O depth of riches both of [the] wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable his judgments, and untraceable his ways!
Paul has just traced God's dealings with Israel and the nations. At the end of it he stops arguing and breaks into praise. His words raise a question every believer meets sooner or later. If we cannot trace God's ways, what do we do with the parts of His plan we cannot follow?
The praise comes from watching God turn human failure into the means of blessing.
God works out His sovereign purposes of blessing not only despite man's failure, but through that very failure. So we can only say, "O the depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." His judgments on man's failure, and His ways in carrying out His purposes to bless men, both make plain that there are depths of riches in His wisdom and knowledge that are unsearchable, and so past man's finding out. If we are to know them at all, it can only be by revelation, and by His carrying out His judgments and ways with men.
One commentator defines wisdom here and shows where the difficulty really lies. He quotes an older translation of the verse.
The apostle's heart is moved as he watches this wonderful unfolding of God's working, and he has to break out into this note of praise: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Wisdom is the resource to carry out every detail of what God has planned. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" That is what baffled Job's friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar; to them the ways of God really were unsearchable and past finding out. When the apostle says the same thing here, he means the realm of human reasoning, as his next words show.
The verse calls God's ways inscrutable; older translations read "past finding out." One writer says our translations soften the word.
"Unsearchable" in our translation does not convey the idea; it is that of which there is no trace. The same word (Rom. 11:33) is rendered "past finding out." Both cases point to this revealed mystery. I believe the Spirit means them to show us that there was no trace of it, and no clue to it, until God revealed it.
Before anyone could enter these depths, something had to happen first.
From eternity God had in His heart thoughts of love and glory; thoughts of blessing that He did not reveal until this present age... But before we could know these precious things and enter into them, the depths of God's mercy had to be seen at the cross. There Jesus suffered. Because He has died, we can be set free inwardly from all that is shallow and casual, and enter by the power of the Spirit into the enjoyment of the "depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God."
If the most gifted apostle ended in worship, no one else can claim to have it all worked out.
No one, however well taught by the Spirit, claims to understand all of Scripture, or to be able to clear up every difficulty that comes up. Even the most gifted apostle, looking at how God acts through the ages, speaks instead in a spirit of worship... For any of us to think we can take in all the mysteries of divine truth would only be the clearest proof of our ignorance.
Commenting on Job, another writer shows where that leaves someone who argues with God.
So long as a soul raises a question against the character of God, he is in no state to have his difficulties met... The soul must find its rest in God, not in our reasonings.
The verse describes the present, not the final state of things.
Right now God is acting behind the scenes, and we cannot see past the curtain. But when He brings His judgments into the light of day, the mystery will vanish and be over... and the rightness of all His dealings through the ages will be clear.
- Depth — the cry rises from seeing God work out His purposes through human failure, not just despite it.
- Riches — wisdom here is the resource to carry out every detail of what God has planned; He has both the plan and the means.
- No trace — "unsearchable" and "past finding out" mean there was no clue to be had until God revealed it.
- Opened — these depths are entered only because Christ died; the depth of mercy at the cross is the way in.
- Answered — worship, not argument, is the honest response now; a day is coming when the rightness of all His dealings will be clear.
For who has known [the] mind of [the] Lord, or who has been his counsellor?
The verse asks two questions that sound like a challenge, and both expect the same answer: nobody. They close Paul's long account of God's dealings with Israel and the nations. There, reasoning gives way to praise.
The two questions sit inside a burst of praise. One writer shows what shaped that praise.
The praises of the saints vary in character according to the subject that fills the soul… In Romans 11:33 the Spirit has reviewed the whole range of the relations between men — Jew or Gentile — and God. He has shown that the abounding of sin brought out the far greater abounding of grace. After that, the apostle's expression of glory takes another character.
The first question is not a puzzle but a closed door. It also shapes how we picture God at work in history.
The Creator can learn nothing from His creation. The universe is the conception of His infinite mind, and it is impossible that He could receive any instruction from it… He has not, as some suppose, been doing the best He can from the outset. He has not been fighting off the inroads of evil, meeting the opposing power as well as He is able, and always improving on the past as intelligence grows.
No one has ever sat down with God to plan. Yet the same word comes back on the lips of Christ, and the reversal is worth noticing.
It is a blessing to become better acquainted with God's purposes and counsels, and to learn His sovereignty as well as His ways. How striking it is to read in this context: "who has been His counselor?" Our Lord uses the same word as a verb in Revelation 3:18, where He counsels us! Should we then not listen?
Paul has just called God's judgments unsearchable. The question about knowing His mind shows in what sense. One writer points to the only way any of it becomes known.
The judgments of God deal with man's failure. The ways of God carry out His purposes for the blessing of men. Both make it clear that there are depths of riches in His wisdom and knowledge that are unsearchable, and so past finding out by man. If they are to be known, in any measure, it can only be by revelation, and in the practical working out of His judgments and His ways with men.
One writer points to Scripture's own answer to this question. No one advised God — yet He does not hide His mind from His people.
There are the ways of God, and there are the acts and works of God. These last lead to the knowledge of what God is afterwards, as His works of course must. But in the knowledge of His ways, the secret of His mind is known, revealed in communion. So it is said of the saints, "Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? But we have the mind of Christ." Christ is the key to all.
If nobody briefed God, nobody can claim credit for the outcome. That is the practical edge of the question in a chapter about God's grace to Jew and Gentile alike.
Here we see the triumph of grace, and all boasting is taken from men. It is of God from first to last, and He must have all praise.
- No counsel taken. Nobody ever sat in on God's planning. The Creator can learn nothing from His creation.
- No counsel owed. Because no one advised Him, no one holds a claim on Him. Grace strips away our boasting and traces every blessing back to God.
- Counsel hidden. Human reasoning cannot find out God's judgments and ways. We know them only as He reveals them.
- Counsel revealed. Paul's question gets its answer elsewhere in Scripture: "we have the mind of Christ." Communion opens the secret of His mind.
- Counsel offered. The word for "counselor" returns in Christ's own promise to counsel us. The God no one could advise now advises His people. So listen.