Alba 4-17-2022
THE GOD OF WISDOM, JUDGMENT AND MERCY
Romans 11:32-36
Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer and statesman who lived in Norway between 1861-1930. He once tried to measure an extremely deep part of the Arctic Ocean.
The first day he used his longest measuring line, but couldn't reach the bottom. He wrote in his log book, "The ocean is deeper than that!" The next day he added more line but again had to record, "Deeper than that!"
After several days of adding more and more line he gave up without learning its actual depth. All he knew was that it was beyond his ability to measure it. However hard he tried, his conclusion was “Deeper than that!”
When it comes to the love, mercy, kindness and grace of God, these things are always deeper than we can ever measure. They are limitless, boundless, beyond our description and our comprehension.
Unless we accept that God’s greatness and capacity to love is beyond our ability to truly grasp, we will minimize who He is and what He can do.
Psalm 145:3 says, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.” The NIV has it this way, “His greatness no one can fathom.” It is too deep.
The apostle Paul in Romans chapter eleven says the same thing about God, that He is a God of love, of mercy, of wisdom, of judgment and knowledge beyond our ability to fully know.
Here's what he says in Romans 11:33-36. 33 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 has 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.
This doxology of praise begins by declaring that God’s ways are unsearchable and untraceable. The apostle Paul isn’t praising the Lord because he has found answers to all the questions and solutions to all the problems.
Rather, Paul is declaring that God’s dealings with mankind generally, and with the nation Israel specifically, are beyond our comprehension.
God’s wisdom is so deep, and His judgments are unsearchable. That means that we cannot get there from where we are. It is beyond us. It is so deep that no one has been, or could be, His counselor ever.
Verse 34 in Romans chapter eleven tells us that there is not anyone here who can be God's counselor. What could we teach Him that He doesn't already know? We don't have the depth of wisdom and knowledge that in anyway equals that which God has.
God's wisdom is certainly more than any of ours. In Isaiah 55:9 the Lord says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
There are some things about God that are truly beyond us. Augustine, one of the early church fathers, was walking along the seashore one day and he came across a boy who had dug a hole next to the edge of the water.
He was furiously going back and forth from the sea to the hole, with his little bucket, filling it up with sea water and then emptying it in the hole. Augustine asked him, “What are you trying to do?” The little boy responded, “I’m pouring the sea into this hole”.
Trying to wrap our finite brain around something as infinitely magnificent as God is like trying to fit the sea into a hole on the beach. It isn’t going to happen.
But if God's wisdom is so far above our ability, how can we know what we need to know for our salvation? Well God has a plan.
I Corinthians 1:21 states it plainly: 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
So as long as there is a message preached, it brings salvation? No!
God, in his infinite grace and mercy, has extended the invitation to salvation through His son Jesus Christ. That's the message.
That is why the next verses in I Corinthians chapter one say this:
22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
There is only one message that saves, the message of Christ crucified. And that He who was crucified is now risen from the grave. That is the message the world needs to hear today.
Like the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10, we all need to “know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
Our baptism pictures the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it is more than just a picture. In baptism we are personally connected to that moment in history when Jesus died and was buried and rose again.
In a sense, it puts us right there with Him, because He did all of that for us. The message of the cross and the resurrection show us “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
There is a depth to the richness of God's wisdom and knowledge that can only be explained by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we all must come to the place where we die to self and become alive to God.
The only way you can even begin to fathom the depths of God's wisdom and knowledge, is in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus came as God in the flesh and revealed God's love in a way that is nothing but amazing.
When you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, you just begin to explore some of the astronomical depths of God’s wisdom and love.
Jesus is the only way that you can begin to see the exceeding greatness of the depth of God’s lovingkindness.
Paul has spent most of his letter to the Romans describing the gospel through which salvation is offered to both Jew and Gentile in Christ.
The heart of that gospel is Jesus and His death on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. No one can be saved apart from that good news, and apart from obedient faith in Jesus Christ.
