Rom. 11:33-36
Every day the news is filled with incomprehensible stories of tragedies which causes some people to ask the question, “Why does God allow so much suffering in the world?” The terrorists attack on the World Trade Center has caused billions to ask the question, “Why did God allow this tragedy to happen?”
Paul the apostle throws the light of God’s providence on our passage today to help us find an answer to some of life’s most perplexing questions.
Only when we are able to come to the full realization and trust in that God’s Sovereign will are people able to come to grips with the incomprehensible. For this reason Paul writes, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To be Him be the glory for ever! Amen” (Rom. 11:36)
Paul found the answers to the most inscrutable problems in God. When nothing else made sense Paul knew that God provides us with meaning, fulfillment and everything that we need for life and godliness.
Let us explore why it is essential to leave everything in the sovereign hands of God.
1. Paul teaches his readers that the sovereign God allowed the unbelief of Israel to happen for the greater ingathering of the Gentiles. Even in this mysterious phenomenon we are only able to plummet a few feet below the surface of the ocean of God’s sovereign purposes. It is for this reason that Isaiah writes, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8,9)
It may be humbling, but it is necessary to admit that we cannot find an answer for all of our questions. However, when we praise God for His sovereign power, purpose and providence we gain a greater appreciation for His person.
People who are unwilling to praise God for His incomprehensible greatness fail to learn to trust Him to work in ways that we cannot see.
Our minds are finite and His is infinite in understanding. We really only need to know enough information in order to do His will. That is why Moses wrote, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” (Deut 29:29)
Do not worry about the things you are not meant to understand. The more you obey His will the more He will reveal what you need to know in order to complete His will for your life.
To do otherwise is to subject yourself to unnecessary stress, anxiety and questioning that will only lead to trouble.
2. Paul taught his readers that God can be known but His attributes that surpass all human conceptions. Let us all admit that we are inadequate to comprehend the totality of the greatness of God’s wisdom, love and truth.
Most people do not like to admit that they cannot understand or know something to their satisfaction. People who are adamant about understanding the reasons behind life’s tragedies are opening themselves up to unnecessary stress.
The Lord’s justice is always right even though we may not understand it at the time. His ways are always perfect and all his ways are peace.
Even though it may not appear to be logical in our moments of distress, God is greater than our capacity to reason. This thought often bothers most modern philosophers who want a rationale explanation for everything.
Paul, knew that educated people of his day might expect an logical explanation for everything, but he knew it was not incumbent upon God to supply one. Paul admitted that a part of knowing God was to share in the sufferings of Christ.
The great apostle wrote, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to Him even to His death.” (Phil. 3:8-10)
Part of the reason that God allows us to suffer is to help us gain a greater appreciation and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not resent the fact that you are unable to make sense of everything that is happening to you. Thank Him that He can work all things together for good as long as we love God and are fitting into His purposes. (Rom. 8:28)
You may be suffering from an illness or a disappointment but take comfort in the fact that God’s sovereign power is able to help turn any tragedy into a greater triumph for your good.
3. Paul taught his readers that God’s children are not always able to appreciate their Father’s chastening, judgments and discipline. When we are children it seemed painful when we received discipline from our father. At times we would ask, “Why do I have to be punished?”
Perhaps, we could not understand our father’s stern hand, but we did not have his capacity to see things from a higher level. One time I cried and wept after being spanked by my father, but now, forty years later I have a clearer appreciation for my father’s discipline.
In similar ways, we need to resign ourselves to the fact that God sees the bigger picture and always knows what is best. For this reason it makes perfect sense that we are to trust and obey God regardless of our questions. He is God and we are not.
His understanding is beyond human comprehension. Those who choose to remain skeptical are only setting themselves up for a life of frustration, anger and depression.
4. Paul taught his readers that the more we know God the greater should be our humility, reverence and thankful praise.
Do not demand to understand everything that is happening to you.
Instead, choose to worship the Lord with greater humility, thankfulness and praise for His awesome rulership over all things. Some of the most godly people I have known in my life are the most humble, reverent and thankful.
Illustration; John Wesley said, “I have never known more than fifteen minutes of anxiety in my life. Whenever I begin to worry I just pause lifting my head toward heaven and envision God sitting on the throne and rejoice that all is well.”
Do not think you have to impress people with your ability to give an answer for all the complexities of life. It is OK to not be able to give philosophical arguments to doubting cynics.
Be the kind of a person who has learned to rest in His sovereign will. Learn to live by the words of the song, “Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art. I am finding out the greatness of your loving heart.”
5. Paul taught his readers that they should not dictate to God or question His authority. David wrote, “What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you should think of him. Man is like a mere breath and his days as a passing shadow.”
David had to learn that despite all of his sufferings, God’s sovereign purposes were being accomplished. Humans have no right to dictate or question God’s authority.
He does whatever He chooses to do in His sovereign will. He is the creator and we are His creation. He is the potter and we are the clay. Does not the potter have the right to do whatever He wants with His clay creations? Of course He does. To think otherwise would be terribly presumptuous. God is superior to us all.
He has the right to do exactly as He pleases regardless of whether or not it seems to make sense to us. When we come to the point where we completely rely on Him then we will be able to say like Paul, “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Rom. 12:1)
Only when we know, trust and obey God’s sovereign will are we able to please Him in all respects.
Example: No wonder many people fail to appropriate the truth of the old hymn, What A Friend We Have in Jesus. “Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pains we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”
6. Paul taught his readers that God is the beginning and end of everything.
Quote: Moule wrote, “The supreme Sun of the spiritual universe, the ultimate Reason of everything in the world and work of grace, is the glory of God. Whole systems of truth move in subordinate relation to this; He is subordinate to nothing.” (Moule, Union With Christ, p.10)
Quote: Robert Haldane wrote, “There was nothing brought under the consideration of the students which appeared to contribute so effectually to overthrow their false systems of religion founded on philosophy and vain deceit, as the sublime view of the majesty of God, which is presented in these concluding verses, “For from him and through Him and to Him are all things.” (Rom. 11:36)
He is the end reason for everything. In Him all things make sense because He is sovereign in His omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. Anything less than this shows insubordination to the great Sovereign Creator.
Those who fail to submit to God will surely be defeated and disappointed.
7. Paul concluded that his readers should make glorifying of God as their chief purpose in life. It is a great realization that we can praise God in ways that please Him even though He is so lofty. We may not be able to comprehend everything that God is or does, but we can still praise Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.
Our obligation is not to demand to understand, but to praise Him with our lips, our life and our ministries. Let us commit ourselves to honoring Him in all aspects of our relationships. We can be assured that He will infuse us with greater wisdom, power and blessings when we praise Him regardless of our circumstances.
Illustration – As a young doctor in India, Paul Brand had made the groundbreaking medical discovery that leprosy does its damage merely by destroying nerve endings. People who lose pain sensation can inadvertently damage themselves by simple actions as gripping a splintered rake or wearing tight shoes. Pressure sores form, infection sets in and no pain signals alert them to tend to the wounded area.
Paul Brand knew what he was talking bout.
“Most people view pain as an enemy. Yet, as my leprosy patients prove, pain forces us to pay attention to threats against our bodies. Without it, heart attacks, strokes, ruptured appendixes, and stomach ulcers would all occur without any warning. Who would ever visit a doctor apart from pain’s warnings?
Conclusion: Virtually every reponse of our bodies that we view with irritation or disgust – blister, swelling, fever, sneeze, cough and especially pain – demonstrates a reflex toward health. In all these things normally considered enemies, we can find reason to be grateful.” (Philip Yancey in Soul Survivors –Doubleday)
