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.
or who has first given to him, and it shall be rendered to him?
Paul has just traced God's dealings with Israel and the nations to one end: mercy for both. Now comes the third of three questions. It shuts the last door by which anyone might approach God as a creditor rather than a receiver.
This question is not cold logic. It comes from a heart looking back over God's mercy.
This burst of praise fits the letter in a remarkable way, and it stands exactly where it belongs. Here is the admiration of his soul as he looks back on the triumphs of God's mercy. It is the last thing a man would think of when discussing God's ways of dealing with the world. We can see, feel and prove the depth of His wealth, wisdom and knowledge, yet never reach the bottom of it. No one can examine His decisions or trace out His ways... Who then has given to God and made Him a debtor to repay? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things: to Him be the glory for ever.
Older translations read, "who has first given to him," and the force lies in that word "first." A gift that starts with the creature would put God under obligation to pay it back. That has never happened.
We have not known His mind, nor had anything to do with His counsel. Still less have we given to Him first, so that He should owe us repayment. This has been Israel's folly, and the folly of how many more who would love to make themselves creditors of God, as though their good works and assumed righteousness were a claim upon Him! Elihu asked Job well: "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?" (Job 35:7).
Paul did not invent the challenge. He has quoted the Old Testament again and again through these three chapters, and he closes them with a prophet's words.
The Spirit guides his thoughts, and they still run in the line of that prophet of good news. So he takes up Isaiah's words as the Greek Old Testament gives them, and asks with boldness: "Who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counsellor? or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him again?" (See Isaiah 40:13-14.) These are questions worth asking... How small man appears! God works for His own glory.
Behind the question stands a truth about God Himself. He is not a learner, and no one is helping Him along.
The Creator can learn nothing from His creation. The universe came out of His infinite mind, and it can teach Him nothing... He has not, as some suppose, been doing the best He can from the start. He has not been struggling against the spread of evil, meeting the opposing power as well as He is able, and always improving on the past as knowledge grows.
If no one has given to God first, every claim men press on Him is wasted work. Yet men keep pressing the claim.
We must always keep in mind that God will be no man's debtor, since "He gives to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). Man's constant effort is to make God his debtor. The effort is completely fruitless, and whoever keeps at it will find himself at odds with God. Only one thing can settle the question between God and man: man must become the receiver and the debtor. Until he does, he must remain at a distance from God.
The verse does not shut down giving. It settles who gives first, and it changes the spirit in which we bring anything to God.
God can accept the smallest gift from a heart that has learned the deep truth in those words, "Of your own have we given you." But the moment a man takes the place of the "first" giver, God's reply is, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you"... The great Giver of "all things" cannot "need anything." Praise is all that we can offer to God. And we can offer it only when we know clearly and fully that our sins are all put away.
- No counsel. No one has known God's mind or advised Him; the plan of mercy for Jew and Gentile came from Him alone.
- No gift first. "First" is the key word — nobody has handed God anything that He must pay back, so no good works form a claim.
- No debtor. God will be no man's debtor. The question is settled only when man takes the place of the receiver. Until then he stays at a distance.
- Only mercy. What man cannot earn, God gives. Blessing rests on His mercy, not on what Israel or anyone else deserves.
- All glory. All things are of Him, through Him, and to Him. So the right answer is not a bill, but praise from hearts that know their sins are put away.
For of him, and through him, and for him [are] all things to him be glory for ever. Amen.
Paul's long argument about Israel and the nations does not end with a conclusion. It ends in praise, and this verse is the last line of it. Three short phrases about God take in all things, and then hand Him the glory.
The praise is not a change of subject. It grows out of verse 32: God has consigned all to disobedience, so that He may have mercy on all. One writer notes that Paul had received that mercy himself.
No wonder the apostle closes this most precious portion of Scripture with the delightful doxology of verses 33-36!… Paul (as Saul) had himself been marked by this callous "ignorance" (1 Timothy 1:13) and "unbelief." God had shown him mercy, and so he says in triumph of his nation: "God has shut up all together in unbelief, in order that He might show mercy to all."
The writer here quotes an older translation of verse 32; the ESV reads "God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all."
The three little words — "of," "through," "to" — are not repetition. Each marks a different relation between God and everything that exists. Together they leave no room for anyone else.
He is the source, means, and end of all He has counselled, accomplished, or purposes still to effect for His own glory.
The verse begins with "For." It answers the two questions just asked: who advised God, and who gave to Him first?
We have neither known His mind, nor had anything to do with His counsel. Still less have we given to Him first, so that He would owe us repayment. This has been Israel's folly, and the folly of many more who would like to make themselves creditors of God, as though their good works and assumed righteousness were a claim upon Him!
Another writer states it as a rule that never runs the other way.
Man would like to make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be… The great Giver of "all things" cannot possibly "need anything."
The scope reaches far past Israel's story. Commentators read the three phrases differently. Kelly applies all three to God; another writer sees distinct divine Persons at work in them.
As Paul sums it up he says "of Him" — God is the source. "Through Him" — Christ is the agent. "To Him" — Christ is the One whose power will secure it all. This is the working of divine Persons in this wonderful field of wisdom, far beyond human understanding… It is not only about our blessing and the blessing of Israel; the end of it all will be openly displayed — "To Him be glory forever. Amen."
If everything starts with God, runs through God, and ends in God, then no one else can take the credit.
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.
What is left is the glory, and the "Amen" that agrees with it. Every reader can say that Amen too.
He starts all things, carries them out, and is their eternal Master. Who would proudly dare to seize these great rights of His? Ah no! He stands alone — perfect in wise counsels, perfect in work, perfect in mastery of all things. "To Him be glory forever." "And let all the people say, Amen."
- Of Him — God is the source. Every blessing starts on His side; no one advised Him and no one funded Him.
- Through Him — God is the means. Christ is the agent who carries out what God planned.
- To Him — God is the end. Everything is heading to His glory, and one day that will be on open display.
- Mercy — the praise grows out of mercy shown to unbelievers: first to Paul, then to all.
- Amen — since it is all of God from first to last, boasting is gone and praise is the only fitting reply.