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Commentary on Romans 11 verses 33–36
The apostle having insisted so largely, through the greatest part of this chapter, upon reconciling the rejection of the Jews with the divine goodness, he concludes here with the acknowledgment and admiration of the divine wisdom and sovereignty in all this. Here the apostle does with great affection and awe adore,
I. The secrecy of the divine counsels: O the depth! in these proceedings towards the Jews and Gentiles; or, in general, the whole mystery of the gospel, which we cannot fully comprehend. - The riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, the abundant instances of his wisdom and knowledge in contriving and carrying on the work of our redemption by Christ, a depth which the angels pry into, Pe1 1:12. Much more may it puzzle any human understanding to give an account of the methods, and reasons, and designs, and compass of it. Paul was as well acquainted with the mysteries of the kingdom of God as ever any mere man was; and yet he confesses himself at a loss in the contemplation, and, despairing to find the bottom, he humbly sits down at the brink, and adores the depth. Those that know most in this state of imperfection cannot but be most sensible of their own weakness and short-sightedness, and that after all their researches, and all their attainments in those researches, while they are here they cannot order their speech by reason of darkness. Praise is silent to thee, Psa 65:1. - The depth of the riches. Men's riches of all kinds are shallow, you may soon see the bottom; but God's riches are deep (Psa 36:6): Thy judgments are a great deep. There is not only depth in the divine counsels, but riches too, which denotes an abundance of that which is precious and valuable, so complete are the dimensions of the divine counsels; they have not only depth and height, but breadth and length (Eph 3:18), and that passing knowledge, v. 19. - Riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. His seeing all things by one clear, and certain, and infallible view - all things that are, or ever were, or ever shall be, - that all is naked and open before him: there is his knowledge. His ruling and ordering all things, directing and disposing them to his own glory, and bringing about his own purposes and counsels in all; this is his wisdom. And the vast extent of both these is such a depth as is past our fathoming, and we may soon lose ourselves in the contemplation of them. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, Psa 139:6. Compare Psa 139:17, Psa 139:18. - How unsearchable are his judgments! that is, his counsels and purposes: and his ways, that is, the execution of these counsels and purposes. We know not what he designs. When the wheels are set in motion, and Providence has begun to work, yet we know not what he has in view; it is past finding out. This does not only overturn all our positive conclusions about the divine counsels, but it also checks all our curious enquiries. Secret things belong not to us, Deu 29:29. God's way is in the sea, Psa 77:19. Compare Job 23:8, Job 23:9; Psa 97:2. What he does we know not now, Joh 13:7. We cannot give a reason of God's proceedings, nor by searching find out God. See Job 5:9; Job 9:10. The judgments of his mouth, and the way of our duty, blessed be God, are plain and easy, it is a high-way; but the judgments of his hands, and the ways of his providence, are dark and mysterious, which therefore we must not pry into, but silently adore and acquiesce in. The apostle speaks this especially with reference to that strange turn, the casting off of the Jews and the entertainment of the Gentiles, with a purpose to take in the Jews again in due time; these were strange proceedings, the choosing of some, the refusing of others, and neither according to the probabilities of human conjecture. Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thing eyes. These are methods unaccountable, concerning which we must say, O the depth! - Past finding out, anexichniastoi - cannot be traced. God leaves no prints nor footsteps behind him, does not make a path to shine after him; but his paths of providence are new every morning. He does not go the same way so often as to make a track of it. How little a portion is heard of him! Job 26:14. It follows (Rom 11:34), For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Is there any creature made of his cabinet-council, or laid, as Christ was, in the bosom of the Father? Is there any to whom he has imparted his counsels, or that is able, upon the view of his providences, to know the way that he takes? There is so vast a distance and disproportion between God and man, between the Creator and the creature, as for ever excludes the thought of such an intimacy and familiarity. The apostle makes the same challenge (Co1 2:16): For who hath known the mind of the Lord? And yet there he adds, But we have the mind of Christ, which intimates that through Christ true believers, who have his Spirit, know so much of the mind of God as is necessary to their happiness. He that knew the mind of the Lord has declared him, Joh 1:18. And so, though we know not the mind of the Lord, yet, if we have the mind of Christ, we have enough. The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him, Psa 25:14. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do? See Joh 15:15. - Or who has been his counsellor? He needs no counsellor, for he is infinitely wise; nor is any creature capable of being his counsellor; this would be like lighting a candle to the sun. This seems to refer to that scripture (Isa 40:13, Isa 40:14), Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his counsellor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel? etc. It is the substance of God's challenge to Job concerning the work of creation (Job 38), and is applicable to all the methods of his providence. It is nonsense for any man to prescribe to God, or to teach him how to govern the world.
