E. God’s purpose for the world (11:30–36)
E. God’s purpose for the world (11:30–36)
God’s ultimate purpose for the human race is now revealed; it is mercy for both Jew and Gentile. The faithful remnant has not been ‘chosen by grace’ so that the rest might be consigned to perdition; its election is a token that the divine mercy is to be extended to all without distinction (cf. 8:19–21). There is an unmistakable universalism in Paul’s language here, even if it be an eschatological universalism and not a present one, or a representative rather than an individual universalism.21
Paul has already announced that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (3:23). All have been convicted before the tribunal of God; none, whether Jew or Gentile, can lay any claim to his mercy. If there is to be hope for any, it must depend solely on God’s grace; but hope is held out in unstinted measure. God’s purpose in shutting Jews and Gentiles up together in a situation where their disobedience to his will must be acknowledged and brought to light was that he might lavish his unmerited mercy on Jews and Gentiles together.
Here then is the height of Paul’s great argument: here is matter for unending praise to God. The doxology of verses 33–36 does not merely round off chapters 9–11; it concludes the whole argument of chapters 1–11: ‘O the unfathomable wealth of God’s wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable are his decrees! How inscrutable his ways! Well has the prophet asked:
‘Who has grasped the Lord’s purpose?
Who has shared his counsel?Who has first given to him,
that he should be repaid his gift?’
From him all things proceed; through him all things exist; to him all things return. To him be the glory throughout all ages. Amen.’
32. That he may have mercy upon all. That is, on all without distinction rather than all without exception. Paul is not here thinking of those who, like Pharaoh in 9:17, persistently reject the divine mercy. He ‘does not intend to make a definite pronouncement about the ultimate destiny of each individual man. But the hope of mankind is more, not less, secure because it is rooted in the truth about God, rather than in a truth about man himself (C. K. Barrett, ad loc.).
33. Riches and wisdom and knowledge. Instead of treating these three as separate divine properties (so also NEB), we may take ‘wisdom and knowledge’ as dependent on ‘riches’ (so NIV, ‘the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’).
34. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?’ An echo of Isaiah 40:13, ‘Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as his counsellor has instructed him?’ Cf. also Jeremiah 23:18; Wisdom 9:13.
35. ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ Cf. God’s question in Job 41:11, ‘Who has given to me, that I should repay him?’
36. From him and through him and to him are all things. The formal resemblance to Marcus Aurelius (Meditations 4:23) is often pointed out: ‘From thee are all things; in thee are all things; to thee are all things.’