CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 11:33.—Judgments are God’s decrees; and His ways are His ways of bringing them to pass. How just is Paul’s reflection upon the whole of his preceding remarks! God’s works in providence and grace are mysterious, and we may well exclaim, O the depth!
Romans 11:36.—God is the centre of all things; they come from Him. He is the universal Worker. All works contribute to His glory.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 11:33-36
A fathomless deep.—What sublime irony is contained in the two questions repeated from the Old Testament prophet! “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” Imagine the savage, the child of the wigwam and the forest, whose instinct—for it can scarcely be called reason—is little keener than the instinct of the animals he seeks to entrap; presuming to advise the president of the British Association, the savage may plead ignorance in extenuation of his presumption. What plea shall the modern savant advance as he presumes to advise and to arraign infinite Wisdom? The best of us only know in part. Shall men of very partial knowledge and very scanty wisdom arrogate to themselves the high prerogative of being the counsellors of Him the depth of the riches of whose wisdom and knowledge is fathomless?
I. Here is a deep which is unfathomable.—Modern man is a marvel. He can plumb the ocean’s depths and scale the mountains’ heights with surprising accuracy. Is there any height or depth, length or breadth, placed beyond the bounds of his ken? Modern man is great at material measurements. His scales are nicely adjusted for weighing material substances. What scales has he for moral measurements? What plumb-line can go down to the fathomless deep of infinite wisdom, knowledge, and goodness? He fails; and his failure is seen by his poor attempts at criticism.
II. A deep which is inexhaustible.—As soon think of emptying the ocean with a cockle-shell as think of exhausting the treasures of divine goodness, wisdom, and knowledge. God’s material riches in this one planet are wonderfully abundant in supply. The mansions of earth are many, and are marvellously full of material riches. Her ample storehouses have been worked for centuries, and yet there is abundance. The earth is as radiant with beauty, the stars shine as brilliantly, the sun pours forth his rays as plentifully, and the clouds send down their rains as copiously as they did for the benefit of primeval man. If God’s material riches are so vast, what must be the intellectual and moral riches of that Being from whom proceeds all the glorious wealth of time!
III. A deep which is incomprehensible.—The depth of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge cannot be proclaimed. Poets may sing, but the poet’s song falls short of the lofty theme. Pulpit orators may declaim, but too often they only darken knowledge by well-sounding words; and sometimes the more darkness which is raised by high-swelling phrases, the better pleased are the unthinking portions of the audience. Philosophers may dream and formulate theories, but they show no right comprehension of infinite riches. If the riches cannot be proclaimed, much less can they be comprehended. I cannot comprehend my own mind. How, then, can I comprehend the mind of the Infinite? I talk about reason, memory, and perception; but who shall tell me what it is that reasons, remembers, and perceives? Who shall settle the disputed point whether conscience be original or derived, whether it be a separate faculty or the resultant of several faculties? Whence comes inspiration? How is it that at some times thoughts flash and burn with lightning-like speed and brilliance, and at other times there are no visions? A man’s own mind is incomprehensible. What about the infinite mind? Can I follow the penetrating gaze of Him who seeth all the secret things of darkness? Can I understand the nature of that knowledge to which the words “new” and “old” cannot have a meaning in our human sense? Can I comprehend the plans that overarch the sweep of mighty time? Thank God, though we cannot know all, we may know some. Complete knowledge is excluded; partial knowledge is our blessed privilege. The riches of God’s goodness fill the soul with adoring thankfulness.
IV. The human mind cannot counsel the divine mind.—For we do not know the mind of the Lord. What is the meaning of mind? What is my mind? Is it a material or an immaterial force? What is the mind of a God? What is the νοῦν of the infinite Ruler? What are the blessed tendencies of the eternal Spirit? What are the purposes and dispositions of the Godhead looking, as we say, far down the stream of ages? I cannot counsel to good purpose even an earthly statesmen in a critical state of the country’s affairs. A vast assembly of senators deliberate, but they fail to give the proper counsel. Who, then, shall be God’s counsellor? Of all the prime ministers of earth, who is fit to be the prime minister of the universal King? Gabriel himself cannot counsel. God requires no counsellor; He will bring all things to successful and triumphant issues.
V. The human mind cannot enrich the divine mind.—We only give what we have received. God is no man’s debtor. Still, God does not spurn our gifts. If we do what we can, God will recompense. If we give to Him our hearts, He will give back the gifts vastly improved.
VI. The human mind can glorify the divine mind.—Not by making it more glorious, but by proclaiming God’s glory. Let us show forth His glory with our lives as well as our lips; let us believe that thanks-living is the true thanksgiving. Let the adoring song arise. For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: of Him as the source; through Him as the channel, the directing agency; to Him as the great blissful centre of the whole system of things. To whom be glory for ever. Amen.