II. The sovereignty of the divine counsels. In all these things God acts as a free agent, does what he will, because he will, and gives not account of any of his matters (Job 23:13; Job 33:13), and yet there is no unrighteousness with him. To clear which,
1.He challenges any to prove God a debtor to him (Rom 11:35): Who hath first given to him? Who is there of all the creatures that can prove God is beholden to him? Whatever we do for him, or devote to him, it must be with that acknowledgment, which is for ever a bar to such demands (Ch1 29:14): Of thine own we have given thee. All the duties we can perform are not requitals, but rather restitutions. If any can prove that God is his debtor, the apostle here stands bound for the payment, and proclaims, in God's name, that payment is ready: It shall be recompensed to him again. It is certain God will let nobody lose by him; but never any one yet durst make a demand of this kind, or attempt to prove it. This is here suggested, (1.) To silence the clamours of the Jews. When God took away their visible church-privileges from them, he did but take his own: and may he not do what he will with his own - give or withhold his grace where and when he pleases? (2.) To silence the insultings of the Gentiles. When God sent the gospel among them, and gave so many of them grace and wisdom to accept of it, it was not because he owed them so much favour, or that they could challenge it as a debt, but of his own good pleasure.
2.He resolves all into the sovereignty of God (Rom 11:36): For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, that is, God is all in all. All things in heaven and earth (especially those things which relate to our salvation, the things which belong to our peace) are of him by way of creation, through him by way of providential influence, that they may be to him in their final tendency and result. Of God as the spring and fountain of all, through Christ, God - man, as the conveyance, to God as the ultimate end. These three include, in general, all God's causal relations to his creatures: of him as the first efficient cause, through him as the supreme directing cause, to him as the ultimate final cause; for the Lord hath made all for himself, Rev 4:11. If all be of him and through him, there is all the reason in the world that all should be to him and for him. It is a necessary circulation; if the rivers received their waters from the sea, they return them to the sea again, Ecc 1:7. To do all to the glory of God is to make a virtue of necessity; for all shall in the end be to him, whether we will or no. And so he concludes with a short doxology: To whom be glory for ever, Amen. God's universal agency as the first cause, the sovereign ruler, and the last end, ought to be the matter of our adoration. Thus all his works do praise him objectively; but his saints do bless him actively; they hand that praise to him which all the creatures do minister matter for, Psa 145:10. Paul had been discoursing at large of the counsels of God concerning man, sifting the point with a great deal of accuracy; but, after all, he concludes with the acknowledgment of the divine sovereignty, as that into which all these things must be ultimately resolved, and in which alone the mind can safely and sweetly rest. This is, if not the scholastic way, yet the Christian way, of disputation. Whatever are the premises, let god's glory be the conclusion; especially when we come to talk of the divine counsels and actings, it is best for us to turn our arguments into awful and serious adorations. The glorified saints, that see furthest into these mysteries, never dispute, but praise to eternity.
For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, except His own proper Word. For what other person "knew the mind of the Lord "or who else "has become His counsellor? "
They are, however, His "invisible things," which, according to the apostle, "are from the creation of the world clearly seen by the things that are made; they are no parts of a nondescript Matter, but they are the sensible evidences of Himself. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord," of which (the apostle) exclaims: "O the depth of the riches both of His wisdom and knowledge! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! " Now what clearer truth do these words indicate, than that all things were made out of nothing? They are incapable of being found out or investigated, except by God alone.
