Romans 11:33-36 – Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
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This doxology, which is found at the end of Paul’s deep theological discussion of salvation, is worth days of meditation. Paul exalts God for his incredible wisdom. No one would have ever come up with a plan like God’s. No one would have ever imagined that the way to save the world would be through God’s own self-sacrifice. No one would have ever dreamed that the way that this gospel would reach the nations would be through a hardening of Israel, God’s chosen nation, for a time until the full number of the gentiles has come in. No one would have ever dreamed that the way to be right before a holy God would be through faith in his son instead of by your own works.
It is simply because no human mind would have ever conceived of such a plan that Paul writes as he does here at the end of chapter 11. God’s mind is greater than any other mind. His thoughts are unsearchable and unfathomable. There is a depth to his wisdom and knowledge that no person, under any educational system, will ever attain. God has never sought or taken the advice of one of his creation. How silly it would be for us to ever think we have anything to offer God by way of an idea, thought, or concept. No, we can not bring anything to the discussion table. He has already thought it all. He has already known everything we think we have just dreamed up.
In the last verse, Paul lets us know the bottom line of all this thinking. Everything is from him, through him, and to him. Nothing exists in this world that is not at some level from God. Nothing is that he did not command to be. Maybe we have twisted it in our sin, but he is the one who made it. Everything that exists does so through him, that is through his power and agency. Nothing can be sustained, not gravity, not sunlight, not the atmosphere, not our bodies, without it being sustained through his mighty power. And everything is to him. Everything exists for God. We exist to the praise of his glory. We exist for his honor, and for that purpose alone. We and the world around us exist to demonstrate the attributes of God. We exist for God’s pleasure. Or, as Paul writes, we exist so that the glory of God might be for him forever.
Father, it is an amazing thing to recognize that everything is from you, through you, and to you. I exist because I was created by you, am sustained by you, and in order that I might glorify you. I love that this is the sum total of my life. I pray that I will be to your glory through obedience. I pray that you will glorify yourself in my life by changing me into a person who honors you faithfully. Please work in me great works that glorify your holy name forever. I never again want to think that I live for any other purpose than this. I exist to your glory. I exist by your power. I have nothing that you have not given me, and that includes my joy as well as my suffering. Please keep this understanding foremost in my mind, and keep me on the path which most honors your name.
Pastor Travis Peterson 