To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36 Paul’s enthusiastic praise of God’s greatness, His plan, and His flawless execution of the plan. Amen!
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:33-36 NASB1995
As you study the Bible in more detail year after year, it eventually occurs to you that God has a plan for everything and that the plan has unfolded since the Creation. At the end of chapter 11 of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, the apostle praises God for both His plan and how the plan has progressed.
The first verse is Paul’s spontaneous exclamation of praise for God’s eternal plan, followed by sheer wonder over the fact that God’s wisdom and knowledge are beyond his (and our) understanding. Only God could have looked at His creation and known that mankind would sin, set out a plan for His chosen to have a nation of their own if only they would obey Him, sent His son to be the one-time sacrifice to atone for mankind’s sin, and create the Church.
Paul follows this with quotations from Isaiah 40:13 (“For who has known the mind of the Lord?”) and Job 41:11 (“Who has given to Me that I should repay him?”), demonstrating both God’s infinite wisdom and His conduct as King. As David Guzik notes in his commentary for Romans 11:
You can try all you want — but you will never make God a debtor to you. You can’t out-give God. He will never need to repay a debt to anyone.
Finally we come to the last verse, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” In Ancient Greek , this was as rhythmic as it is in English:
ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν (oti ek autos kai dia autos kai dis autos ho pas autos ho doxa eis ho aiōn amēn).
It’s a beautiful and simple statement of what we owe to God (everything!), followed by a short statement of praise, and an amen! Amen (Greek: ἀμήν, or Hebrew: אָמֵן) is the word we use (or should use!) at the end of every prayer, and it occurred to me that I really hadn’t taken a dive into the meaning of the word. I found this bit of enlightenment in the Blue Letter Bible’s interlinear concordance:
The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It has been called the best known word in human speech. The word is directly related — in fact, almost identical — to the Hebrew word for "believe" (aman), or faithful. Thus, it came to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and confidence. — HMM
(Sadly, I don’t know who (or what) HMM is… If any of our readers know, please leave a comment!)
Let’s get back to “of Him / through Him / to Him”:
Of Him: The plan came from God and wasn’t something man created. We were (and many still are) too indifferent to God, we were (and are) dead in sin, and we simply weren’t (and aren’t) smart enough to have come up with the plan.
Through Him: Even if God had laid out the plan in simple instructions to mankind, we couldn’t make it happen due to our sin and our self-worship. What has transpired is all God’s doing and Jesus’s work on the cross brings salvation through Him.
To Him: This explanation from Enduring Word says it all about God’s plan -
It is all to Him: It’s not for me, it’s not for you, it’s all to Him. It is to the praise of the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6). It’s for His pleasure that we are created, and we find our fulfillment in bringing Him glory and honor.
and the final line before the amen (also from Enduring Word) -
To whom be glory forever: The fact that Paul can’t figure out God makes him glorify God all the more. When we understand some of the greatness of God, we worship Him all the more passionately.
These three verses are Paul’s enthusiastic praise of God’s greatness, His plan, and His flawless execution of the plan. Amen!
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Lord, like your servant Paul I am amazed at Who You are and what You have done for me and all others who believe in You. I was dead in my sins, but in Christ I have been raised up into new life in Him. All praise “to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:25)
Amen👆👆👆