33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. ~ Romans 11:33-36
Today, we conclude our study of Romans 11 which is the third part of three chapters where the Apostle Paul is establishing the sovereignty of God by using the nation Israel as an object lesson. In Romans 9 the emphasis is on God's past election of Israel and the emphasis in Romans 10 is on Israel's present rejection of the Gospel and Romans 11 is on Israel's future restoration.
In v.33 of today's passage we read, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"
The deep riches that the Apostle Paul highlights here is that which causes us the most difficulty in life, yet the more difficult the situation the more deeply we go in our walk with God. In fact, let our lives take a serious turn for the worse and we find ourselves struggling to trust God, only to discover the serious turn for the worst is His way of deepening our faith in Him.
We struggle to grasp the immensity of God! We can understand what He tells us about Himself, but we struggle getting beyond that. This is why the Christian life is such an adventure, we are always being surprised by God. And, yes it is scary at times, but since when have we enjoyed a boring life here on earth. He is always enriching us in ways that we don't anticipate. And, the greatest part to our personal relationship with Him is that we are getting to know Him who is the consummation of everything we have ever longed for all of our lives. Every desire we have finds its fulfillment in Him.
The Apostle Paul writes: "How unsearchable are His judgments" which means He is beyond accountability. No man can call God to account and say, "You have no right to do that!" We do it all the time, but we have no right to do it. For God is beyond us; He knows so much more than we do. As John Nelson Darby once wrote, "This passage is darkness to my intellect, but light to my soul."
In v.34 of today's passage we read, "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?"
We don't know God's mind, but we have become God's counselors. We often think that God has made a mistake in certain cases in our lives, especially when it is not going well for us. But, since God operates on such a different level than we, His ways are way past ours. And, it explains why we struggle so much.
I love the story of the woman caught in adultery. From her vantage point I can only imagine how difficult it was to trust the Lord Jesus. It was obvious that she had been set up by the religious leaders. And then, the religious leaders take her to the up and coming religious teacher who had recently burst on the scene.
Her self-righteous accusers were ready to put her to death. So, the religious leaders brought her to the Lord Jesus. He said to her accusers, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." Soon the woman's accusers were all gone, and no one was left with her but the Lord Jesus. "How unsearchable are His judgments!" His ways are so different than ours and if we just give Him time, He will position us to see the brilliance of the way He does things.
We do not know God deeply unless we go through the deep waters. Over and over in my life, I have discovered the firmness of God amidst the weakness in my soul. We often have great difficulty allowing people into our lives because we’re
afraid of what they will discover. We’re afraid of what others will think of us. But, as I have discovered, God already knows what is in the broken recesses of my jumbled up and messed up soul. And, I am discovering that He still likes me. He likes you. I've thought, "He has to love me for He is God." But He also likes me even though He really knows who I really am. He even knows things about me that I do not know about myself. You see, as we delve deep into the caves of our souls, we discover Him there. And, He is always there speaking His blessing to us. The question is this: will I allow Him to define me?
In v.35 of today's passage we read, "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?"
God is self-sufficient, sovereign, and free from any obligation to anyone. He doesn't owe the Jew or the Gentile anything because of merit. God is indebted to no man because He has given to us all things through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And, there is nothing we could give to God that He doesn't already own or have in abundance. God is the originator of all things; all things come from Him. And, He is the sustainer of all things; everything depends upon Him. C. S. Lewis once said, "To argue with God is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to argue at all!"
In v.36 of today's passage we read, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."
The Apostle concludes with this great outburst of praise. This makes sense when we have come to see our great God as He is. He is the end purpose of all things and all things will find their culmination in Him. He is the reason why all things exist for He is the originator of all things. And, the final take away for us is will we allow Him to define us? Our existence really comes down to our daily choice to trust Him or not. I am learning the more I trust Him the more I discover that He is trustworthy. In addition, the closer I walk with Him, the more I discover He knows much better than I.
