The Book of Romans delves deeply into great doctrines of the church (ecclesiology) and the study of God (theology). The text spends much time showing our dependence on God’s mercy and grace, and the gift and sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. As he was considering our sinfulness, God’s great plan for the ages, and His grace and mercy, Paul spontaneously praised God. He came to the realization that God’s wisdom and knowledge are unsearchable and His ways, paths and methods are mysterious and untraceable.
Romans 11:33-34 NIV 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?
It is most difficult to formulate a rational dialogue about the depth of God’s wisdom and knowledge. His paths and judgments are unsearchable and no one can trace out His footprints. Almighty God is so far above His creation that it is impossible to for us to know the depth of His wisdom and knowledge.
1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Consider God’s actions in creation.
How did He do that? How could God create and cause the cohesiveness of matter to form His creations? We know so little about the ways and methods that God used to form His creations. We don’t know what order God used to formulate the things that He created.
Consider the sovereignty, counsels, and decrees of God.
Paul said, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or has been His counselor?”
Isaiah was considering the almightiness of God and was speaking words of comfort to God’s people.
Isaiah 40:12-13 NIV Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed Him as His counselor?
Consider the wonders and depths of God’s power and knowledge.
In the Book of Job, God talked to Job about His Own almightiness and knowledge.
There is no better source for this information than God Himself.
Job 38:4-7 NIV “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
Job 38:8-11 NIV “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?
Job 38:12-14 NIV “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
Job 38:15-17 NIV The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Job 38:18-21 NIV Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
Job 38:22-24 NIV “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Job 38:25-28 NIV Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
Job 38:29-32 NIV From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Job 38:33-36 NIV Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
Job 38:37-41 NIV Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
Job 9:2-4 AMP But how can mortal man be right before God? If one should want to contend with Him, he cannot answer one [of His questions] in a thousand. [God] is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has [ever] hardened himself against Him and prospered or even been safe?
Job 9:5-7 NIV He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars.
Job 9:8-10 NIV He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
Job 26:6-8 NKJV Sheol (the place of the dead) is naked before Him, And Destruction (hell) has no covering. He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it.
Job 26:9-11 NKJV He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble, And are astonished at His rebuke.
Job 26:12-14 NKJV He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”
The magnitude of what Biblical text reveals about God is beyond our understanding.
Throughout Romans, Paul considered the awesome wonder of God’s grace and mercy toward humanity. When we begin seeing the magnitude of God’s wisdom, work, and influence, it is difficult to understand His interest in humanity. Consider that the Almighty and Holy God would make it possible for fallen and sinful humanity to become children and heirs of God through the sacrifice of His Son.
Take that personal.
Psalm 8:3-5 NIV When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
It is absolutely amazing that God would consider man.
By His Own wisdom and sovereign decision, God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Then, in mercy and love God extended His kindness to ungodly and wicked unbelievers through the sacrifice of God’s own Son. Consider the depth of riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge and the ways and paths of God almighty. Think about the forbearance (patient self-control) of God that passed over the sins that we previously committed to demonstrate His righteousness and propitiation by the blood of Christ. (Romans 3:24)
Romans 11:34-36 NKJV “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
The plan came from God, it is of God.
The idea, the concept, and the method came from God. Salvation, redemption, and adoption were not the idea of fallen and sinful mankind. We did not decide that we offended God and had to contrive a way back into His grace. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. We were without God and without hope. In our spiritual indifference, exile and death, we could not devise a plan that would bring us back to God. We were lost and without hope and without God in this world. Reconciliation and restoration were God’s plan. God in His infinite wisdom and knowledge provided a Savior, who is Christ our Lord.
It is all through Him.
Salvation, grace, mercy, access, regeneration, cleansing, healing, forgiveness, justification, peace, hope are all through Him.
It is no wonder that the sinner who is saved by grace has such an amazing transformation.
The presentation of a Savior to deliver us from our sins is all through Him. We cannot present works of righteousness to God whereby we will be saved. We are all like an unclean thing, and all or our righteousnesses are like filthy rags, (Isaiah 64:6).
Who among us is without sin? Who among humanity is able to ascend to God’s throne and become a mediator between God and man?
Only God is able to provide a sinless Savior through the great gift of His Son to furnish this grace, mercy and salvation.
To Him are all things.
God is the Cause of everything. All things come from Him and all glory belongs to Him.
Colossians 1:16 NKJV For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Consider that God is not only the Source of everything good, He is the active Agent in sustaining and controlling everything. All things were made through Him and for Him and without Him nothing was made that was made. Everything was designed to bring Him glory and reveal His glory.
Romans 11:34-36 NKJV “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.
This a doxology of praise for God’s wisdom and knowledge.
The Doxology is sang in many churches around the globe. Bishop Thomas Ken composed the words in 1674.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Consider the depth of the glory and praise that is due the Lord our God.
Why should we praise Him? Consider the ways.
Psalm 150:1-3 NKJV Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
Psalm 8:3-5 NKJV When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:6-9 NKJV You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!