We All All God’s Children

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

— Romans 11:32-33

Sometimes I wonder if Paul, in writing Romans 9–11, was feeling what many of us in the LGBTQ+ Christian community have felt: the ache of being part of a people who seem to have rejected something essential and life-giving. For Paul, it was watching his beloved Jewish community turn away from the gospel of Christ (Romans 9:1–3). For me—and for so many of us—it’s standing in churches that reject us while clinging to a gospel we know in our bones is about mercy, love, and inclusion. Romans 10:12–13 says, “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” In Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul's conclusion in Romans 11 is not one of despair, but of wonder. After wrestling with rejection, exclusion, and the mysteries of God's plan, in Romans 11:32 he writes "For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all."

We know something about rejection. We’ve heard the sermons, felt the silence, watched doors close. Isaiah 56:3-5 says:

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that will endure forever.

Some of us have been told we must change to be loved by God—when all along, we were already held in that love. Romans 8:38–39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And yet despite the rejections of others… we stayed. We sang the hymns. We read Scripture with reverence. We wept and prayed and kept believing that God's mercy is bigger than the world’s fear. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus rebuked those who have put up walls of exclusion. In Matthew 23:23 He says, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

Romans 11 is a reminder: rejection is not the end of the story. Romans 11:1–2 says, “I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel.” (1 Kings 19:10-18) God is not finished with Israel, and God is certainly not finished with us. God’s plan was never about gatekeeping, never about purity tests or theological litmus strips. It was—and is—about mercy breaking into the human mess. Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” and Hosea 6:6 says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Paul calls this a mystery. In Romans 11:25, he says, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” And it is. It’s a mystery that the very people who were told they didn’t belong—Gentiles, outcasts, eunuchs, queers, sinners—are the ones Christ drew near to (Luke 7:36–50; John 4:7–29; Acts 8:26–39). It’s a mystery that God would use rejection to teach the church mercy. That even now, in a world and church still wrestling with whom to embrace, God is quietly gathering all of us in. (Ephesians 2:13–19) Jesus tells the Pharisees in John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

We do not need to prove our worth to God. In Titus 3:4–7, Paul write to Titus and says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” We are not spiritual refugees in someone else’s kingdom. We are already part of the body of Christ—beloved, chosen, and called. Romans 12:4–5 says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others,” and Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Romans 11 doesn’t end in doctrine. It ends in doxology—a song of praise. 

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?” 
“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?” 
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

That is where we live too: in that mysterious, radiant space between pain and praise. We have seen rejection, yes. But we’ve also seen what mercy can do. We’ve tasted the unsearchable depths of God’s wisdom and kindness. And we believe—despite it all—that mercy is coming for everyone. Remember Paul’s question in Romans 2:4, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” In 1 Timothy 2:3–4, Paul tells Timothy, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God is merciful. As LGBTQ+ Christians have known the sting of rejection, and we have heard his voice calling us beloved. We should thank Him for His mystery. We should thank God for His patience, and for His mercy including all of us, even when others do not. His Word can guide us to live in His mercy and help us to share it with others. God is not done yet—not with the church, not with this world, and, most certainly, not with us.