Summary
The Wisdom of God
Among the attributes of God, His wisdom presses hard on the human mind. We are creatures who ask "why?"—and every answer only opens another why behind it. Children do this without shame, and adults never quite outgrow it. When we turn that relentless questioning toward God, we run into something far deeper than a parent's patience: we run into a wisdom that is genuinely beyond us. As the Apostle Paul writes, "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways" Romans 11:33.
Paul arrives at this doxology only after wrestling, across Romans 9–11, with the hardest "why" of all: why has Israel, who pursued righteousness, stumbled, while Gentiles who did not pursue it have received it by faith? Why does a hardening fall on part of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in? Paul does not pretend to give a tidy answer. He calls it a mystery and points away from human reckoning to divine wisdom. The branches were broken off through unbelief, and the wild branches stand only by faith—so "do not become proud, but stand in awe" Romans 11:20. The right posture before God's wisdom is not explanation but reverence. See "Wise" 7-10-22.
Job learned the same lesson the hard way. When he demanded answers, God answered him with more questions: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?... Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me" (Job 38:2; Job 40:7). The clay does not instruct the potter Romans 9:20–21. God owes us no explanation, and even if He gave one, we could not contain it. "Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" Romans 11:34. He needs nothing from us: "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine" Psalm 50:12.
That God's wisdom is unsearchable is not bad news—it is the best news. Left to our own wisdom, we would never have invented the gospel. We would not have looked for life in a crucified man. Paul says as much: "Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe... we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" 1 Corinthians 1:21–24. It is mercy that He did not consult us. He created in wisdom without our counsel, and He recreates in Christ without our counsel.
This is the wisdom that planned our salvation before creation and now delivers it through tangible means: the washing of Holy Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the absolving Word spoken again and again in the sanctuary; the body and blood of Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. No human committee would have devised such a thing. It is not clever by our standards—it is wiser than we are. And it is precisely the gift we need: not the full answer to every "why," but the full redemption our souls cannot live without.
So the questions narrow, finally, to one. Why did God create? Why did He send His Son? Why does He love sinners and call them His own? Paul gives the only answer the wise can give: "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" Romans 11:36. Why does He love us? Because He is God, and He is good, and at last every "why" rests in Him.
Video citations
- "Wise" 7-10-22 — If you would please open your Bibles to Romans the 11th chapter, that's Romans the 11th chapter. If you are using the Pew edition of the Bible, you can find that on page 141 in the New Testament.…