The splendour of the divine plan.—The apostle has been carrying on a very close and elaborate argument, in which, among other things, he proves that God’s intentions towards men are unchangeable. He then points out that if there appear to be any change, it is merely in detail and not in purpose; God has unchangeably adhered to His scheme of mercy for all. Paul then pauses to consider these things, and during that pause there rolls in upon him a sense of the splendour of the divine plan which he has been setting forth. Hence he is moved to exclaim, “O the depth,” etc. These verses suggest:—
I. The unbounded richness of God’s wisdom and knowledge.—One can almost imagine Paul unconsciously repeating parts of the old Scriptures to himself: such as Psalms 36:5-6—“Thy lovingkindness, O Lord,” etc.; or passages such as Job 5:9—“Which doeth great things and unsearchable,” etc; Job 9:10—“Which doeth great things past finding out,” etc.; Job 36:22, etc. God’s richness in wisdom seen in all departments:
1. In nature.
2. In the method of His treatment of the helpless.
3. In His care for the dependent—the sparrow, the needy human creature. These all wait upon Him, and are not disappointed.
“Too wise to err, too good to be unkind.”
As we look around, or into experience, or into the Scriptures, it is all the same—there are indications of boundless mercy, infinite compassion, the most touching care for His creatures. The humblest hearer has a part in this care, can come in all his poverty, temporal or spiritual, and receive a gift. All can say, “O the depth,” etc.
II. On earth we shall never fully comprehend God.—For many reasons.
1. The depths of His riches are so great. Ten thousand mercies only take us a small way down into the sea of His goodness.
2. Our own sense of His tenderness of judgment will never be adequate to His dealings. To man on earth, however wise and far-seeing, the ways of God are beyond discovery—“past finding out.”
3. In the whole of man’s history none have succeeded in finding out the full mind of God, not even God’s “friends.” He reveals just enough of Himself to serve His purpose, and no more; with that we must be content. A Persian one said, “The face of the beloved of God is covered with a veil. Except He Himself remove it off, nothing can tear it from Him.” Another has said, “From below, out of our misery, no path leads upwards to God. He being all-sufficient in Himself, must descend if man is to know Him.”
III. If on earth we can never fully comprehend God, we can surely never fully recompense Him.—For:
1. We do not even know the fulness of our debt—“Now I know in part.”
2. What is finite can never reckon satisfactorily with the Infinite. In order to fully recompense we must have wealth equal to the largeness of the gift. And how could that be when we compare ourselves with God? To meet unlimited demands there must be unlimited supply; and only can He who owns all things do this.
IV. Contemplating all this, how can we suppose that we have any claim on God for His mercies?—Whatever comes from Him is a gift, pure and simple, without the shadow of a claim. How great, then, the mercy that unfolded the scheme of a free salvation—that blessed the world with forgiveness in return for rebellion—that gave Christ and Christianity, with all their blessings, even to those who had turned away to follow their own wills!
V. Praise, then, is natural when thoughts of God’s goodness come.—It is so in other matters. The promptings of the heart are to praise when one has done us a great kindness. Opinion seems to demand it. If one be slow to acknowledge kindness, the world says he is ungrateful and unworthy of any further share. And so in connection with God’s gifts and kind dealings. Some one has said, “The right contemplation of divine verities should lead to the ascription of praise. The scheme of the gospel, coldly viewed, paves the way for doubt and cavil, while such an apostrophe as is contained in these verses strengthens our faith. In a word, suppressed praise is perilous to the spiritual constitution.” “O Lord, we will praise Thee,” etc. Finally, service ought to accompany the praise: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”—Albert Lee.
God His own last end in everything.
I. While God is knowable, He surpasses all our conceptions in His wisdom and His ways.—While believing in the radical error which underlies the agnostic philosophy, we must at the same time admit that God’s wisdom and knowledge, His judgment and His ways, are past our comprehension. Just as a child may know, that is be acquainted with, his parent, while at the same time he is utterly unable to follow him into the regions of pure mathematics, comprehend the differential or integral calculus, or the new department of quaternions, so a Christian may know God as He reveals himself in Christ, and yet stand in awe before His unsearchable judgments. It is God’s glory to conceal a thing. If we saw through the whole administration of God, if there were no mystery or perplexity in His dealings, we should be living by reason, and not by faith. It is more consonant with our finiteness in its relation to the infinite God that we should be asked to trust God, even when we see no reason for His action, when clouds and darkness may be round about His throne. What we have to consider, therefore, is the proper attitude of the Christian before the profundities of God. It surely should be one of humility, of reverence, and of thankful praise. Now the partiality of Paul’s revelation may be profitably contrasted with the fulness of revelation as claimed by Christ. For He claimed to have all that the Father doeth shown to Him. Nothing was or is concealed from Jesus. God’s ways were not unsearchable to Him.
