Sermon – December 24, 2023 Text: Romans 16:25-27
Dear Friends in Christ,
How many of you enjoy logic games? I recently did one that had 10 logical questions. With questions like this, the thinker is control. They are using deductive reasoning to answer the question. I remember this question from the 10. “Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?” Got your answer? Mt. Everest. It didn’t need to be “discovered” before it was the highest mountain.
With the mystery of the Gospel, deductive reasoning may help communicate it, but it can never reveal the mystery of the Gospel. St. Paul says in our text that the mystery “was kept secret for long ages.” No one could deduce that God would create human beings perfect, that these same humans would rebel and do nasty things and He would take upon Himself the painful work of saving them. No one could ever deduce that God would sacrifice His Son for man’s insults and demand no kind of payment from them. No one could deduce that God would achieve all this through the humble birth, deprived life, and agonizing death of His own Son. This mystery could only be revealed in God’s written Word and his incarnate Word, Jesus Christ the beloved Son of God. But now, all this has been revealed so we say . . .
“TO GOD ALONE BE GLORY”
God’s glory is so great but human beings have always been trying to understand it. We think of glory as might and power and prestige that serves the glorious one. Glory is about the one who has it and the others around them are weak and inferior. An athlete’s glory is in winning – which means he beats someone else. A businessman wants to be on the cover of Fortune magazine thus lifting him further. An actress goes on stage at the Oscars with her trophy and thanks “all the little people.”
If God’s glory were that way, we would give it grudgingly because it would humiliate us. In that way it would still be a mystery and we wouldn’t understand it all. Because . . . God’s glory is an entirely different kind. God’s glory is an attitude toward us that we can’t understand. Toward God we are rebellious and loud and obnoxious and yet He delights to favor us. We smash His commandments like a spoiled child, and He takes the punishment and the hell that goes with it – really? God’s glory wants to declare us righteous. Does that make sense? We shame Him in the way we talk about Him and He says we are not guilty because of Jesus. Go figure! God considers it His glory to give us a gift. We have Christ’s righteousness by believing it, through verse 26, “the obedience of faith.”
To God alone be glory, because He did not keep it a secret from us. His glory became clear when Jesus came into the world. “The preaching of Jesus Christ” is what we are about to celebrate. In these last days God “has spoken to us by His Son.” (Heb. 1:2)
Jesus is the full and final revelation of the mystery. “God in man made manifest.” Jesus is the incarnate Word. The “prophetic writings”, the Old Testament, always spoke of Christ, long before He came. They are connected and were the texts used by the apostles and Jesus Himself. Those prophetic writings with the Word of fulfillment in the New Testament, make the mystery of God’s glory known to all nations.
To God Alone be glory. In praise, we say “thank you.” The whole letter to the Romans unveiled God’s plan of the Gospel. Enemies of God to forgiven saints. Helpless sinners to righteous men and women. Like the Romans, all we can do is say thanks.
Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be glory. Let us say it in everything we do. God considers it His glory to save us. When that is the way He sees things, there is no reason to claim any glory for ourselves. Because of Jesus, His glorious death, His glorious resurrection, this is what we’ll say forevermore. Glory to God!
Amen.