Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 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.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. Having just presented God’s plan of redemption in view of all the glories of divine dealings with men, Paul bursts out with this doxology praising the wisdom, goodness and sovereignty of God; God is all and man is nothing. The principal idea here is God is the source, means and end of all comprehending knowledge, all the circumstances of man’s being and all the means necessary for the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Verse 34 confirms what Paul has just written; that in His purposes and dispensations God is perfectly independent.

The general idea is that there is nothing man can do to place God under obligation. The faithful are not justified by their merit but the merit of Christ; they are chosen and called to eternal life not on the grounds of anything in them but according to God’s election and purpose. God is the alpha and omega of salvation. God is the source, means and end – God‘s glory is the purpose of salvation history. Human knowledge, power and virtue are just glimmering reflections – shadows of the thing itself.

I love to quote c.s. Lewis writing from the Weight of Glory: “ The books or music in which we thought beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

• (13) For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, (14) if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. (15) For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (30) For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, (31) even so these also have now been been disobedient that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. (32) For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. Chapter 11 deals with the matter of the future of the Jews in light of God’s purpose and promise which once given can never be changed. And Paul is speaking not of individuals but of the nation. Israel’s rejection of Christ is partial and not permanent – there was a remnant of believing Jews. Paul repeats that the Gentiles reception of the gospel will make Jews jealous so that they will also respond – they will want what we have. We can not deny God’s sovereign ability to save whom He choses; the gospel is all about God’s glory reflected in us.
The rejection of the gospel by the Jews was the means of its wider and more rapid spread among the Gentiles. Even the Christian Jews were very slow to allow the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles. They almost uniformly desired to clog the gospel with ceremonial observances of the law – Jesus AND. Jesus and works, Jesus and rites. This was one of the greatest hindrances of the gospel. Election is not based on works but is God’s sovereign will and plan. Israel was not successful in their works based attainment of salvation. The Jews rejected Christ and were rejected by God in return.
According to Scripture faith is an act of obedience and unbelief is an act of disobedience. The unbelief of the Jews was an historical fact; the occasion for the gospel being extended to the Gentiles. All Gentiles and Jews, first one and then the other, should reveal their true character as sinners and stand out as unbelievers. BUT God does not cause them to sin but sees to their dispensation. In sin all are equally miserable and helpless And all are dependent on God’s mercy.

• I tell the truth in Christ, i am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit (2) that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. (3) For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, (4) who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; (5) of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. His discussion of God’s plan of salvation ended in chapter 8 and now Paul addresses the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews. Most Jews refused the Messiah and now we have Paul’s lamentation – he is trying to settle the Jewish mind on Christ and avoids antagonizing them but concedes nothing against the truth of the gospel. Paul begins by asserting his conscience bore this testimony guided by the indwelling Spirit. Paul was not an indifferent spectator of this sorrow – both temporal and spiritual – which is about to come on his countrymen. They rejected Christ as the Messiah; refused God’s blessings and their heritage as God’s chosen people. This rejection is not God’s final word – He has in the past and is now working through a Jewish remnant. Lost people won’t care what we know/think until they know how much we care. God’s truth impels us to work for the salvation of lost souls.
Paul’s sorrow over the rejection of the Jews he expresses in the strongest terms and the term he uses is applied to only such conditions as could not be redeemed. Paul is now offering/volunteering to be in their place – he professes such a love for his countrymen and brethren to wish for himself instead the condemnation that he saw looming for the Jews. But this was hypothetical and conditional – he knew this was impossible for he had been called according to God’s plan and will. The object of these verses was to assure the Jews of his love. They were the chosen of God; a people of innumerable blessings and privileges and of great distinction – and of whom the Christ came.
These five verses teach us that fidelity does not mean we should make the truth offensive – we want our words and actions to do work on the heart and conscience of unbelievers – we want them to want what we have.

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (37) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. (38) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, (39) nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. Chapter 8 of this letter begins by telling us that there is therefore no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ and our verses today – the last of chapter 8 – amplify this doctrine that the security of the faithful is founded on the plan of God, the promise of God and the power of God. No one and nothing created can remove our no condemnation status. God has predetermined that in Christ the faithful are His forever and He is for us – this has nothing to do with our worthiness or performance. God’s love involves a commitment to finish the good work He has begun in us. Good works did not earn our salvation and bad works cannot take it from us.
Paul is writing to comfort those suffering hardship, persecution and death because of their commitment to Christ and the gospel. Because the faithful were chosen before the foundation of the world God’s love for us is not diminished or alienated by our failures, shortcomings or sins. Life can be a bigger threat than death and our culture – then and now – is no friend to disciples of Christ. The list in verse 35 followed by Paul’s series of contrasts is to reinforce that absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love and to counter our fears in trials.
Paul’s confidence of God’s love in Christ is expressed in the strongest words possible; nothing will frustrate the purpose of God – nothing will turn His love from those He is determined to save. God loves us not because of who we are but what we are in Christ