Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!  (34) For who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has become His counselor?  (35) Or who had first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?  (36) For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.  Amen 

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. In chapter 11 of Romans, Paul writes of God’s plan of salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. The Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and the gospel was spread to the Gentiles;  this did not mean that God was finished with the Jews for at the time of the fullness of the Gentiles the Jews shall bend their knee to Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Paul is writing that there is nothing in any man why he should be saved over others, other than the mercy of God. All are guilty and all shall be judged  – it is not in man’s power to earn salvation; God grants mercy to whom He pleases.

In our verses today we have an explosive and spontaneous burst of praise of God – an exclamation of wonder at such great mystery.  The sovereignty and the ways of the Lord are beyond our comprehension.  Man cannot comprehend God’s wisdom and purpose  – God’s perfect justice and judgment and righteousness.  Paul exhorts his audience to focus on this truth with humility, obedience, gratitude and adoration.  Paul quotes Isaiah (vs 34) and Job (vs 35) as rhetorical questions; the proper answers are no one can even comprehend the greatness of God, nor refuse God, nor counsel God.  God is in charge of all history and His ways are unknowable.  This doxology (spontaneous outburst of praise) leads us to worship God as our only reasonable response.

The ways of the Lord are not the ways of man but this does not mean we can’t know God at all –  we cannot know His greatness but only what has been revealed to us in His written word and in His physical creation and from the indwelling Spirit from the moment of faith.  Paul is referring here to what God has hidden and  remains incomprehensible to man.

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.  Amen.”