CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 16:25-27.—Editors are divided as to the position of the doxology, but its genuineness is substantiated by external and internal evidence. This concluding sentence contains the kernel of the doctrine of the whole epistle. The way for this evangelical revelation had been quietly prepared by the prophetical Scriptures. According to Bengel’s comparison, there was in the Old Testament the silent movement of the hands of a clock, but it sounded forth the hour with an audible voice in the gospel. In Romans 16:25-26 St. Paul speaks of a purpose hidden, now revealed and made known. Bishop Lightfoot says that the idea of secrecy or reserve disappears when μυστήριον is adopted into the Christian vocabulary by St. Paul; and the word signifies simply a truth which was once hidden, but now is revealed—a truth which, without special revelation, would have been unknown. Of the nature of the truth itself the word says nothing. It may be transcendental, mystical, incomprehensible, mysterious, in the modern sense of the term; but this idea is quite accidental, and must be gathered from the special circumstances of the case.
Romans 16:27. The only wise God.—This, as the fathers’ note, cannot exclude the divine nature of Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of the Father, from this title, any more than those words “who only hath immortality” excludes Christ from being immortal.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 16:25-27
“The only wise God.”—Plato calls God Mens. Cleanthus used to call God Reason, and Socrates thought the title of Σοφός too magnificent to be attributed to anything else but God alone. Wisdom is the property of God alone. He is only wise. It is an honour peculiar to Him. Upon this account, that no man deserved the title of wise, but that it was a royalty belonging to God, Pythagoras would not be called Σοφός, a title given to their learned men, but φιλόσοφος. The name “philosopher” arose out of a respect to this transcendent perfection of God. God is wise, but wisdom does not convey to the mind the complete conception of a God. If wisdom be the choice of worthy ends and of the best means to accomplish them, then there must be the superadded notion of power. Wisdom would be naked without power to act, while power would be useless without wisdom to guide. Wisdom and power are the two essential attributes of the divine nature. The apostle therefore rightly joins the two conceptions. To Him that is of power—to the only wise God.
I. God is the only wise originally.—Human wisdom is not an original but an acquired endowment. One man is born with more brain power than another, and yet wisdom is not a birth gift, but an after-development. Many men with great brain power have great lack of wisdom. Our ripest wisdom is the product of our richest experience, oftentimes the result of repeated failures. Man is wise after the event. Wisdom fails when looking into the future. And yet man in his vanity presumes to arraign the wisdom of God. The rays of the sun are not original, but derived; and those rays upbraid the sun because he is not doing his appointed work more perfectly. The common soldier has physical force and seldom mental power. He could no more direct an army than the wisest general could manage the planetary system; and yet that soldier is glib enough in saying how the general ought to have managed. Foolish man can lay down laws and rules for the only wise God. He is the spring of wisdom to all and in all. The instinct of the cunning insect and the wisdom of a philosopher are derived from the wisdom of the All-wise.
II. God is the only wise essentially.—Wisdom is not an essential attribute of humanity. It is an attribute too often conspicuous by its absence. The vast majority of men possess neither knowledge nor wisdom. Knowledge has increased in the earth, but there has not been a corresponding increase of wisdom. Some men appear to be so weighed down and oppressed by their knowledge that there is not space and atmosphere for the growth and exercise of wisdom. Our knowledge is the slow accumulation of years of toil, and in the process wisdom is not being evolved. God does not waste the bloom and freshness of His everlasting years in seeking to know. The divine knowledge is intuitive. There are to the divine mind no arcana. The mysteries hidden in the divine breast are not mysteries to the divine nature. He would not be a perfect God if He were not complete in knowledge, in wisdom to make the right use of knowledge, and in power to carry out the behests of wisdom.
III. God is the only wise unchangeably.—Change is the striking characteristic of humanity. While many men are seldom wise, no man is wise at all hours. We only wish we were. Memory is a sad book to read, as it relates the story of our many follies. The backward look of life is depressing, for the pathway is strewn with the ruins caused by our lack of wisdom. Our wisdom has been wanting when most needful, and our wise purposes have been broken off because of the lack of power. There can be no depressing backward looks to the divine mind. Wisdom never fails. The Lord possessed wisdom in the beginning of His way to the human aspect, before His works of old. Divine wisdom was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was. And God can never say, My purposes have been broken off for lack of power.
