ROMANS UNWRAPPED 190

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!   How unsearchable are His judgements,  and His ways past finding out!   For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again?   For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever Amen."       Romans 11v33-36

Paul reaches the mountain top of his exposition.   What is it all about?   It is all about the glory of God.   Paul in his writings, regularly breaks out into what are known as doxologies, in praise to the God who is so great and has done so great things.   For Paul, this is the whole thing, glory to God.   There are many such instances; Romans 1v25; Romans 9v5; here in Romans 11; 1st Timothy 1v17  "Now unto the King eternal immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honour and glory forever and ever Amen."; 1st Timothy 6v15-16; Ephesians 1v3-14; this doxology contains over 200 Greek words in the original and are without punctuation of any kind and is a non-stop blessing to God by Paul for His great salvation.   This now famous doxology begins with the words  "Blessed be God" and finishes with the words  "Unto the praise of His glory."; Ephesians 3v30-21  "Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end Amen."

Thus the gospel is no mere doctrine, but a living power, in fellowship with a glorious living God which should draw from us, and does draw from us the true worship that is due to His name.  

Paul uses every superlative in the human language that he can think of to describe the God of the Bible.   He speaks about depth and has in mind an unfathomable ocean; he speaks of riches and has in mind a treasury without limit.   He develops two particular features of God, His wisdom (Greek word Sophia); this refers to the outworking of God's perfection: His knowledge, (Greek word Gnosis) God's all inclusive and exhaustive understanding of everything; if you like His intellect, whereas His wisdom is His practical outworking of that intellect.   Says Paul, that wisdom and that knowledge, they are deep and they are rich.   However he does not stop there, he talks about His judgements and His ways.   His judgements are His decisions, His counsels, His designs; and he says concerning those judgements, that they are unsearchable; (Greek word for this is Anexereunetos which means inscrutable) which means cannot be understood by any individuals or the combined intelligence of all living creatures.   This God is beyond our ken; these judgements, decrees, would relate to His knowledge.   He also speaks of His ways which describe the outworking of God's designs and this would relate to His wisdom.   So Paul is saying not only are God's designs and decisions way beyond any of us, the way in which He works out these decrees are also beyond us.   "His ways are past finding out."   This phrase means that how God does things in relation to this world are in fact untraceable.   The word is taken from the practice of hunters hunting down animals and who have lost the scent and have lost the track and have no way of ever getting it back.   His judgements are unsearchable and His ways are untraceable.   The Psalmist in Psalm 77 describes this  "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footprints are not known."  verse 19.   Who can trace footprints in the sea?   Neither can any of us trace the footprints of God.  

We cannot outwit Him, we cannot gainsay Him, we cannot explain Him; all we can do is bow in awesome wonder at the depth of the riches of both His judgements and His ways.   In verse 34 we find that He is the great teacher.   We don't teach Him, He teaches us and we listen. We don't question Him, we wouldn't be asking the right questions.  In verse 35 He is the great Giver, for what can we give to Him that He has not first given us?; and anything we give back to Him will be recompensed to us again, God will be no man's debtor. When we give to him, He gives back to us;   All we can do is accept His wonderful gifts.

And why is all this so?   Paul explains in verse 36   "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all

things." 

• OF HIM   -   He is the origin of all things. (the Greek word Ek) without Him nothing exists including us.
• THROUGH HIM   -   He is the channel through which everything, but everything, progresses (the Greek word Dia).
• UNTO HIM   -   He is the goal of all things, to which all things are headed (the Greek word Eis). 

In summary He is the first cause of all, He is the final cause of all and He is the great cause of all between the two.   The final result will be  "the glory of God forever.," and all of us who are part of that say a loud AMEN.