The Depths of Riches, Wisdom, and Knowledge (Romans 11:26-36)

Using more than one Old Testament text the Apostle Paul gets to the root of all he has been teaching to the people at Rome."As it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." (v.26b).

Paul has labored to show his Roman readers and us that we, the Gentiles, are the wild branch grafted onto the root of the tree. We do not have an intrinsic claim to the promises of God that He gave to His people in the Old Testament because the Deliverer, the one who will redeem, came not from Gentile lands; He came out of Zion(Israel).

One thing the Messiah will accomplish is found in the Old Testament prophecy. Israel had fallen into apostasy, into unspeakable sin against the Messiah Himself, and yet the redemptive work of the Messiah will provide the framework for the final redemption of Israel.

Jacob has rejected their covenant with God by saying no to God's yes in the redemption promises. Jacob turned apostate, being consistent in disobedience, but God is going to turn them back. Why? Haven't they disobeyed for far too long, Israel's relationship with God had been a constant falling away, does God owe them a second chance? He said if they were obedient to the covenant He would bless them, but if disobedient He would curse them. Doesn't God have every right to let them go? Yet, God is faithful and it is by His covenant promise and electing grace that He will turn them back.

When Paul began his treatment of the plight of the Jews in chapters 8 and 9, it was examined through the broader question of divine election. When he spoke of Israel's final restoration after the fullness of the Gentiles it was in the context of the covenant promises and the doctrine of election. We can be certain that God is not finished with the Jews because He predicted it. Whatever God says about the future must come to pass, but how does God know? How does God know what will happen to us? The open-theism movement which is causing ungodliness in the Christian community says that God does not and cannot know the future choices of human beings. Open theists claim that God's future knowledge is limited by human free will and that God's knowledge is finite.

This would implicate that God is not omniscient and lacks the foreknowledge of our choices. It would deny the biblical doctrine of God. Yet, how does God know what is going to happen? How does He know what people will choose tomorrow? God does not have a psychic sense of the future by which he looks throughout the corridor of time and sees what we cannot. No, He knows what is going to happen because He ordained it. His knowledge is based on His ordination of future things. Israel will turn and be restored to Him because it is His sovereign will that it should be.

The doctrine of election is important and important to Paul as he anguishes over the future of his people. Paul knows that his people are in the hands of God, the one who has the power, authority, and will to turn people away from their disobedience. If God had waited in heaven for us to turn from our sins and come to the cross; He would still be waiting. In His sovereign mercy and grace God does not wait for us to turn or come to Him; God takes us away from our disobedience to respond to Him.

"As regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers." (v.28).

When it comes to the history of redemption, a story that illustrates it well is the story of Jonathan's lame son, Mephibosheth, who after being dropped by a nursemaid was then lame in both feet. Once Saul and Jonathan were both killed, and David lamented at this news by tearing his garments and out of his love for Jonathan asked, "is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (2 Samuel 9:1).

David's soldiers found Mephibosheth and brought him back to David. Mephibosheth was sure that he would be executed so be bowed down and paid homage to David, who rushed to him and brought him into his house and restored Saul's land to him and treated him as one of his house. David honored Mephibosheth, not because he had affection for the boy, but for the sake of his love for Jonathan.

The only reason we are included in the kingdom of God is God's love for His Son. Our election, our adoption, is always in Christ Jesus. God will visit His mercy upon the seed of Abraham through the line of Issac because His promises to the fathers Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Paul has mentioned this throughout the epistle to the Romans. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (V.29). This is one of the most comforting verses in Scripture as we struggle with our sins. God is not a con-man, he does not give a gift then take it away with slight of hand. When the Lord God exercises His redeeming call on someone, it is final; He never takes it back.

The supreme gift we have been given is grace, the gift of mercy by which we have been called brought us into the kingdom and the fellowship of Christ and adopted into His household. God will not revoke it no matter the circumstance. Even in our disobedience, which may displease Him and provoke Him to corrective wrath, will not cause Him to take the gift away. Because of our adoption into the household of God, He is our Father and like a Father He disciplines, nurtures, and chastises His children; not as punishment but for their good, it is all for their maturity and pursuit of holiness.

