Incomprehensible Wisdom

DECEMBER 5, 2023

 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:33, 34)

In thus concluding the discussion of those deep and unsearchable subjects which in the former parts of this Epistle have engaged his attention, Paul most emphatically intimates the impossibility of comprehending the infinitude of the Divine attributes. But far from judging, like many, that we have nothing to do with such mysteries, he delighted to discourse on the glorious perfections of Jehovah as displayed in these doctrines. And, as they bear most directly on the state and security of Christians, he designates them in the beginning of the next chapter, “the mercies of God,” involving all blessings in store for God’s people and constituting the foundation and support of all his exhortations to practical duty.

Paul, by no means, denies that these great truths are, as the Apostle Peter noted, “hard to be understood.” On the contrary, he intimates the absolute impossibility of giving utterance to the boundless, unfathomable, incomprehensibility of the Divine attributes as manifested in God’s dealings with the children of men.

If this great Apostle, enjoying as he did such unparalleled privileges, favored with such “abundance of revelation,” and writing under the dictation of the Holy Spirt, was compelled to confess that the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God were unsearchable, how vain and idle are all the speculations and conjectures of human wisdom on the subject! The judgments of the Lord must, like their Author, be infinite, and consequently, can neither be measured nor ascertained by finite creatures further than they are revealed from the fountain of light. The wisest of men need counsel from others. The angels, we are told “desire to look into” the wonderful works of their Creator, in order to increase their knowledge, but the majesty of God stands alone in the universe. He needs no counselor. Well might the Apostle in the contemplation of the majesty of God, and the unsearchable riches of His wisdom and knowledge exclaim, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?”

The same question was put to Job when the Lord answered him out of the whirlwind. He was in a moment humbled in the dust. “I know,” said he, “that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” To the same effect also the Psalmist David appeals to the Lord in the 131st Psalm, “LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.”

The Apostle, in addition to what he had declared of the unsearchableness of the Lord’s judgment, adds, as another reason why man should cease proudly to challenge the proceeding of his Maker, “Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” He thus at once declares the spring of all out knowledge, and consequently our inability to pursue our inquiries beyond the bounds of revelation. We are also reminded how utterly impossible it is for a creature to bring his Creator under obligations. How absurd must it then be to speak of the merit of our good works.

The conclusion to which the Apostle arrives by all these considerations is expressed in the last verse of the Chapter. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

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