Romans 11:33-36

Throughout Romans 9-11, Paul has been struggling with an issue, an issue that was a very real and pressing one to him. I suspect if you had asked, Paul would have said he didn't even fully understand what he was talking about. It is certain that we don't fully understand. But there is one firm and certain reality which forms the background for everything he says, and it is the fact that God is in control. And so, as he finishes his argument, he concludes with a word of praise to God. This doxology forms a conclusion to this section, but in a certain sense, it can be seen as the conclusion of the entire first 11 chapters of Romans.

Imagine finding an old well; you take off the cover and look down in the dark hole and realize that it is so deep that you cannot even see a reflection of the water at the bottom; even with a light, it is too deep to see or even if know if there is a bottom to it. You try to drop a rope down to touch the bottom and measure it, but the longest rope you have isn't long enough to get all the way to the bottom. It is so deep that it is incalculable; it is so deep that you cannot measure it.

That is how Paul felt about God; that in God there was a depth too great to be measured or limited. And so he cried out: "O the deapth." He connects this word depth with three others: riches, wisdom, and knowledge. In the KJV, riches is connected to both wisdom and knowledge: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"  If the picture of an infinite depth suggests something too dark and empty, Paul couples it with the picture of riches—of a treasure trove overflowing with gold, too much to be counted, too much ever to be spent or exhausted.

However, some commentators and translations connect the words differently: for instance, the NET Bible gives it: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” In other words, the picture is of Paul going one by one to the wells of God's riches, of His wisdom, and of His knowledge and finding each one to be too deep to be measured.

We have to remember the context of this passage—through the last several chapters, Paul has been outlining and trying to understand God's working in history. In the chapters before that, Paul was looking at God's working in the gospel and in the heart of the believer. In other words, up to this point in Romans, Paul has been looking at what God does. Paul's God is an acting God; a God who does things. God, existing in and by Himself, would still be worthy of worship and praise. But here Paul is thinking of a God at work.

So, in life, if you want to accomplish something; if you want to achieve some end, there are certain things you need.

Take a simple example. Suppose you want to start a business making mouse traps; you want to build a better mouse trap and sell it. You would need to understand the physical makeup of a mouse and its behavioral patterns; you would have to know about the properties of wood and metal and the tension of a spring. You would have to have at least some knowledge of biology, animal psychology, and physics. Then you would have to figure out how to use all that information together to construct a device that will most effectively lure in and kill the mouse. And then, finally, you would have to be able to get all the materials to build the trap and the machinery necessary to process the materials. These are the three things you would need--You would need the primary data; the know-how to build a plan out of that data; and the resources to enact the plan—in other words, knowledge, wisdom, and riches.

And God's possession of these three things is deep, unfathomable, infinite. Man is limited in what he can accomplish because he only has so much knowledge, wisdom, and riches. Even with his limited cache, man can achieve some truly amazing things. But there is a limit and when we have done all we can do, there is nothing more we can do. But, in the words of a song, “When we reach the end of our hoarded resources/Our Father's great giving has only begun.” Because God's riches, wisdom, and knowledge are unlimited, therefore that which God can accomplish is unlimited. It is not just that God, in Himself, is all-wise and all-knowing—it is that God, using that infinite wisdom and knowledge, acts in history to accomplish His purposes.

And I'm probably taking this illustration way too far, but bear with me, because I think there's a valid point here.

Because humans are so limited, they usually have to work together to accomplish anything. Most businesses involve multiple people who specialize in one thing--one man has the knowledge, one the wisdom, and one the riches. Even if you know what you want to do, you will still need advisors and investors; you probably cannot do it on your own.

But "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?" God doesn't have to rely on anyone else and therefore no one else has a stake in His business. Heaven is not incorporated; God sells no stocks. God does not need help or advice from anyone. No one can ever say: “God couldn't have done that without me.” Of course, God uses people—God uses angels and animals and the weather—and everything else in the universe to accomplish His purposes. As sentient beings, it is our duty and privilege to willingly cooperate with His plans. But as we've seen with Pharaoh and the Jews, God is still quite capable of fulfilling His plans without our help or cooperation.

So far from God depending or relying on us, the truth is that we cannot fathom or fully understand what God is doing at all. Paul says that God's judgment or plans are unsearchable and his ways are untraceable. We know that God is at work, but we cannot mark out His footsteps or see exactly what He is doing. 

Now, all of this does need to be balanced against one thing. “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16) Even though God does not depend on us; even though we could not instruct Him or even, on our own, understand Him enough to instruct others—yet He has given us a revelation of Himself; we have, in some degree, the mind of the Lord. We are not His concillor, but His name is the Wonderful Councilor.

If we had no idea of God's work, then we could only say in general that God is great and wise and is doing something. But it is precisely because we have some glimpse of his work—through His revelation—that we can truly appreciate the greatness and wisdom of the whole. Throughout the last three chapters, Paul has been showing—based on God's revelation—God's plan throughout history which led to the founding of the church and which would lead someday in the future to the restoration of Israel and, perhaps, ultimately, to the entire world. Almost no one, in the midst of all those events, had even the slightest inkling of what God was doing or why. Now, through the light of revelation, we can see at least the general pattern. 

God was at work in the past and now, with His help, we can understand what He was doing. God is at work in the present; we cannot understand what He is doing but by faith, we can be sure that He is doing something.

There are many people in the world who are working for a better world. Obviously, there is much talk on that line which is insincere and self-serving, but there are also people who genuinely want to help people and work for a better future. That is a noble cause, but God is not one of those people. God is not just someone like us, bound up in the world-process and trying to steer it to a better conclusion.

Paul says that all things are OF Him; in other words, God is the source and origin of all things. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3) God is the creator and the designer of the entire fabric of reality. Therefore He, and He alone, can truly understand everything and properly fit all the pieces of the world together.

Paul also says that all things are THROUGH Him; in other words, God is the active agent in the world. Without God, this world could not continue to exist and nothing within it could happen. Think of a computer program; nothing in that program could run, no actions could happen--it would not even actively exist without the computer which runs it. God holds the world together and His is the hand that guides and controls everything that happens.

Finally, Paul says that all things are TO Him; in other words, God is the goal and purpose of all things; the vast processes of life are not mindless or aimless. God is bringing all the various pieces of this world together for a purpose, and that purpose is the glory of God. We know something of our own part in that plan—that God desires His people to be united with Him in the Resurrection. What place everything else serves in that plan is less clear. But the point is that there is a purpose in it all and that purpose is not random, not determined by fate, not determined by man, but by God. And therefore, to God, there should be glory forever.