Romans 11.33b-Paul Praises God's Unsearchable Decrees And Incomprehensible Ways
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 8, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:33a-Paul Praises God’s Infinite Wealth, Wisdom And Knowledge
Lesson # 389
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:33.
This evening we will note Romans 11:33a in which Paul praises the Father for His infinite wealth, wisdom and knowledge.
Tomorrow we will complete the verse and note Paul praising the Father for His unsearchable decrees and incomprehensible ways.
Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
Romans 11:34-35, “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?’”
Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:33-36 is a “doxology,” which is from the Greek doxologia and is derived from the Greek noun doxa, “praise, glory, honor” denotes a brief ascription of praise to members of the Trinity.
Doxology was used in both song and prayer.
In doxologies, the following qualities are attributed to God: (1) Glory (Rom. 16:27; Gal. 1:5). (2) Honor, dominion (1 Tim. 6:16; 1 Pet. 4:11). (3) Salvation, power (Rev. 19:1). (4) Majesty and authority (Jude 25).
These are all “forever” (Rm. 11:36), or “forever” and “ever” (2 Tim. 4:18; 1 Pet. 5:11).
In the New Testament, doxologies may begin with exclamations of “Hallelujah” (Rev. 19:1), “Glory to God in the highest” (Lk. 2:14), or “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mt. 21:9, 15; Mk. 11:9f.; Jn. 12:13).
Although God the Father is the primary focus of New Testament doxologies, there are others that are the objects of praise such as Christ (Mt. 21:9; Rev. 5:12) and His kingdom of God (Mk. 11:10).
Originally doxologies were voiced by the congregation at the conclusion of hymns and prayers (1 Chron. 16:36; Rom. 11:33-36), in connection with the response “Amen” (Mt. 6:13; Rev. 1:6; cf. Rom. 9:5; 16:27; 1 Pet. 4:11; 5:11).
However, praise and thanksgiving do occur in the opening line of prayers (1 Chron. 29:10-13; Dan. 2:20-23; Lk. 1:67-69).
The doxology was commonly employed in various parts of the New Testament epistles: (1) Salutation (Gal. 1:5). (2) Opening thanksgiving (2 Cor. 1:3f.; Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3). (3) Final exhortations (1 Tim. 6:15f.; 1 Pet. 5:11; 2 Pet. 3:18). (4) Closing (Heb. 13:20f.; Jude 24f.).
Let’s now concentrate on verse 33 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
Paul employs the figure of “asyndeton” in Romans 11:33 by not using a connective between the previous statement in Romans 11:32 and the one to follow in Romans 11:33 and he does this in order to emphasize his praise of the Father.
“Oh” is the interjection O ( @W), which introduces an exclamation indicating that Paul’s statement in Romans 11:33 is an exclamation expressing his deep emotion of awe as a result of contemplating the inexhaustible and infinite wisdom and knowledge and unsearchable judgments and unfathomable ways of God.
“The depths” is the nominative neuter singular form of the noun bathos (bavqo$) (bath-os), which is used in a figurative sense and means “infinite.”
The adjective “infinite” refers to something that is “immeasurably great, indefinitely or exceedingly great, unbounded, unlimited, endless or immeasurable, inexhaustible.”
The word actually functions as an attributive adjective because the noun ploutos, “wealth” functions as an attributed genitive.
With the attributed genitive, the noun which the genitive stands related can be converted to an adjective.
In our passage, bathos stands related to three genitives, namely, ploutos, “wealth,” sophia, “wisdom” and gnosis, “knowledge.”
Therefore, bathos is actually acting like an adjective modifying or describing these three genitives.
It is describing God’s “wealth” (ploutos), “wisdom” (sophia) and “knowledge” (gnosis) because ploutos is functioning as an attributed genitive.
Therefore, in Romans 11:33, the adjective bathos defines the Father’s wealth, wisdom and knowledge as “infinite” meaning that they are “immeasurably great, indefinitely or exceedingly great, unbounded, unlimited, endless or immeasurable and inexhaustible.”
The adjective bathos is functioning as a “vocative of emphatic, emotional address” expressing Paul’s deep emotion of awe as a result of contemplating the infinite wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God.
“Of the riches” is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun ploutos (plouto$) (ploo-tos), which is used of God the Father’s “wealth,” which bathos describes as “infinite.”
Ploutos refers to the unmerited blessings and benefits that proceed from God’s character and nature and are directed towards the believer through their union and identification with Christ.
“The wisdom” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun sophia (sofiva) (sof-ee-ah), which is used of God’s wisdom, which is based upon His omniscience and is His unique ability to devise a perfect plan to accomplish His goal to glorify Himself.
The word denotes God’s ability to perfectly execute His plan of salvation and as a result glorify Himself.
The wisdom of God is expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which presents God’s provision of eternal salvation for the entire human race through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, the apostle Paul condemns the wisdom of the cosmic system, teaching that the wisdom of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ is superior and has made foolish the wisdom of the cosmic system.
Colossians 2:3, “in whom (Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
In Ephesians 3:1-12, the apostle Paul teaches that the multi-faceted wisdom of God is being made known through the church to the “rulers” and “authorities.”
Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
“Knowledge” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun gnosis (gnwsi$) (gno-sis), which does not refer simply to God’s foreknowledge but also His omniscience since God’s foreknowledge is based upon His omniscience.
The term “omniscience” is from a Latin term, which describes God as having “all knowledge” of every inanimate object and every one of His moral rational creatures (men and angels) in His creation as well as every decision they would make both the actual and the possible and every event.
The Scriptures teach that omniscience is an attribute of God (Ps. 33:13-15; 139:1-4; 147:4-5; Prov. 15:3; Isa. 36:9-10; 44:28; Mal. 3:16; Matt. 6:8; 10:29-30; Acts 15:8; Heb. 4:3, 13; 1 John 3:20).
Omniscience can be characterized in three ways: (1) Eternal: God has always known everything (Acts 15:18). (2) Incomprehensible: Our minds can’t comprehend the omniscience of God (Rom. 11:33). (3) Wise: God has perfect wisdom because He has all knowledge (Eph. 3:10).
“God” is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Father although the Son and the Spirit are both infinitely wealthy, omniscient and equally perfect in wisdom as the Father.
This is indicated in that in Romans 11:32 the noun theos was used with reference to the Father as indicated by the word’s articular construction in verse 32, which is commonly used in the Greek New Testament to signify the Father.
Therefore, from our study of Romans 11:33a, we see that Paul is praising God the Father for His infinite wealth, wisdom and knowledge.
His wealth (ploutos) refers to the unmerited blessings and benefits that proceed from God’s character and nature and are directed towards the believer through their union and identification with Christ.
His wisdom (sophia) denotes God’s ability to perfectly execute His plan of salvation and as a result glorify Himself.
His knowledge (gnosis) refers to God’s omniscience.
These three are described as infinite (bathos) by Paul meaning God’s wealth, wisdom and knowledge are “infinite” meaning that they are “immeasurably great, indefinitely or exceedingly great, unbounded, unlimited, endless or immeasurable and inexhaustible.”
This praise of God’s infinite wealth, wisdom and knowledge is the result of Paul’s teaching in Romans 9:1-11:32.