This is the purport of what Isaiah said, and of (the apostle's own) subsequent quotation of the self-same passage, of the prophet: "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? " Now, (Marcion, ) since you have expunged so much from the Scriptures, why did you retain these words, as if they too were not the Creator's words? But come now, let us see without mistake the precepts of your new god: "Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.
If, now, it is in this sense that He stretches out the heavens alone, how is it that these heretics assume their position so perversely, as to render inadmissible the singleness of that Wisdom which says, "When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him? " -even though the apostle asks, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? " meaning, of course, to except that wisdom which was present with Him.
Isaiah even so early, with the clearness of an apostle, foreseeing the thoughts of heretical hearts, asked, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? For who hath been His counsellor? With whom took He counsel? ... or who taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? " With whom the apostle agreeing exclaims, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" "His judgments unsearchable," as being those of God the Judge; and "His ways past finding out," as comprising an understanding and knowledge which no man has ever shown to Him, except it may be those critics of the Divine Being, who say, God ought not to have been this, and He ought rather to have been that; as if any one knew what is in God, except the Spirit of God.
"For who," says the apostle," has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counsellor, to teach Him? or who has pointed out to Him the way of understanding? " But, indeed, the world has held it lawful for Diana of the Scythians, or Mercury of the Gauls, or Saturn of the Africans, to be appeased by human sacrifices; and in Latium to this day Jupiter has human blood given him to taste in the midst of the city; and no one makes it a matter of discussion, or imagines that it does not occur for some reason, or that it occurs by the will of his God, without having value.
So also He will be first, because all things are after Him; and all things are after Him, because all things are by Him; and all things are by Him, because they are of nothing: so that reason coincides with the Scripture, which says: "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or with whom took He counsel? or who hath shown to Him the way of wisdom and knowledge? Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? " Surely none! Because there was present with Him no power, no material, no nature which belonged to any other than Himself.
This refers to creatures, but the other members of the Trinity are excepted because they have nothing in common with the nature of creatures.
It is clear that only God knows everything and it is only he who lacks nothing, because everything comes from him. No one can understand or measure this knowledge, because the inferior cannot comprehend what is superior to it. Jewish believers could not understand that the salvation of the Gentiles could be God’s plan and will. Likewise, it seemed unlikely and incredible to the Gentiles that the Jews, who had not believed, could be converted or accepted as believers.
But you say: Then those who adore what ought not to be adored, should be immediately destroyed by God, to prevent others doing the like. But are you wiser than God, that you should offer Him counsel? [Romans 11:34] He knows what to do. For with all who are placed in ignorance He exercises patience, because He is merciful and gracious; and He foresees that many of the ungodly become godly, and that even some of those who worship impure statues and polluted images have been converted to God, and forsaking their sins and doing good works, attain to salvation.
"For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?"
What he means is nearly this: that though He is so wise, yet He has not His Wisdom from any other, but is Himself the Fountain of good things. And though He hath done so great things, and made us so great presents, yet it was not by borrowing from any other that He gave them, but by making them spring forth from Himself; nor as owing any a return for having received from him, but as always being Himself the first to do the benefits; for this is a chief mark of riches, to overflow abundantly, and yet need no aid.
Previously nobody knew it, but at the time of writing Paul certainly knew it, as he indicated to others when he said: “We have the mind of the Lord.”
