saving grace that brings us, grafts us into this covenant family, kills our spiritual pride because it's God doing the grafting, not us.

Here's the second thing that Paul wants us to see.

He wants us to see that God's covenant grafting displays his saving grace, which kills our spiritual pride.

Here's the second thing.

God's character, his divine kindness and action kills our spiritual pride.

Let's pick it up on verse 22.

The kind let's now note then, sorry, Paul says, note then the kindness and severity of God.

Severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness towards you, provided you continue in kindness.

Otherwise, you'll be cut off.

Let's get clear on Paul on God's character, is what Paul's saying.

God is kind and God is severe.

Sometimes that needs to challenge our conception of God on either end.

Sometimes we think of God as a buddy, right?

He's just that buddy who lives upstairs.

Well, in that sense, we're called to a greater awe and reverence for this mighty God who has saved us from our sin.

But sometimes we're tempted to think of God as nothing but an unyielding schoolmaster, something of an unyielding tyrant who's always ready to quash us at our first mistake.

Yes, it's true God will judge sin for the life of the world, but God is kind.

God desires to bring those who are outside this covenant tree into this vital saving relationship with himself through Christ.

Yes, this is a warning.

God has taken the initiative and extended his saving grace towards you.

Don't be proud.

Walk instead in faith.

Receive it as a gift.

This is what brings us to our Matthew chapter 15 passage, which I give you is a very strange gospel reading, because I think Jesus behaves very unlike how we expect him to behave sometimes.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

But Jesus puts on display God's wild, generous, saving grace in such a profound way that challenges, I think, the very conception of the disciples.

Here we see spiritual pride put on display, I think, by the disciples.

Here's what we're gonna see.

So this Canaanite Gentile woman approaches the Lord and she says, Have mercy on O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.

This woman knows something about Jesus.

She knows that he's the promised Messiah in David's line.

She knows that the culmination of God's saving promises are finding their fulfillment in him.

So she's approaching him in accordance with his covenant faithfulness.

But what's the response of his disciples to this woman?

They say, Send her away.

Right?

We want nothing to do with her.

She is crying after us.

Maybe they're annoyed, maybe they're unsettled, but they want nothing to do with this Gentile woman.

And so Jesus plays into their expectations to reveal something remarkable about this woman that these disciples have missed.

Jesus says to his disciples, he says, I sent I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And he goes on to say that it's not right to take the children's bread, that is God's saving promises, and throw it to the dogs, which, yes, is a common slang for Gentiles, those who are in the wild olive tree, those who are outside God's covenant family, or at least so understood.

We see something of the severity of God.

We see something of Jesus playing into his disciples' expectations.

But to draw out a deeper yes, a deeper affirmation of this woman's faith.

So she responds to the Lord, she says, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.

This woman understands something that the disciples don't.

She understands that God's grace does not withhold, God's grace is generous, and it spills over his table.

And that was always the purpose of God's saving promises, even to Abraham.

God gave his promises to Abraham in Genesis chapter.

Chapter 22, we're told, for the sake of the nations, all nations will be blessed through you and through your offspring.

That's a remarkable promise.

God's generous grace that He's given to His people Israel overflows into the world.

And it's calling all people into a saving relationship by faith in Christ.

These disciples have written this woman off, and yet Jesus has put her faith in display in such a way that even the disciples are catching something wild, something remarkable about who Jesus is.

God's grace, his saving grace in Christ is overflowing into the nations themselves.

So Jesus responds to her, O woman, great is your faith.

Be it done for you as you desire.

Maybe we can see something of the reversal of Romans chapter 11.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

Whereas Paul is roaming or is warning Gentiles against being prideful, exercising spiritual pride against their Jewish brothers and sisters in the faith.

Here we see the disciples being warned against spiritual pride against Gentiles.

See, we're all on the same footing at the foot of the cross, aren't we?

We all of us receive saving spiritual grace through Christ, our one Lord, and are brought into that one covenant family together simply by God's grace and not by our own works or effort.

Great is your faith, Jesus says.

And Paul writes, you stand fast, you're a grafted branch through faith, because faith alone apprehends God's saving, sovereign promises for us.

Jew and Gentile alike, faith in Christ is what unites us to God's salvation, brings us into this covenant family.

Ultimately, you see the severity of God put on display in the cross, where Jesus takes his severity on himself for our sake to put, to, to die our death and to put the power of sin to death for our sake, so that we can have new life in him.

That's God's covenant kindness put on display.

When we look at the cross, we see God's judgment, yes, but we see God's covenant kindness because he took that judgment on himself for our sake, so that we can have new life, so that we who are lost in spiritual pride and seeking and establishing our own self-righteousness can look to the cross and see a God who saves us by his grace, his sovereign saving grace, who takes the initiative on our behalf.

In love, Christ has taken God's severity upon himself, his judgment, so that we who are called by saving grace to faith in him may know the everlasting kindness of the Lord.

And so, friends, we're left with no room for spiritual pride.

Spiritual pride or saving grace kills our spiritual pride.

This saving grace that we receive through the cross, this saving grace that brings us into the covenant family of God as grafted branches through faith.

This saving grace is God's to show us.

It's remarkable.

It should inspire awe and reverence and worship.

It should inspire the kind of humble faith that this woman shows to the Lord.

She comes to Him, Lord, help me.

And it's when we cry, Lord, help me, Lord save me.

It's that posture of humility that brings us as an exercise of faith into that life, covenant life of God in Christ.

So, friends, how do we respond to this?

We respond not with arrogance but with fear, with awe and reverence, with gratitude because God has given his saving grace to us as a gift, with reverence because we are awestruck at the might of God's work of salvation, and with humility because, like this Canaanite woman, salvation is an overflow to us of God's love.

So, how do we answer the indictment that Christians are so judgmental?

Maybe it begins at our own hearts.

Maybe it begins with a fresh outpouring, a fresh renewal of God's saving grace, and we have only to turn to him and say, Lord, help me to be renewed in that sovereign saving grace.

That's our Lord's will for us in Christ to bring us into that saving relationship with him.

The good news of God's saving promises brings us into a new freedom from arrogance, a freedom from thinking ourselves superior to others, because we ourselves have been brought into this saving relationship through the cross and grafted in as branches through faith.

So, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness.

We thank you that you've saved us.

We thank you that you've renewed us.

We thank you that you've called us in Christ to yourself.

Lord, overwhelm us with your saving grace once again, kill our spiritual pride, our self-interested, self-established self-righteousness.

And Lord, instead direct our gaze to our Lord.

And direct our gaze to the cross.

Let's see your saving righteousness once again, your saving grace put on display.

And Lord, we pray for those on our hearts.

Maybe those that we've been arrogant towards, those we've thought that we've been superior towards.

Father, we pray that your sovereign saving grace would enter into their lives as well and draw them near to these promises that you've given us.

Lord, would we be a people of humility, people of gratitude, a people that are eager to tell others of this wonderful grace that we've received in Christ.

All this we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.