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A concluding doxology:
v. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
v. 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?
v. 35. Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again?
v. 36. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things; to whom be glory forever! Amen.
The apostle has brought the historical part of his exposition to a close. And with all the miracles of God's grace and mercy in mind as they appear in His dealing with both Jews and Gentiles, Paul feels constrained to break forth in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving. What depths, unplumbed and unknowable depths of His riches, both of wisdom and of knowledge, are here spread out before our eyes! His essential wisdom is such that He always knows how to reach His object, that He always chooses the proper means. The knowledge of God is so rich that no man can possibly grasp or measure it; His wisdom is so deep that no human reason can sound its depths. His judgments are beyond the investigation of men, and His ways beyond their comprehension. The judgments of God are principally His sentences of hardening and condemnation. The very fact that God permits obstinate sinners to be caught in the meshes of their own opposition and then turns their rejection in favor of the vessels of His mercy, exceeds our power of comprehension and leaves us in helpless bewilderment. The very fact that God's providence upholds the world until He has carried His designs of mercy into execution with regard to the elect, shows such unsearchable, incomprehensible wisdom and mercy that we can only stand in adoring admiration; we cannot lift the veil that would uncover the wonder of these mysteries of God.
That the judgments and ways of God are unsearchable and incomprehensible the apostle now emphasizes in three questions, taken from Isa_40:13; Job_41:3. Whoever understood the mind of the Lord? Or who became His counselor? Or who first gave to Him, and it will be given back to him in return? Who has the knowledge of the mind and designs of God, and the reason of His decrees? Who, then, stood by His side to give Him advice as to the mode of their execution? How would it be possible for any man, for any creature, in fact, to place God under obligations? Only three cases could be conceived of in which a man might know what God has planned and how He intends to carry out His plans: If he had access to the mind, to the thoughts of God; if he had taken part in the planning; if he were able, from the merits of his own relation toward God, to figure out what he may expect of God in return. The creature has absolutely no merit with respect to God, for God is Himself all in all: From Him, and by Him, and to Him are all things. All things that happen in the world, particularly all circumstances connected with man's salvation, have their origin in God, are put into execution by God, and serve the purposes of God. Instead, therefore, of trying to penetrate the mysteries of God and to uncover His unsearchable, incomprehensible wisdom, all men, and especially all believers, shall bow their knees in praise and adoration and say with the apostle: To Him be glory forever! Amen.
Summary
The apostle laments the fact that the Jews rejected their salvation, shows that the rejection of the Jews, in turn, served for the benefit of the heathen, as well as the saving of the remnant in Israel, the elect from both Jews and Gentiles finally making up the fullness of the spiritual Israel; he finally adds a prayer of wondering thankfulness to the wisdom of God.