• Romans 11:33-34 -- 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! {34} For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

Here, the Apostle Paul is contemplating the highest manifestation of God's infinite wisdom in the election of guilty sinners to be saved by Jesus Christ in a way that glorifies every attribute of His character. God has designed in His wisdom to overrule the sin and fall of man for the glory of His character in the salvation of sinners based on the righteousness of Christ. God overrules even the sin of man for His own glory and the good of His people. In this we are not encouraged to do evil nor authorized to sin that good may come. Such thoughts are dishonoring to God's holy character, a denial of His infinite wisdom, and a testimony to the foolishness of man. God who is infinitely wise is the only one who can overrule evil to serve any good purpose. We are not wise enough for this.

Wisdom is the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fullness in God. He alone is naturally and entirely wise. God is never anything other than wise in anything He does. Wisdom is His essence. Human wisdom can be frustrated by circumstances outside of our control. Human wisdom is imperfect. But God's wisdom cannot be frustrated by circumstances outside of His control because He controls all things. His control of all things is attended by perfect wisdom.

God's wisdom is also attended with absolute power. It is omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom. This is a basic biblical description of God's character (Job 9:4; 12:13; 36:5; Isaiah 40:26,28; Daniel 2:20). Wisdom without power is pathetic; power without wisdom is frightening. Think of evil kings and rulers. It is said that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." This is so with sinful man, but not with a holy, omniscient God. Infinite wisdom and power are united in God, and this makes Him worthy of our complete reverence and trust. In the Bible, infinite wisdom is ascribed to all three Persons of the Godhead (Colossians 2:3; Ephesians 1:17). God's wisdom is always active and it never fails.

His works of creation display His wisdom (Ps. 104:24; 136:5; Prov. 3:19; 8:27-30). Think of the order and majesty of this universe, and it could only have been the work of an all-wise Creator. His works in providence display His wisdom (Job 12:9-12; Isa. 46:9-11; Dan. 2:20-22,28). Think of God's wisdom working out in the lives of Joseph, Abraham, Job, etc.. We may be bewildered by things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what He is doing, and He has assured His people that "all things work together for their eternal good" (Rom. 8:28). The greatest display of God's infinite wisdom is in redemption. God's wisdom is in the Person and the mediatorial offices and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is often spoken of as Wisdom, or the Wisdom of God (Proverbs 8:12-31; 1 Corinthians 1:24).

I. THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD'S WISDOM.

A. His purposes and decrees -- God's wisdom is displayed in His purposes and decrees which are called His counsels (Isaiah 25:1). His counsels are His decrees fixed with infinite wisdom. God's counsels, promises, and threatenings can in no way be changed or frustrated because they are attended with infinite wisdom which considers every means to be provided and every obstacle to be removed for their accomplishment. It would be foolishness to change that which is instituted by infinite wisdom. Therefore any notion that any of God's purposes and decrees could be frustrated is a direct attack upon God's wisdom.

God's wisdom is mainly displayed in the goal of all of His decrees -- His own glory. "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36). His glory is the revelation of the perfections of His nature. God has appointed all things for Himself, for as all things are of Him as the first cause and are through Him as the wise orderer and disposer of them. All things are to Him for His glory. God's wisdom is displayed in all that glorifies Him, and all that glorifies Him is good for man. Even the means infinite wisdom has appointed to bring about this goal will glorify God.

B. The Everlasting Covenant of Grace -- The wisdom of God appears in His transactions with God the Son in the Everlasting Covenant of Grace. This covenant is ordered and sure in all things for the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the for the good of His elect. This covenant is full of promises and blessings in Christ who is the Mediator and Surety of it. All of these promises and blessings, as well as the persons of the elect, were put into Christ's hands for safety and security (Isaiah 9:6-7; John 6:37). God's wisdom is displayed in His conditioning all of the salvation of the elect on Christ alone. Any notion of a salvation conditioned on the sinner denies God's wisdom in conditioning salvation upon His Son. It sets man's foolishness above God's wisdom and glory. According to this covenant, the wisdom of God is to be seen in the great work of redemption by Christ (Ephesians 1:7,8) in many particulars:

