Romans 11:33-36: Marveling at the Wisdom of God

Romans 11:33-36: Marveling at the Wisdom of God 

Please turn with me in your Bible to Romans 11. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 785. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and this morning, we come to Romans 11:33-36. You know, whenever I’m listening to somebody talk, it’s honestly a bit difficult for me to pay attention to them if I don’t know the point of what they’re saying. Like if I’m gonna pay attention to someone, I usually need to have some idea of why they’re telling me the things they’re telling me. I recently had a guy from an unknown phone number call me and leave a voicemail in which he rambled on and on about different things. And at the end of the lengthy voicemail, I still had no idea who this guy was or what he wanted or why he was calling. So to be honest with you, I didn’t call him back. If I had been in a face-to-face conversation with this man, I probably would have asked him as politely as I could what the point was of what he was telling me. 

And as we’ve been going through these past few chapters in Romans, chapters 9-11, perhaps you’ve had that question lingering in your mind. What’s the point of these chapters? Because these chapters aren’t exactly easy to work through. I’m sure many of you have felt like we’ve been venturing out into the deep end of the theological swimming pool lately. And that’s probably accurate. Chapters 9-11 address some rather deep theological issues. Remember, Paul’s been explaining to us in these chapters how God has been faithful to his promises to Israel even though the majority of the Israelites aren’t saved. And in the course of explaining that, Paul teaches us at length about the sovereignty of God in chapter 9, then about the fact that people are still responsible for the decisions they make in chapter 10, and finally about the current relationship between the church and Israel  and about God’s future plans for Israel in chapter 11. So this hasn’t exactly been “light reading.” So what’s the point of these chapters? Why has Paul been trying to teach us about these weighty theological issues?  

Of course, as I mentioned, it’s true that Paul’s been demonstrating God’s faithfulness to Israel, but there’s an even bigger reason for these chapters. And we see it right here in Romans 11:33-36. This passage shows us that the point of all of this theology has been to lead us into a state of awe and wonder at the wisdom of God and inspire us to worship. Because that’s what this passage basically is—a spontaneous outburst of worship to God. And that kind of spontaneous outburst of worship is called a doxology. Look what this doxology says: 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

So as you can see, this passage is a spontaneous outburst of worship to God. It’s almost as if Paul just can’t contain himself as he writes about all these theological issues in chapters 9-11 and he just has to express the delight in God that he feels. And there’s a principle in that that we dare not miss. Theology should always lead to doxology. Here’s what that means. Theology simply refers to our knowledge of God, while doxology, as we said, refers to our worship of God. So our knowledge of God should always lead to the worship of God. Theology should always lead to doxology. One theologian named John Stott once wrote, “There is something fundamentally flawed about a purely academic interest in God. God is not an appropriate object for cool, critical, detached, scientific observation and evaluation.” So, we see that there’s more than one way to have bad theology. Of course, you can have bad theology by believing the wrong things—things that are contrary to the Bible. But you can also have bad theology by believing the right things but not allowing those things to soak into your soul and lift you into doxology—into the worship of God. 

So if you’re here this morning and the idea of “theology” sounds kind of boring to you, maybe the kind of theology you dislike is actually just bad theology. Because good theology isn’t just knowledge for the sake of knowledge but knowledge for the sake of worship—like we see here in Romans 11. You know, when I was in high school, I hated English class. Throughout my high school career—all four years—English was consistently my least favorite class. Reading things, writing things—I found it to be painfully boring. But now, in an ironic twist, English is a huge part of my work as a pastor. Whether I’m interpreting the Bible or crafting a sermon, being familiar with the rules and devices of the English language is pretty central to what I do every week. And I love it. So what I’ve discovered is that I don’t actually hate English like I once thought I did. I actually just hate reading and writing about things that are, in my opinion, boring or that don’t have any discernible value such as the things we were forced to read in high school. So if you think you’re not really a big “theology person,” maybe the kind of theology you don’t like is just bad theology—theology that’s sterile and purely academic and that’s divorced from the worship of God. And if that’s you, let me encourage you to give theology another chance—because theology done well really is the path to the highest joy imaginable. It leads us to behold and worship the God who is the source of all joy. Just look at the joy that’s evident here in these verses from Romans 11. I mean, can anyone really say that joy isn’t oozing out of this passage? And understand that the thing that’s caused this joy to well up within Paul is the theology that’s been going through his mind throughout the past few chapters. Don’t think you can have that joy without the theology that’s behind it. As one author named Jen Wilkin put it, “If we want to feel deeply about God, we must learn to think deeply about God.” 

And by the way, that’s something we want to keep in mind as we think about our singing in church. Here at Redeeming Grace, we try to keep the connection between theology and doxology in mind as we select the songs we sing. There are a lot of songs that are popular right now that we just don’t sing because they’re a little too shallow theologically—or worse, sometimes they’re presenting a theology that’s actually contrary to the Bible in subtle ways. They might be upbeat and fun to sing, but they don’t have the theology to support healthy doxology. Think about it like this: something is probably wrong with a song if that song can’t be made into a sermon. If there’s not enough theological substance in a song to at least give basic direction to a sermon, it’s probably worth singing. And not only that, but something is wrong with a sermon if I can’t be made into a song. And by that, I simply mean that sermons shouldn’t be sterile or dry in their presentation of theology but should deliver their content in a way that inspires the heart to sing. So hopefully that’s a helpful way to think about the connection between theology and doxology. Every song should be worthy of being preached as a sermon, and every sermon should be worthy of being sung as a song. 

