Romans 11:31-36 - To Him be the glory!

11:31,32

Now we need to be careful how we interpret these verses. It is easy for us to read them as if it is saying that God deliberately made Israel sin, and deliberately made us sin so that we could then receive mercy. That is the wrong way to read it. When we look at things in one sense it seems a complete disaster. God created Adam and Eve and they sinned. He then formed the nation of Israel and they sinned, even to the point of crucifying the Son of God. Things don’t look too good. Why did God create people who would sin? I am not going to attempt to answer that question, for the very good reason that I cannot. But what we do know is that through Christ God’s plans are fulfilled. Even though we Gentiles rebelled against God having no interest in Him, through the gospel many have been brought into the kingdom of God. So with Israel, even though they rejected Christ and the gospel there will come a time when there will be a significant turning to Christ. Our basis for believing this is the Word of God and the grace of God. If we want to understand God’s plans and His ways we need to look through the eyes of God’s grace.

11:33-36

We see in these verses the difference in reaction to God’s plans from a fleshly and a spiritual perspective. Paul has been warning the Gentile Christians against pride. The fleshly reaction is to see the Jewish rejection of the gospel as an opportunity to “prove” that we are better, to look down on the Jews. Paul’s reaction, and the spiritual reaction, is to look beyond the immediate. See how Paul’s arguments looked back to the past, to all that God has revealed about Himself and His plans in the Old Testament, to consider the present, and to look forward to the future. Paul takes an eternal perspective, and we need to remember that God is the God who was, who is, and who is to come. So Paul’s response is an outburst of praise and wonder and the magnificence of God’s plans. God’s ways are beyond human understanding. This does not mean that we should not use human understanding, but we must recognise its limits, and we use it together with revelation from God, and this revelation comes primarily through the word of God.

God is completely independent of man. He does not need us to explain anything to Him, nor to give Him advice! There are times when all of us would do well to remember this, and atheists need to remember that they are created beings.

Everything is dependent upon the Lord, and His ways are glorious.