II. Men should not in consequence dictate to God or try to be beforehand with Him.—Now when the matter is put broadly in this way, it seems shocking presumption for men to set themselves up as superior persons, capable of dictating to the Eternal. Yet is this not the meaning of a large amount of the pessimistic literature of our time? If the pessimists had only been consulted, they could have planned a much better world than God has given us. His management has been, in their view, a mistake; and the only redeeming feature in the business is that He has somehow created the pessimists with judgments and powers superior to His own. It is time, surely, that these lamentations over a system of things so very imperfectly understood as yet should cease, and that creatures so finite should humble themselves before the Infinite and acknowledge His superiority in all things.
III. At the same time the apostle concludes that God is His own last end in everything.—It seems a hard thing to take in, yet the more it is pondered the truer it appears. “The supreme sun of the spiritual universe, the ultimate reason of everything in the world and work of grace, is the glory of God. Whole systems of truth move in subordinate relation to this; this is subordinate to nothing.” “There was nothing,” wrote Robert Haldane to M. Chenèviere of Geneva, “brought under the consideration of the students which appeared to contribute so effectually to overthrow their false system of religion founded on philosophy and vain deceit as the sublime view of the majesty of God which is presented in these concluding verses of the first part of the epistle: ‘Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.’ Here God is described as His own last end in everything that He does. Judging of God as such a one as themselves, they were at first startled at the idea that He must love Himself supremely, infinitely more than the whole universe, and consequently must prefer His own glory to everything besides. But when they were reminded that God in reality is infinitely more amiable and more valuable than the whole creation, and that consequently, if He views things as they really are, He must regard Himself as infinitely worthy of being most valued and loved, they saw that this truth was incontrovertible. Their attention was at the same time turned to numerous passages of Scripture which assert that the manifestation of the glory of God is the great end of creation, that He has Himself chiefly in view in all His works and dispensations, and that it is a purpose in which He requires that all His intelligent creatures should acquiesce and seek to promote as their paramount duty. Passages to this effect, both in the Old and New Testament, far exceed in number what any one who has not examined the subject is at all aware of.” Now if our idea of God be high enough, we shall conclude that He stands in such perfect relations to His creatures that in seeking His own glory He is at the same time seeking their highest good. Of course we have the power of resisting this claim of God, and setting ourselves in opposition to His glory; yet this will not defeat His purpose, but be overruled for His praise. It is not selfishness in the most high God to seek His own glory; He is so perfect in His love as to be incapable of selfishness. His glory conflicts with the real good of none of His creatures.—R. M. E., in “Pulpit Commentary.”
A magnificent ascription of praise.—In this magnificent ascription of praise a long train of reasoning finds its climax. God’s redeeming plan has been traced from its conception in the eternal counsels, through its course in time in the believer’s call, justification, and sanctification, up to its culmination in the heavenly glory. The apostle has passed under review the relation in which both Jew and Gentile stood to the plan of salvation, arguing that there was no difference in the sight of the righteous law, that God had shut them all up into unbelief that He might have mercy on all. Then he bursts out in words of adoring wonder at the comprehensiveness and grandeur of the plan of divine mercy.
I. The riches of the divine perfections.—“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” This is a favourite mode of expression with St. Paul (cf. Romans 10:12; Ephesians 3:8; Philippians 4:19), and is meant to impress us with the wealth of the grace of God to guilty man. God’s riches are like a mine. The apostle has been digging in this mine, and when he comes to tell his fellowmen the treasures he has found, language seems to fail him, and he exclaims, “O the depth of the riches!” Like seams of unexhausted wealth in the bowels of the earth, so in the infinite heart of God are deep springs of love, riches of mercy and wisdom and knowledge, which no spiritual surveyor has yet touched. The apostle came back from his survey with a profound sense of the vastness of the field. Each attribute might furnish material for meditation. Knowledge and wisdom are here named, the one devising the plan and the other adapting the means to the end. The redeemed to all eternity will not exhaust the wealth of these attributes. Each new discovery will stir them to new songs of wonder and praise.