And Romans 11 is a perfect example of that connection between theology and doxology. Look again at what Paul writes in verses 33-36 after spending an extended amount of time talking about theology. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Now, the main idea of this passage, if you’ve been waiting for me to say it, is that the works of God reveal the wisdom of God. The works of God—the things outlined in the previous chapters that God’s done in saving people—those works reveal the wisdom of God. And there are two things this passage shows us about God’s wisdom. And these will be what we spend the rest of our time discussing. Number one, the depth of God’s wisdom. And number two, the aim of God’s wisdom. 

The Depth of God’s Wisdom

So first, the depth of God’s wisdom. In verse 33, Paul exclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” So the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge are far beyond anything we can comprehend. Kind of like when you’re standing on the beach looking out over the ocean. No matter how much you squint and strain your eyes, you can never see the end of it. The water just keeps going and going as far as your eyes can see—and then keeps on going even farther than that. That’s what God’s wisdom and knowledge are like. 

Now I do believe there’s a difference here between wisdom and knowledge. We might say that knowledge is an understanding of facts, while wisdom is the ability to use knowledge and act upon knowledge for the best end. So in order to have wisdom, you need knowledge. And verse 33 tells us that God has knowledge in abundance. Listen to what John Piper says as he describes the knowledge of God: “God knows all recorded facts. All facts stored in all the computers of the world, God knows. He knows every fact in every book in every library in the world. But vastly more than all recorded facts, God knows all events. He knows all events at the macro level—on earth, in the atmosphere, the far reaches of space, every galaxy, star, and planet. God also knows all events at the micro level—all that happens in molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks. He knows all their movements—every location of every particle and its condition at every nanosecond of time. He knows all events that happen in the human mind and in the human will and in angelic minds and in demonic minds at every moment—all volitional events and all emotional events and all spiritual events. And that includes all of those that are past, all of those that are happening at this moment, and all of those that will happen into eternity. And not only does he know all facts and events, but he knows all of their relationships and how they affect one another. When one event happens—whether at the subatomic level or at the galactic level—he sees it perfectly and in the instant that it happens. Then he sees the billions of effects of that event in every part of the universe. And each time an effect happens, that effect becomes the cause of a billion other effects, which God also knows perfectly. Then each of those effects becomes the cause of still more billions of effects. And God knows them all even before they happen. And in all of this knowledge God’s not the least bit perplexed. He doesn’t get a headache. It is very easy for him to do this.” That’s Piper’s description of the knowledge of God. And God’s wisdom means that he’s able to use all of those facts—all of that data—to accomplish the best end. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” 

Just a few weeks ago, the scientific community was very excited because they were finally able to get a picture of a black hole—something that many scientists thought was impossible. Black holes are black because their gravitational pull is so great that it sucks up all of the particles of light around it. So these black holes are notoriously mysterious. Until recently, the only way we even knew they existed was by observing their effects on things around them. And even now, there are so many things about black holes that we just don’t know. And yet, as much as we don’t know about black holes, there’s infinitely more that we don’t know about God. Now thankfully, God has revealed some things about himself in the Bible. But there’s a whole lot more about God that isn’t revealed in the Bible and that continues to be shrouded in mystery—such as the depth of God’s wisdom and knowledge. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

So a lot of times in our lives, we have to trust in the wisdom of God even when we can’t understand it completely. For example, when we’re going through something difficult, we often wonder why God allows those kinds of difficulties to come into our lives. And even though we read various things in the Bible that give us some insight into why God allows such things, we’re never able to answer that “Why?” question completely. And it’s then that we have a choice to make: will we trust in God’s infinite wisdom even when we can’t understand it? Will we believe that God has a good plan and that this difficulty somehow fits into that plan in a way that’s beyond our ability to see at the moment? That’s what faith in the wisdom of God looks like. Or think about what it’s like when we pray for something but don’t see God answer that prayer. The reason why God doesn’t answer every prayer we pray also comes back to his wisdom. He has a better plan than what we prayed for. So he “answers” our prayer by doing something that’s even better in the grand scheme of things. He gives us something even better than we knew to ask for. 

The Aim of God’s Wisdom

Then not only does this passage teach us about the depth of God’s wisdom, it also teaches us about the aim of God’s wisdom. That’s our second point: the aim of God’s wisdom. In other words, what does God employ his wisdom to do? What grand purpose is he pursuing? We’ve already said that wisdom is the ability to use knowledge and act upon knowledge for the best end. So what is that end? Look at verse 36: For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. So just going through that phrase by phrase: all things are “from” God in that he’s the Creator of them all, all things are “through” God in the sense that he sovereignly sustains and preserves them, and all things are “to” God in the sense that everything exists for his glory. And I believe that the emphasis here falls on that third item—the fact that all things are “to” God—because notice how Paul draws out that third item with his next sentence: “To him be glory forever.” So the aim of the wisdom of God is the glory of God. 