IV. God is the only wise effectually.—Abortive plans and purposes strew our pathway. Our Babel towers end in confusion. Our strutting monarchs grovel with the beasts. Broken hearts are too oft the result of our unattainable ideals. Where is the complete life that has seen sublime visions and has had power to work out the dreams effectually and successfully? God would not be omnipotent were He capable of forming a purpose and yet incapable of bringing that purpose to a successful issue. His wisdom in the conception of a planet where there should be variety, beauty, the fitness of every creature for its use, the subordination of one creature to another, and the joint concurrence of all to one common end, has been successfully worked out. A ruined planet is a magnificent testimony to the effectual wisdom of God. The splendour of the ruins speaks of the splendour of the primitive structure. God’s wisdom and power are not at fault because the earth temple has been despoiled and left in a state of disrepair. The proper time was not come; the planet will not always wander through space disconsolately. God’s wisdom and power will touch even material things into glorious order, beauty, and harmony. God’s wisdom in the conception of a kingdom where all should be peace, joy, and righteousness has been so far successfully worked out—so far; for the conception has not been fully evolved. God’s wisdom in the conception of a redemptive scheme whereby nations should be made obedient to the faith has been effectual. Christianity has the highest moral standard; and Christians have walked on the highest moral plane. The Christian Church, notwithstanding its many drawbacks, in spite of all its adversaries may assert, is a noble testimony for the wisdom of God.
V. God is the only wise progressively.—His wise plans and purposes are unfolding and evidencing more of their beauty and harmony as the ages advance. The moral light which dawned on the darkened Eden has been shining more and more through all time’s dispensations; and onward the orb of light will move and unfold its radiance until the perfect day of complete divine disclosures. The gospel arcanum was published in paradise, but in such words as Adam did not fully understand; it was both discovered and clouded in the smoke of the sacrifices; it was wrapped up in a veil under the law, but not opened till the death of the Redeemer; it was then plainly said to the cities of Judah: Behold, your God comes. The revelation of the mystery is advancing; clearer light shines on the upper pathway; the completed revelation will redound to the glory of the divine wisdom.
VI. God is the only wise gloriously.—“To God the only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever.” Day unto day uttereth speech of the divine glory. Dispensation after dispensation brilliantly proclaims the divine wisdom. “Glory to God in the highest” was the strain sung at the Saviour’s advent. “Glory to God in the highest” will be the strain sung in fuller measure when Jesus shall see of the full travail of His soul, and is satisfied—when all the redemptive plan of the divine wisdom is revealed in full-orbed splendour. The strains how full and sweet—full as the sound of many waters, sweet as the notes sent forth by the skilful harpers harping on well-tuned instruments—when the universal Church shall surround the throne of the eternal Wisdom—when all the angels stand round about the throne, and exhort the elders and the four beasts, and shall fall as one united throng before the throne on their faces, and shall worship God, saying: “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 16:27
Creatures without a known end demonstrate God’s wisdom.—The creatures working for an end, without their own knowledge, demonstrate the wisdom of God that guides them. All things in the world work for some end; the ends are unknown to them, though many of their ends are visible to us. As there was some prime Cause which by His power inspired them with their several instincts, so there must be some supreme wisdom which moves and guides them to their end. As their being manifests His power that endowed them, so the acting, according to the rules of their nature, which they themselves understand not, manifests His wisdom in directing them; everything that acts for an end must know that end, or be directed by another to attain that end. The arrow doth not know who shoots it, or to what end it is shot, or what mark is aimed at; but the archer that puts it in and darts it out of the bow knows. A watch hath a regular motion, but neither the spring nor the wheels that move know the end of their motion; no man will judge a wisdom to be in the watch, but in the artificer that disposed the wheels and spring by a joint combination to produce such a motion for such an end. Doth either the sun that enlivens the earth, or the earth that travails with the plant, know what plant it produceth in such a soil, what temper it should be of, what fruit it should bear, and of what colour? What plant knows its own medicinal qualities, its own beautiful flowers, and for what use they are ordained? When it strikes up its head from the earth doth it know what proportion of them there will be? Yet it produceth all these things in a state of ignorance. The sun warms the earth, concocts the humours, excites the virtue of it, and cherishes the seeds which are cast into her lap, yet all unknown to the sun or the earth. Since therefore that nature, that is the immediate cause of those things, doth not understand its own quality nor operation, nor the end of its action, that which thus directs them must be conceived to have an infinite wisdom. When things act by a rule they know not, and move for an end they understand not, and yet work harmoniously together for one end that all of them, we are sure, are ignorant of, it mounts up our minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that supreme Cause that hath ranged all these inferior causes in their order, and imprinted upon them the laws of their motions, according to the idea in His own mind, who orders the rule by which they act, and the end for which they act, and directs every motion according to their several natures, and therefore is possessed with infinite wisdom in His