Romans 11:33-35
What is written? (ESV)
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’
What does it say?
How great are the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! His judgments are unsearchable and His ways impossible to understand or interpret. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
What is its immediate context?
Paul is drawing his letter to the Christians in Rome to a conclusion. He has just written about salvation coming to the Gentiles and illustrated it as them being branches that were “grafted in” (10:19), while warning that they too can be “broken off” again through unbelief (10:20-21). To enforce his point of God’s great mercy and His gift of salvation available to all mankind (vs 32), Paul quotes from Isaiah 40:13, a passage he also uses in his letter to Corinth (1 Corinthians 2:16). He also quotes or paraphrases the thoughts from Job 35:7 and/or 41:11.
How Romans 11:33-35 is applied across Bible answers
Can we answer every Bible question?
The wisdom and knowledge of God are vast, too much for us to know (except that which has been revealed2).
What ‘all truth’ did the apostles receive (John 16:13)?
Paul makes a declarative statement about the depth of God's wisdom and knowledge - that they are unfathomable. His point is that there are things we [still] don't/can't know that only God knows.