You know, in chess game, the players don’t move their pieces aimlessly. They have a goal, which is to take out the other person’s king. That’s how the game is won. So every move the players make is carefully calculated to help them accomplish that goal. And in a similar way, God is very purposeful in all of his actions as well. He’s not just doing things aimlessly in this world. God’s orchestrating everything that happens for a purpose: to bring glory to his name. He’s all about his own glory. That’s the reason he created this universe, that’s the reason he sent Jesus to die for our sins, that’s the reason he interacts with Israel the way we read about him doing in Romans 9-11, and that’s the reason for everything else he does or allows right up to the present day. God is orchestrating everything for one grand purpose that rises above everything else—his own glory. “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”

And I’d like suggest to you this morning that it’s good and right for God to seek his own glory. He’s the One who created the world and who sustains the world and who governs the world righteously. So he deserves every bit of the glory he’s pursuing. And not only should we acknowledge that it’s good and right for God to seek his own glory, but we should also join him in that endeavor. Remember: he created us. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” That should be the grand ambition of our lives. Our lives should be all about the glory of God. 

And not only should God’s glory be the central thing we pursue as individuals, it should also be the central thing we pursue together as a church. In Ephesians 3:21, Paul writes, “To him [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.” So we as Redeeming Grace Church have been brought together for the glory of God and are called to pursue the glory of God as we gather together each week. We assemble on Sunday mornings not primarily to offer people inspiration for their lives or help with their problems. Now, those things may end up happening—I hope they do—but our primary focus as we gather together is to glorify God. Our singing is for him. Our giving is for him. Our serving in various capacities is for him. Even the sermons I preach are, in a sense, for God. The ultimate aim of everything we do isn’t to make people happy but to make God happy. It’s him that we’re trying to please. 

So God is all about—and invites us to be all about—his own glory. Back in Romans 11, that’s what Paul presents as the aim of God’s wisdom. God exercises his wisdom with the goal of bringing glory to himself. 

Conclusion

And as you think about everything we’ve said this morning about the wisdom of God—both the depth of God’s wisdom and the aim of God’s wisdom—my prayer is that you and I would come to marvel at God’s wisdom the way Paul does here in Romans 11. I believe that’s actually the main reason this passage is in the Bible. God wants us to consider the things he’s done such as the ones described in chapters 9-11 and simply marvel at his wisdom in doing all of these things. Because sometimes, that’s the main application we should get from a passage of Scripture—simply marveling at God. Many of you men who are married have probably come to understand or perhaps are coming to understand that, sometimes, the main thing your wife wants from you is just for you to listen to her. I’ll admit that I’m not always the best at that. My natural response whenever my wife tells me about a difficulty in her life is to try to fix it. I naturally gravitate toward doing something. But I’m gradually learning that, more often than not, Becky just wants me to listen to her. And sometimes she’ll remind me that the only thing she wants me to “do” is listen. And in a similar way, there are a lot of times when the most appropriate way to respond to a passage of Scripture isn’t necessarily to “do” anything and instead just marvel at the God who’s revealed in that passage. You don’t always have to go out and do something in response what you read in the Bible. Sometimes there’s a practical action that’s required, but many times, the most appropriate way to respond is simply to marvel at God. And I believe that’s the main intent of this passage from Romans 11—to lead us to marvel at how the works of God reveal the wisdom of God. 

And the greatest example of God revealing his wisdom through his works is the gospel itself. The wisdom of God is revealed most clearly in the gospel. When we were sinners and cut off from God because of our sin, God sent his own Son Jesus to rescue us. Jesus did that by living a perfect life without sinning even a single time and then by dying on the cross for our sins. God’s wrath should have come down on us, but it came down on Jesus instead. That’s what Jesus was enduring on the cross—not just physical pain but the full, undiluted wrath of God against sin. Then three days after that, Jesus resurrected from the dead in order to conquer sin and death once and for all. And now he stands ready to save everyone who will put their trust in him and call out to him for rescue. That’s the gospel. 

And this gospel message displays the wisdom of God more than anything else. It’s the pinnacle of God’s wisdom. That’s why, in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul talks about Jesus being crucified and then refers to Jesus as “the wisdom of God.” Also, back in our main passage in Romans 11, I believe Paul marvels at the wisdom of God not only in response to the truths of chapters 9-11 such as God’s sovereignty and his interactions with Israel but also in response to the truths of chapters 1-8 such as salvation through faith in Jesus. So even our main passage is, to some extent, an example of marveling at God’s wisdom as we see it displayed in the gospel. I mean, think about it. What wisdom we see in God choosing to save people the way he has! What wisdom we see in him designing a way for his justice to be upheld and his love to be displayed! So if you want to be in awe of God and be led to marvel at the wisdom of God, the first place you should look is the gospel.