So if, as it says in verse 36, all things come from God, and all things have their being through Him, and all things end in Him, what more is there left to say?
Only this: The verse that is just before this wonderful praise to God, verse 32, says, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
Mercy means one does not get the punishment one deserves. It is kindness to someone who could be treated harshly. We know that we could be treated harshly. We deserve God's punishment.
Our sin indicates that we should be treated harshly. But by the grace and mercy of God we are loved and forgiven anyway.
Because our God is a God of mercy. That is why Jesus went to the cross to die in our place. It was so that God's righteousness and judgment could come together for our good.
The Lord is full of mercy and compassion for anyone who will put their trust in Him. But Jesus Christ is the only way to receive God’s mercy. We must trust in Him. Mercy is possible only because of His crucifixion and His resurrection.
Verse 35 asks, “Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” You see, no one is able to do anything that would make God indebted to repay the debt. No one could give a gift to God that would merit Him returning the favor.
Sometimes we have the mistaken idea that we can give God so much, or do so much for Him, that He will have to do what we want Him to do. It just doesn't work that way!
It is impossible for us to put Him under obligation. We can't be good enough to save our selves. Nothing we do for God can ever compare to what He has done for us.
Before Jesus came and died to take the penalty for our sins, the goodness and mercy of God was not fully revealed to us.
Jesus was crucified according to the perfect plan of God. It may appear on the exterior that the Jews plotted to kill Jesus, and Roman authorities gave Him a crucifixion sentence, but Jesus makes it very clear that He lays His life down by Himself.
In John 10:18 Jesus says, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Jesus purchased forgiveness for us when He died on that cross. But then He provided eternal life for us when He came back alive and rose from that grave.
So on this Easter morning, this Resurrection Day, we are made fully aware of God's mercy for us. This is a cause for us to rejoice and be glad.
Our joy should be like the women who stood before the empty tomb and heard the angel say these words: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead” (Matthew 28:5-7)
We do serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today;
We know that He is living, whatever foes may say;
We see His hand of mercy, and hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time we need Him, He's always near.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
Ephesians 2:4-5 reminds us, 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
How deep is the ocean? Not deeper than God’s riches. How vast is the Grand Canyon? Not as vast than the wisdom of God. How expansive is the Milky Way? Not as expansive as His knowledge.
And this God of wisdom, judgment and mercy has looked on us and loved us enough to give His only begotten Son so that we might be saved though Him.
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
To Him be glory forever. Amen.
CONCLUSION:
Did you realize that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing took place three days after Easter - just three days after people had gathered to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord?
There is a church next to the bombing site, and the preacher, Nick Harris, was scheduled to be in the sanctuary of that building at the very time the bomb went off. He was supposed to be filming a TV segment, but the cameraman was late that day, and his tardiness saved both of their lives.
After the explosion Nick Harris described his emotions as he walked into the bombed out sanctuary. He said, “I stood there and I could still see the faces of people who had come on Easter Sunday to worship.” The building had been full of excited people celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
He said, “Now I looked around at what was left. Every window had been shattered. There were holes in the walls where debris had hit. The pews were torn and broken, and every piece of furniture had been moved.
“But as I stood there and marveled at the power of the explosion there was one thing that greatly amazed and impressed me. In the midst of almost total destruction, every Easter lily was still in place. Not a one had toppled. Not a one had broken or fallen out of its vase. They were all still exactly where they had been placed. Every single one.”
Nick Harris said, “I stood there and stared at them in amazement, and then I said, ‘God, are you trying to tell me something?’ Well, I don’t know if He was or not, but the message that seemed to be coming through loud and clear was this, ‘Love is stronger than hate, and righteousness will triumph in the end.’ And isn’t that the resurrection message?”
You see, though sin is all around us, and indeed it is today, it isn’t hopeless and we’re not helpless. For on the cross Jesus paid the price for our sins, and now the tomb is empty. He has won the victory for you and for me.
