15. Doxology
For eleven chapters Paul has been giving his comprehensive account of the gospel. Step by step he has shown how God has revealed his way of putting sinners right with himself, how Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification, how we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, how the Christian life is lived not under the law but in the Spirit, and how God plans to incorporate the fullness of Israel and of the Gentiles into his new community. Paul’s horizons are vast. He takes in time and eternity, history and eschatology, justification, sanctification and glorification. Now he stops, out of breath. Analysis and argument must give way to adoration. ‘Like a traveller who has reached the summit of an Alpine ascent,’ wrote F. L. Godet of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, ‘the apostle turns and contemplates. Depths are at his feet; but waves of light illumine them, and there spreads all around an immense horizon which his eye commands.’ Before Paul goes on to outline the practical implications of the gospel, he falls down before God and worships (33–36).
Paul’s praise is informed by Scripture, and is full of Old Testament phraseology. Yet it is his own expression of humble wonder and dependence.
He begins with an astonished exclamation: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (33). There are two possible ways of interpreting the opening sentence. The first is to understand Paul to be referring to one truth, namely God’s wisdom and knowledge, whose profound riches he celebrates. The second is to understand him to be referring to two truths, namely God’s riches on the one hand and God’s wisdom and knowledge on the other, and to be celebrating the depth of both. That this second interpretation is correct (namely that God’s wealth and wisdom are both being magnified) is suggested by the parallel in the next exclamation, in which Paul refers both to God’s unsearchable judgments (what he thinks and decides) and to his untraceable paths (what he does and where he goes). In fact, this distinction continues throughout the doxology: his wealth and his wisdom (33a), his judgments and his paths (33b), his revelation (34) and his gifts (35).
Paul has already written of God’s wealth: ‘the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience’ (2:4), ‘the riches of his glory’ (9:23) and the riches which the Lord Jesus gives indiscriminately to all who call on him (10:12), Elsewhere he describes God as ‘rich in mercy’ and refers to Christ’s inexhaustible riches. The dominant thought is that salvation is a gift from God’s riches and that it immensely enriches those to whom it is given.
Then there is God’s wisdom, which is hidden in Christ, was displayed on the cross (though it appears to human beings to be foolishness) and is unfolded in his saving purpose. Thus if the wisdom of God planned salvation, the wealth of God bestows it. Moreover, God’s wealth and wisdom are not only deep; they are actually unfathomable (33b). His decisions are unsearchable, and his ways inscrutable. This is the New Testament equivalent of Isaiah 55:8f., where God declares his thoughts to be higher than our thoughts, and his ways than our ways. But of course! How could finite and fallen creatures like us ever imagine that we could penetrate into the infinite mind of God? His mind (what he thinks) and his activity (what he does) are altogether beyond us.
Paul continues, second, with a rhetorical question, in fact with two. The two exclamation marks of verse 33 (‘Oh the depth . . . !’ ‘How unsearchable . . . !’) are followed by the two question marks of verses 34 and 35 (‘Who has known . . . ?’ ‘Who has ever given . . . ?’).
‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?’
‘Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?’
(34–35)
It is frankly ludicrous, as Paul’s two Old Testament quotations make clear, to imagine that we could ever teach or give God anything. It would be absurd to claim (since his thoughts are unsearchable) that we know his mind and have offered him our advice. It would be equally absurd to claim (since his ways are inscrutable) that we have given him a gift or two and so put him in our debt. No, no. We are not God’s counsellor; he is ours. We are not God’s creditor; he is ours. We depend entirely on him to teach and to save us. The initiative in both revelation and redemption lies in his grace. The attempt to reverse roles would be to dethrone God and to deify ourselves. So the answer to both questions in verses 34–35 is, ‘Nobody!’
Third, Paul makes a theological affirmation: For from him and through him and for him are all things (36a). This is the reason for our human dependence on God. All things often refers to the material creation. Perhaps here, however, Paul is referring to the new creation as well, the coming into being of the new multiracial people of God. If we ask where all things came from in the beginning, and still come from today, the answer must be, ‘From God.’ If we ask how all things came into being and remain in being, our answer is, ‘Through God.’ If we ask why everything came into being, and where everything is going, our answer must be, ‘For and to God.’ These three prepositions (ek, ‘out of’ or ‘from’; dia, ‘through’; and eis, ‘for’ or ‘unto’) indicate that God is the creator, sustainer and heir of everything, its source, means and goal. He is the Alpha and the Omega, and every letter of the alphabet in between.
Fourth, Paul concludes with a final ascription: To him be the glory for ever! Amen (36b). It is because all things are from, through and for God that the glory must be his alone. This is why human pride is so offensive. Pride is behaving as if we were God Almighty, strutting round the earth as if we owned the place, rejecting our due dependence on God, pretending instead that all things depend on us, and so claiming for ourselves the glory which belongs to God alone.
It is very important to note from Romans 1 – 11 that theology (our belief about God) and doxology (our worship of God) should never be separated. On the one hand, there can be no doxology without theology. It is not possible to worship an unknown god. All true worship is a response to what God reveals about himself in Christ and Scripture, and arises from our reflection on who he is and what he has done. It was the tremendous truths of Romans 1 – 11 which provoked Paul’s outburst of praise. The worship of God is stimulated, informed and inspired by the vision of God. Worship without theology is bound to degenerate into idolatry. Hence the essential place of the Bible in both public worship and private devotion. It is the Word of God which calls forth the worship of God.
On the other hand, there should be no theology without doxology. There is something fundamentally flawed about a purely academic interest in God. God is not an appropriate object for cool, critical, detached, scientific observation and evaluation. No, the true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship, as it did Paul. Our place is on our faces before him in adoration.