“The Incomprehensible God”
Romans 11:33-36
If you would write a letter, you would start with a greeting, and then you would write the intent of your letter. Paul began Romans 1 with a treatise of praise to the Almighty God who justifies by faith alone, and then, after 11 chapters of carefully examining God’s justification and salvation by grace and faith to those who are utterly DEAD in sin and unable to save themselves, Paul breaks into a SONG of thanks, a DOXOLOGY, to this Sovereign, Faithful, Merciful and Saving God of History, which really encompasses the Supremacy of God in all things. Paul shows that good and sound theology and doctrine about God begin and end with DOXOLOGY TO God.
Romans 11:33: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from HIM and through HIM and to HIM are all things. To HIM be the glory forever! Amen.”
God’s Depth
Summertime means recreation time around bodies of water. If you are on the shoreline of almost any body of water, you are able to see down to the bottom and even a child can walk, and play (and even drink) in shallow and safe water with no fear. But as soon as the water becomes deeper, you are pretty much clueless as to what lies below the surface.
This is where Paul’s SONG and God’s Salvation in Christ takes us: to the realization that
God’s Great Depth is Unfathomable by man. Paul uses the word “depth” (in the Greek, “bathos”), but the word doesn’t refer to a bathtub; it refers to the very depths of the sea. That’s how it was used in the Greek. The “bathos” is the place far below into the depths of the sea; it is a place where “life as we know it”, cannot possibly exist; the depths of God are unreachable.
The only way you can even BEGIN to fathom the depths of God, are in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus became God in the flesh and becomes a sort of deep-sea submersible. When we are IN CHRIST and Christ is in you by His Spirit and Word, you just begin to explore some of the astronomical depths of God’s love, and Jesus is the ONLY way that you can begin to see the exceeding greatness of depth of God’s Mercy and Love.
Normally, the deeper you go into water, the more dangerous it becomes, and we know that the pressure at a certain water depth will CRUSH and kill any human. That’s why, when we are “IN CHRIST”, God allows us to taste, see and experience in Christ ONLY what we are able to handle in our human-ness and what He wants us to know: In that sense, God limits our vision to shallow water. Even in eternity, we will never discover all of the Depths of God.
In Daniel 2:20-22, Daniel proclaims: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; HE knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with HIM.”
God’s Riches
Do you ever consider what belongs to God? What does God own? Deuteronomy 10:14 exclaims: “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.” If God owns the heavens, all of space, all of the earth, and all that is in it, what does ANY man actually OWN? It is merely an illusion of man to think that he owns anything at all. God never needed to borrow anything from anyone in order to create His riches. He creates what He needs out of nothing, and there is nothing that God desires that He does not innately possess.
God’s Riches are actually Unobtainable to man. Man cannot obtain the riches; whatever man gains is only on account of God’s gifts to men. Whatever a human being might THINK he possesses, is only on loan from God. The question is often asked: What did so-and so leave after he died? The answer: EVERYTHING! Billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are mere paupers compared to the God of the universe, and they are limited by God because nothing even exists outside of God, and they will leave EVERYTHING BEHIND when they die.
Paul speaks about the Riches of God in other places: “the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7), “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), “the riches of his kindness” (Romans 2:4) and “the riches of his glory” (Romans 9:23). The REAL RICHES of God are the unseen riches. The riches that we possess in Christ can NEVER be taken from us. WE have these unseen riches for eternity. God gives Himself to us in Christ, FULL of grace and kindness, for our salvation and edification, but ALWAYS for HIS own worthy eternal glory.
As Paul said in Colossians 1:27, “The riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The riches of the glory of this mystery is in Christ, Himself, in His Death, resurrection, ascension, and with His Spirit as the present guarantee, who is at the same time, the future fulfillment of the greatness of the glory of God in us and for us.
God’s Knowledge
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” You know that Paul was previously called, “Saul”; With his Pharisaical background, I am certain that he thought he knew everything there was to know about God and His Word. The Jewish people were also quite content with themselves and their religiosity, and most human beings generally consider themselves to be “know-it-alls” when it comes to knowledge. When Paul (which means “small, or little”) was humbled on the Damascus road, God demonstrated how LITTLE Paul actually knew about God and about his own heart. God’s Knowledge is Incomprehensible in contrast to man’s finite mind: Compared to God, man knows NOTHING. Psalm 92:5: “How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!”