own nature. God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures, and therefore is infinitely wise Himself. As He hath a fulness of being in Himself, because the streams of being are derived to other things from Him, so He hath a fulness of wisdom, because He is the spring of wisdom to angels and men. That Being must be infinitely wise whence all other wisdom derives its original, for nothing can be in the effect which is not eminently in the cause; the cause is always more perfect than the effect. If, therefore, the creatures are wise, the Creator must be much more wise; if the Creator were destitute of wisdom, the creature would be much more perfect than the Creator. If you consider the wisdom of the spider in her web, which is both her house and net; the artifice of the bee in her comb, which is both her chamber and her granary; the provision of the pismire in her repositories for corn,—the wisdom of the Creator is illustrated by them: whatsoever excellency you see in any creature is an image of some excellency in God. The skill of the artificer is visible in the fruits of his art; a workman transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands; but the wisdom of rational creatures, as men, doth more illustrate it. All arts among men are the rays of divine wisdom shining upon them, and by a common gift of the Spirit enlightening their minds to curious inventions, as Proverbs 8:12, “I, Wisdom, find out the knowledge of witty inventions”—that is, I give a faculty to men to find them out; without my wisdom all would be buried in darkness and ignorance. Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God, a small rivulet derived from Him, a spark leaping out from uncreated wisdom: “He created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and makes the instruments” (Isaiah 54:16). The skill to use those weapons in warlike enterprises is from Him: “I have created the waster to destroy.” It is not meant of creating their persons, but communicating to them their art; He speaks it there to expel fear from the Church of all warlike preparations against them. He had given men the skill to form and use weapons, and could as well strip them of it and defeat their purposes. The art of husbandry is a fruit of divine teaching (Isaiah 28:24-25). If those lower kinds of knowledge that are common to all nations and easily learned by all are discoveries of divine wisdom, much more the nobler sciences intellectual and political wisdom: “He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding” (Daniel 2:21); speaking of the more abstruse parts of knowledge, “The inspiration of the Almighty gives understanding” (Job 32:8). Every man’s soul is endowed more or less with those noble qualities. The soul of every man exceeds that of a brute; if the streams be so excellent, the fountain must be fuller and clearer. The first Spirit must infinitely more possess what other spirits derive from Him by creation; were the wisdom of all the angels in heaven and men on earth collected in one spirit, it must be infinitely less than that what is in the spring, for no creature can be equal to the Creator. As the highest creature already made, or that we can conceive may be made, by infinite power would be infinitely below God in the notion of a creature, so it would be infinitely below God in the notion of wise.—Charnock.
God’s works represent Him.—As a beam of light passing through a chink in a wall, of what figure soever, always forms a circle on the place where it is reflected, and by that describes the image of its original, the sun, thus God in every one of His works represents Himself. But the union of all the parts by such strong and secret bands is a more pregnant proof of His omnipotent mind. Is it a testimony of great military skill to range an army, composed of divers nations that have great antipathies between them, in that order which renders it victorious in battle? And is it not a testimony of infinite providence to dispose all the hosts of heaven and earth so as they join successfully for the preservation of nature?… Sophocles was accused by his ungrateful sons, that his understanding being declined with his age, he was unfit to manage the affairs of his family; he made no other defence before the judges, but recited part of a tragedy newly composed by him, and left it to their decision whether there was a failure in his intellectual faculties, upon which he was not only absolved, but crowned with praises.—Bates.
Excellence of this epistle.—Ancient and divine are the gospel tidings of our salvation. Delightfully they harmonise with the types and predictions of the Old Testament. And their offers and blessings graciously extend to all nations of mankind, and by the Holy Ghost are made effectual to some of all ranks and degrees. With what faith and love ought they, then, to be received, submitted to, obeyed, and practised. And infinite is the glory that redounds to God, from this His wonderful work of our salvation.—John Brown of Haddington.
Thus endeth the apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans; a writing which, for brevity and strength of expression, for regularity in its structure, but, above all, for the unspeakable importance of the discoveries which it contains, stands unrivalled by any mere human composition; and as far exceeds the most celebrated productions of the learned Greeks and Romans, as the shining of the sun exceedeth the twinkling of the stars.—Macknight.
It is related of Melancthon, by his contemporary Mylius, that he was constantly engaged in explaining the Epistle to the Romans, which he was accustomed to regard as the key to the whole Scriptures. And that he might more thoroughly understand its doctrines, and more fully investigate its scope and signification, he expounded this epistle, both orally and in writing, more frequently than any other part of the New Testament. It is said, also, that in his youth he often wrote out this epistle, as Demosthenes wrote out Thucydides.—Professor Tholuck.
Like a wall of adamant, St. Paul’s writings form a bulwark around all the Churches of the world; while he himself, as some mighty champion, stands even now in the midst, casting down every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.—Chrysostom.