In like manner, God made promises to His people, to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He called them and gave gifts to them, and that, too, was without revocation. The sovereign election of God is always and ever final.

"For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy." (vv. 30-31). God had given gifts to the nation of Israel, but they had become disobedient, through that disobedience, our mercy was received. Through the mercy we receive, God is going to work to bring His mercy on those who were once disobedient. "He will banish ungodliness from Jacob." (v.26). He will say no to their sin and overcome it for the sake of His redemptive plan.

In Romans 3 Paul brought the Jew and the Gentile together before the judgement seat of God and said that both are guilty of sin: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (v.23). Paul then says, "for God has cosigned [committed] all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all." (v.32). What follows from Paul is a sigh, a holy groan, firstly being "oh": "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (v.33a). When we pay attention to the context and the emotions between the lines. Paul is concerned for his kinsmen, Israel.

It is good for us to remember that we are finite creatures and we worship an infinite God. In our finite existence we see only through the murky water the unpolished metal, unrefined. For gold to reach a certain level of purity it must be refined by fire. Gold, silver, and fine jewels is the imagery used often in the Bible to describe our faith. God puts us through the crucible, through the flames and the fire of persecution, so that the gold of our faith may be purified.

Yet, we are still creatures and in our finite minds there is ignorance, even in the smartest person on this earth there is more ignorance than knowledge. Where with God there is no ignorance or folly. There is nothing but wisdom and knowledge. We probably have at one time asked the question: "Does prayer change God's mind?" To ask this question is to answer it. There is nothing more absurd than thinking our prayers would change the mind of God. Then we might ask: "why pray at all, what good does it do?"

Our prayers do change things... they change us. If God has determined to do something, what would possibly move Him to change His mind as a result of communion with us? Is there a hidden knowledge we have on the matter that God overlooked and needs our counsel? What could we possibly have to add to an infinite being? No prayer has ever informed God of something He wasn't privy to.

Consider something even worse: when we think we can change God's mind, we are demonstrating that we think God's intentions are somehow foolish, or, even worse, evil, apart from the benefit of our counsel. Through our prayers God gains our affection and reverence as we bow before Him. The first thing to prayer is: remember to whom we are speaking, and secondly: remember who we are. When we come with our prayers to God, we say, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God? How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!" (v.33b).

His judgements are unsearchable. In Paul's teaching to the Corinthians he tells us of the Spirit, who searches all things of God. Paul's teaching there is easily misunderstood. Some would say that even the Spirit is searching, groping in the darkness of the Father, trying to figure out what the Father is up to. No, when Paul speaks of the Spirit searching the things of God, he is not implying that the Spirit is searching for information. Rather, the Spirit is illumining the things of God for our understanding. We come to Scripture in our weakness and we pray for God to condescend to our weakness and give us assistance. This is through the Holy Spirit to make His ways intelligible to us.

"For who has known the mind of the Lord." (v.34a). Do we even know why we do what we do? Do we understand our motives in all our actions? Can we see into the minds of others and know their motives? We cannot search the depths of someone else's mind, but that inability cannot be compared to our inability to know the mind of the Lord. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). The only way we can know the mind of the Lord is if it pleases Him to reveal it. When He does so, we can know for sure that it is not deceitful or inaccurate.

"Who has been his counselor?" (v.34b). God does not have any counselors and advisors He does not need any. What could we counsel Him about? We do not go to God to give Him advice, we go to Him for His. "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" (v.35). James writes, "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." (1:17). When God gives a gift, He is not paying us back for something we have given to Him. What can we give that He does not already have? God's election is in grace and in electing us He is not repaying a debt. The gift of His grace is given freely from the abundance of His mercy and love.

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen." (v.36). Of; through; and to, Paul's use of these three prepositions teach us about the nature of God. The apostle is saying that God is the source and owner of everything that is. He is the ultimate course of everything that comes to pass, and everything that comes to pass occurs through the exercise of His sovereign will. God is not only the means of all things but also the end or the purpose of all things.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1: 15-17).

"All things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3).