II. The unsearchableness of the divine methods.—“How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” God’s “ways” are as inscrutable as His perfections. His plans and methods of working are mysterious. The mystery of the call of the Gentiles was kept hid since the foundation of the world, but now made known in His dealings with a lost world without respect of persons, Jew and Gentile alike being included in His all-embracing mercy. Think of His “ways” towards individuals—e.g., Moses, Abraham, Saul of Tarsus. And how graciously He has dealt with us personally! He has at His disposal an infinite wealth of appliances and means of leading erring men to Himself. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
III. The independence of the divine counsels.—“Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” These quotations from the Old Testament show the apostle’s acquaintance with Scripture and agreement in doctrine. The glory of human redemption belongs to God alone. He did not share His secrets with any created intelligence. None could have known His mind till He was pleased to divulge it, for He held counsel with none. He had no instructor. The great thoughts that are gradually taking form throughout the ages owe their conception to His sovereign mind. “With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?” What a lofty view does this give us of God’s unaided wisdom and knowledge and sovereign will! No suggestion from man could improve or alter the divine procedure, or aid Him in working out His plans. Each generation has its little system which lives for a day and ceases to be; but God’s mighty plan lives on and develops from age to age. God is supreme, sovereign, independent of human wisdom or knowledge; and when His plan is complete, He alone shall bear the glory.
IV. The manifestation of the divine glory.—“For of Him, and to Him, and through Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.” The gracious purpose which runs through the ages will, when completed, show the glory of its Author. Revelation is essentially an unveiling of God, the manifesting of His perfections being the ultimate end of the scheme of grace. The glory of human redemption belongs to Him alone. This is the goal to which the whole creation moves. God will be all and in all.
1. “For of Him are all things.” He is the first cause, the fountain-head of the stream of grace that flows through time. It originated in His eternal love and purpose.
2. “Through Him are all things.” It is through His sole presiding agency that the purposes of His love and grace are brought about. He that began the good work will carry it on to perfection.
3. “To Him are all things.” The redemptive forces which He launched on the world will seek their source when their work is done. The stream of grace which broke out from beneath His throne will, after refreshing generations of weary men, return to Him in circular flow, bearing on its bosom all that is worth saving from the wreck of a ruined world. And so the end and the beginning will meet in the far-off divine event. All things will be redeemed and reconciled—things in heaven and things on earth. And throughout eternity a redeemed and reconciled universe, viewing the height and depth and length and breadth of the redeeming plan, will ascribe all the glory to Him who reigns, Jehovah God alone.—D. Merson, B.D.
SUGGESTED COMMENTS ON Romans 11:33-36
A vast survey of the world.—Like a traveller who has reached the summit of an alpine ascent, the apostle turns and contemplates. Depths are at his feet; but waves of light illumine them, and there spreads all around an immense horizon which his eye commands. The plan of God in the government of mankind spreads out before him, and he expresses the feelings of admiration and gratitude with which the prospect fills his heart. The word “to Him” does not refer to God’s personal satisfaction, an idea which might undoubtedly be supported; for, as Beck says, “the egoism of God is the life of the world.” But it is more natural to apply the term “to Him” to the accomplishment of His will, in which His own glory and the happiness of His sanctified creatures blend together as one and the same thing. It has been sometimes attempted to apply these three prepositional clauses to the three persons of the divine Trinity. Modern exegesis (Mey., Gess, Hofm.) has in general departed from this parallel, and rightly. When Paul speaks of “God,” absolutely considered, it is always the “God and Father” he intends, without of course excluding His revelation through Christ and His communication by the Holy Spirit. But this distinction is not raised here, and had no place in the context. What the apostle was concerned to say in closing was that all things proceeding from the creative will of God, advancing through His wisdom and terminating in the manifestation of His holiness, must one day celebrate His glory, and His glory only. Never was survey more vast taken of the divine plan of the world’s history. First, the epoch of primitive unity, in which the human family forms still only one unbroken whole; then the antagonism between the two religious portions of the race created by the special call of Abraham—the Jews continuing in the father’s house, but with a legal and servile spirit, the Gentiles walking in their own ways. At the close of this period, the manifestation of Christ determining the return of the latter to the domestic hearth, but at the same time the departure of the former. Finally, the Jews, yielding to the divine solicitations and to the spectacle of salvation enjoyed by the Gentiles as children of grace; and so the final universalism in which all previous discords are resolved, restoring in an infinitely higher form the original unity, and setting before the view of the universe the family of God fully constituted.—Godet.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11
Romans 11:33. Mysteries not to be pried into.—“Arriving in the city,” says the Rabbi Josuah, “I met a little boy carrying a covered dish. ‘What hast thou in that dish, child?’ demanded I. ‘My mother would not have covered it, master, had she wished its contents to be known,’ replied the little wit, and went on.”—From the Talmud.