• (1) In the Person of the chosen Redeemer upon whom all of salvation was conditioned (Isaiah 42:1) - Redemption was not conditioned upon any of the sinful race of men, for they all having sinned are in need of a sinless Redeemer. Salvation was conditioned on God's own Son whom He appointed and foreordained to be the Redeemer of His chosen people. Christ is the Word who was in the beginning with God, and was God, and by whom all things were made, and so equal to such an undertaking (John 1:1-4). Christ became one Person with two distinct natures, Divine and human, and equipped to be employed for the task (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:16-18; 7:24-25; Matthew 1:21,23).

God has revealed His infinite wisdom in the constitution of Christ's Person. Christ is truly God in every respect, infinite in every attribute of His holy character, equal with Father and the Holy Spirit. One God who subsists in three distinct Persons, each Person a partaker of the one undivided essence. God, even God the Son, is spirit, having no bodily members or form.

Christ is truly man with a real body and soul. He is a partaker of all the qualities of character that constitute true sinless humanity. He was made like His brethren in all things, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). God the Father has invested the offices of mediator and surety, savior, representative, and substitute, in the Person of Christ. It is the infinite qualities of His Divine nature that renders Him the meet object of our faith in the execution of His offices.

This Person was capable of being "made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" (Galatians 4:4-5) by satisfying law and justice as their substitute and bringing in a righteousness of infinite value in order that God might be just and yet justify the ungodly (Romans 3:21-25). In the salvation of sinners conditioned on Christ the law is magnified and made more honorable than it could have been by the obedience of all the angels in heaven or by the sufferings of all the damned in hell.

• (2) In the persons chosen to be redeemed -- God did not choose all without exception. He chose some according to the good pleasure of His sovereign will. This was done to show His sovereignty in redeeming all whom He is pleased to redeem. Since all had sinned and deserved of death, it shows the glory of His grace in the redemption of some and His justice in the destruction of others (Romans 9:22-23). God is no respecter of persons. He has not limited His grace to any particular family or nation, but He has redeemed some out of every nation. God's wisdom is seen as He magnifies the riches of His grace to show the freeness of salvation as He sent Christ to redeem, not good people who have met certain conditions, but ungodly sinners who cannot meet any conditions (Romans 4:5; 5:6-10).



• (3) In the ground of redemption -- For God to be just and justify sinners, the price of law and justice must be satisfied. The claims of mercy and justice, which seem to oppose one another, must be reconciled according to God's wisdom (Psalm 85:10). Mercy insists that sinners be pardoned. Justice requires that the sentence of law be executed and punishment be imposed so that the rights and honors of law and justice are maintained. How can sinners be just with God? Here is where we behold the infinite wisdom of God in conditioning all of salvation upon Christ who satisfied law and justice by His own blood as the substitute of a people and who provided the way for sinners to be pardoned and accepted before God. As our Representative and Surety, Christ worked out a perfect righteousness whereby God could be just and justify sinners. God's wisdom is displayed in substitution, satisfaction, and imputation (Rom. 5:12-21).



• (4) In the application of salvation to our persons -- All that God has purposed and promised for His elect in Christ was earned for us by Christ. It was the wisdom of God to devise a plan that give us the full possession of the whole inheritance of grace in the Person of Christ, our Substitute. All of God's elect already possess all things that pertain to salvation, even unto final glory in the Person of Christ. But this salvation must be applied to our persons in time as we are justified, sanctified, brought to faith and repentance, and certain to be glorified in our persons all based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. It was also the wisdom of God to devise a way and provide all the means necessary for this application in a way that would glorify Him, exalt Christ, and exclude all boasting in ourselves. This way is through the Holy Spirit giving us spiritual life and through the preaching of the Gospel bringing us to faith in Christ and repentance from idolatry and dead works.