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SUMMARY
Romans 11:34 is a profound rhetorical question forming part of Paul's majestic doxology, which concludes his intricate discussion on God's sovereign plan for both Israel and the Gentiles. This verse powerfully asserts the infinite, incomprehensible wisdom and unsearchable ways of God, contrasting them sharply with the inherent limitations of human understanding and capacity to offer counsel to the Almighty. It serves as a climactic declaration of God's absolute self-sufficiency and transcendent knowledge, inviting a posture of humble adoration rather than intellectual presumption.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Romans 11:34 is masterfully crafted using several literary techniques. The most prominent is the Rhetorical Question, where Paul poses two questions ("For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?") not to elicit an answer, but to make a forceful, self-evident statement. The implied answer to both is a resounding "no one," thereby powerfully affirming God's unparalleled wisdom, absolute sovereignty, and complete independence from any created being. This device creates a sense of awe and wonder, drawing the reader into a posture of worship. Furthermore, the verse functions as part of a larger Doxology (11:33-36), a hymn of praise to God. The rhetorical questions contribute to the exclamatory and worshipful tone, expressing profound reverence and adoration for God's unsearchable judgments and inscrutable ways. While speaking of God's "mind" and "counsellor" might be seen as a form of Anthropomorphism (attributing human characteristics to God), it is used here paradoxically to highlight the contrast between human limitations and divine infinity, emphasizing that God's intellect and self-sufficiency are utterly unlike and superior to any human equivalent.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Romans 11:34 stands as a profound theological statement on the absolute transcendence and sovereignty of God. It underscores that God's wisdom is not merely quantitatively greater than human wisdom, but qualitatively different and infinitely beyond our capacity to fully grasp or advise. This truth cultivates a necessary humility in believers, reminding us that our finite minds cannot comprehend the infinite depths of God's plans, particularly His intricate workings in salvation history. It calls us to a posture of reverent trust and worship, acknowledging that His ways are perfect, even when they seem mysterious or contrary to our expectations. This divine incomprehensibility is not a barrier to relationship, but an invitation to deeper faith and adoration, as we recognize His unchallengeable authority and perfect knowledge.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Romans 11:34 calls believers to a profound posture of humble trust and adoration in the face of God's infinite wisdom. In a world that often demands immediate answers and complete understanding, this verse reminds us that God's plans are perfect and often beyond our full comprehension. When faced with perplexing circumstances, unanswered prayers, or seemingly contradictory events, this truth encourages us to rest in His sovereign knowledge rather than succumbing to doubt or intellectual pride. It challenges us to relinquish our desire to "figure God out" or to offer Him unsolicited advice, and instead to embrace a spirit of reverent submission. Our appropriate response to such incomprehensible greatness is not to question or critique, but to worship and adore, trusting that the One who needs no counsel is perfectly capable of orchestrating all things for His glory and our good. This verse fosters a deep sense of peace, knowing that the universe is governed by a mind infinitely superior to our own.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does Paul use rhetorical questions in Romans 11:34?
Answer: Paul employs rhetorical questions in Romans 11:34 to emphasize the absolute truth of God's unsearchable wisdom and sovereignty. These questions are not posed to elicit an answer, but rather to make a forceful, self-evident statement. The implied answer to both "For who hath known the mind of the Lord?" and "or who hath been his counsellor?" is a resounding "no one." This literary device powerfully underscores that God is utterly beyond human comprehension or counsel, leading the reader to a posture of profound awe, humility, and worship. It is a common technique in biblical literature, particularly in prophetic and wisdom books, such as when God challenges Job's understanding in Job 38.
Does "the mind of the Lord" imply that God has a human-like mind?
Answer: No, the phrase "the mind of the Lord" (Greek: noûs Kyriou) does not imply that God possesses a mind in the same finite, limited way that humans do. Instead, it refers to God's divine intellect, understanding, and eternal purposes. It is an anthropomorphic expression, using human-like terminology to help us grasp a concept about God's attributes, but it simultaneously highlights that His "mind" is infinitely superior and incomprehensible to ours. As Isaiah 55:8-9 states, God's thoughts and ways are far above our own, emphasizing a qualitative difference rather than a mere quantitative one. Paul's use of this phrase in Romans 11:34 serves to underscore the profound mystery and unsearchable depth of God's wisdom, which transcends all created understanding.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Romans 11:34 speaks of the incomprehensible mind of the Lord in a general sense, its ultimate fulfillment and revelation are found in Jesus Christ. He is the very embodiment of God's wisdom and the perfect revelation of the "mind of the Lord" to humanity. As Colossians 2:2-3 declares, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." No one has ever truly known the mind of the Lord in its fullness, "but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18). Jesus is not merely a counselor to God; He is God's perfect counsel, the very wisdom of God personified, through whom all things were created and through whom God's intricate plan of salvation is revealed and accomplished. He is "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). Therefore, while God's mind remains ultimately unsearchable to human reason, in Christ, we are granted a profound and sufficient understanding of His saving purposes and His divine character, allowing us to respond not with confusion, but with worship and trust.