God knows the movement of every single molecule, atom, electron, proton and neutron in this universe because He created everyone by the Word of His mouth. He knows every thought, volition, choice, feeling and every result in the past, present, and future. He knows the chain of events for the BILLIONS of simultaneous acts and actions happening at each moment, and He knows the effects of every one of those things BEFORE it happens…and God never has a meltdown or brain freeze.
Knowledge is limited to facts and information that you KNOW up here in your head. Every human possesses a great number of facts, and each of us knows more or less than the next person, but God even KNOWS the secrets of the heart. (Ps. 44:21)
Psalm 139:2-6 says: “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”
As much knowledge as a person may accumulate during a lifetime, or even on a computer, no one except God is omniscient and has ALL the facts. As often as we may assume what a person MIGHT be thinking, God always KNOWS ENTIRELY. 1 Samuel 2:3 says: "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who KNOWS, and by him deeds are weighed.”
Solomon’s prayer to God in 1 Kings 8:38-40 recognized God’s scrutiny and vast knowledge: “When a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel--each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple-- 39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), 40 so that they will fear you all the time.” We never know what someone is thinking; God always does!
The bottom line of Solomon’s prayer is, “So that they will fear you all the time.” In our worship, in our lives, in our good as well as difficult times, in times of health and times of sickness, in times of plenty and times of little, that we trust and believe in the God who knows EVERYTHING, and that we do not mandate how He should respond to us, but rather, how we respond to the incomprehensible, but also merciful God.
Isaiah 55:8-9 is a familiar passage, and it can either be a comfort and promise to believers, or a threat to people without faith: "For My thoughts are NOT your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s Wisdom
Not only does God KNOW all, but He KNOWS how to utilize His knowledge. Wisdom is what you do with the knowledge that you possess. In our finite and fallible minds, we so often LOGICIZE God’s FACTS, God’s Word, God’s Sovereignty and God’s Holy Character into our own pleasing opinions rather than trusting God’s ability and power and Wisdom. We tend to diminish God’s Supremacy over all things and how He works when we don’t understand everything. God’s Word teaches that the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth is Infinitely and Impeccably Wise in applying all of His Knowledge and all of the “FACTS” and knowledge that He has.
Listen to some of the definitions of “wisdom”: “the ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, accumulated knowledge, or enlightenment, the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.” God has the INFINITE WISDOM to achieve every one of His GOALS! God did not send a “good man” to handle His plan; He did it Himself. The Word, before all eternity, who created the Worlds, made Himself FLESH for a short time to accomplish HIS OWN PLAN.
Listen to these powerful words of wisdom from 1 Corinthians 1: 21-25, & 30: “For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who BELIEVE. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength…30 It is because of HIM that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us WISDOM from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”
Would we want to trust our own wisdom for even a second? NEVER! Even when BELIEVE the things that God has revealed to us by His Spirit and His Word, the Living Word, it is STILL absolutely mind-boggling: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”
Even in eternity, we will still be creatures. Even in the ages to come, we will STILL not be able to grasp ALL of who God is…and He will keep on teaching us…and He will continue to reveal to us the riches of the effulgent glory of God…and we will continue to praise Him and Him alone!
May Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 also be your prayer: “Lord, would you please grant to ME, according to the riches of your glory, that I be be strengthened with power through your Holy Spirit in my inner self, 17 so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith ; and that I will be rooted and grounded in love, 18 that I may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled up to all the fullness of God. To you alone, Almighty God, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” Amen.
OUTLINE:
Intro: Sound theology and doctrine about God begin and end with DOXOLOGY TO God.
I. God’s Depth is Unfathomable by man.( Dan. 2:20-22)
II. God’s Riches are Unobtainable to man. (Deut. 10:14)
III. God’s Knowledge is Incomprehensible in contrast to man’s knowledge.
(Ps. 92:5, 44:21, 139:2-6, 1 Sam. 2:3, 1 Kings 8:38-40, Isa. 55:8-9)
IV. God is Infinitely and Impeccably Wise in applying all of His Knowledge.
(1 Cor. 1: 21-25 & 30, Eph. 3)