In the Gospel of salvation conditioned on Christ alone, based on His righteousness alone, without our deeds under the law, we see the wisdom and the glory of God (Ephesians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6). Paul spoke of this divine wisdom as "a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory" (1 Cor. 2:7). It is the Gospel of Christ in whom "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). Only those who trust in Christ as the Lord our Righteousness possess this wisdom from God.

Unconverted sinners, unbelievers, consider the wisdom of God to be foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18-22). They cannot imagine that God would justify a sinner based totally upon the righteousness of another. Nor can they imagine that God would send sinners to hell simply because they are ignorant of or not submitted to that righteousness. Read 1 Corinthians 1:23-31. The problem with human wisdom is that it is under the powers of self-love, self-righteousness, and religious pride. But God in His wisdom has devised a way that will overcome all these powers of darkness and bring us to a saving understanding of Christ and Him crucified. Compare Romans 9:30--10:3 and Romans 4:16.

II. THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF GOD'S WISDOM -- Man's wisdom always opposes God's wisdom in the specific matter of the ground of salvation. This is why popular religion today that comes in the name of Christianity actually denies God's perfect wisdom. It exalts man's goodness and wisdom in devising an atonement that does not really atone and a redeemer who does not actually redeem. The popular notion of universal atonement that makes salvation conditioned on the sinner and says that Christ's righteousness alone does not make the difference between heaven and hell is a denial of the wisdom of God in devising His way of salvation. The wisdom of man makes salvation a mere possibility if sinners will do their part. Therefore, there is no certainty of salvation for any sinner, but in reality the certainty of eternal damnation for every sinner.

All that is revealed concerning God's infinite wisdom should be the greatest encouragement for sinners to forsake human wisdom in this area and to seek God's wisdom in the Gospel. The Bible has a great deal to say about the Divine gift of wisdom. The first nine chapters of Proverbs are a single exhortation to seek this gift (Prov. 4:7). There are two things needed for a person to lay hold of wisdom according to the Scripture and grow therein. Read the following:

• Ecclesiastes 12:13 -- Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

A. The fear of God -- This is a reverence and respect for God's character in redemption by Christ. It is opposite of legal fear of punishment. Godly fear is revealed when a person believes God's Gospel, trusts Christ, and rest in His righteousness as the only ground of salvation. Godly fear is revealed when a sinner expects God to save him and keep him on this one ground wherein God's glory is revealed as both a just God and a Savior. Legal fear is when a person under fear of wrath and punishment goes about trying to establish a righteousness of his own. It is when a person thinks that salvation or any part of it is conditioned on anything other than the righteousness of Christ.

The Bible tells that by nature we do not have this Godly fear (Rom. 3:18), and this is proven in our attempts to establish a righteousness of our own. It is proven in our insisting that salvation be conditioned on the sinner. This is man's wisdom, which is in reality foolishness. But the Bible also tells us to seek God's wisdom and that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7; Ps. 111:10). Sinners are commanded and fully responsible to seek and believe God's wisdom in the Gospel.

B. Submitting to God's Word and God's law (Ps. 19:7-10; 119:98-99; 2 Tim. 3:15-17) - Human wisdom leads to unbelief of God's Word (Rom. 8:7). But in Scripture, wisdom is a moral as well as an intellectual quality. For us to be truly wise in the Bible sense, our intelligence and knowledge must be guided by a right motive and towards a right goal. Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it. We have all known very intelligent people who have used their intelligence and knowledge for selfish, evil ends.

The only right motive and right goal is revealed in God's Gospel, His word of grace, of salvation conditioned on Christ. The motive is the absolute certainty of salvation based on His righteousness alone, and the goal is the glory of God's redemptive character. Wisdom begins by believing the Gospel and repenting from dead works. It continues and grows as we learn more and more to judge by God's standard in His word, His revealed wisdom. We have His wisdom to guide in our worship, obedience, our dealings with each other and with the world.

We ought to do our best to keep God's commandments, seeking to love God supremely and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But we must never attempt to keep any commandment unless we are motivated by grace and aiming towards God's glory as the one who justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness of Christ. Only God in His infinite wisdom could devise a plan that would enable His children to be diligent in obedience with no legal or mercenary thoughts whatsoever.