NO ONE LIKE GOD
AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE WAY and AN INFINITE WEIGHT

There is no one like God! That is the conclusion of a man who likely had more insight into God than any mere mortal—who had been blinded by that glory—Paul, the Apostle. Meditate on these remarkable words,

33 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!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE WAY “His ways past finding out!” (v.33)
The Greek language paints a picture of a hound losing the scent of its prey or a guide losing the sight of the path. Thus we cannot fully trace the footprints of God’s sovereign steps. You cannot understand all the ways of God.

• HE NEEDS THE COUNSEL OF NONE (v.34) We think we are so smart—we are as fleas trying to understand calculus. Who do we think we are to give God advice? What hubris! How pompous! To claim to fully understand God is to show how little we do understand Him! Job’s friends tried to explain to Job the inexplicable and although Job had greater insight, his thoughts and speech eventually crossed the line as well. This godly man demanded an audience with God, and when he got it, he had to shut up as God said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge. Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.” (Job 38:2-3) God doesn’t answer to us—but we answer to Him!
• HE NEEDS THE CONTRIBUTION OF NONE (v.35) If you had to buy Bill Gates a birthday present, what could you give him? Tough task! So, what can you give God? God needs nothing. He owns it all. He owes us nothing. He doesn’t need us, but we need Him. God without us is still God, but without God we’re nothing! God identifies Himself as “I AM THAT I AM.” He is all; He is everything—self-existent, self-sufficient, self-sustaining. God isn’t into hand-wringing! If God doesn’t come through, we’re through, but He isn’t desperately waiting for our service or our tithe. He, in His grace, extends an invitation for us to join Him in His work. That is in order to bless us with the privilege, not to enable God to do that which He could not do Himself!

AN INFINITE WEIGHT “to whom be glory forever.” (v.36)
All the universe exists and moves to this end—the glory (Greek: doxa, from which we get doxology) of God and God alone. The Hebrew term is kabod, the word for “weight” and speaks to the gravity of His being. Don’t take God lightly! But that’s much of what contemporary church culture does! We get too chummy with God. He’s not the “man upstairs” and Jesus isn’t your “buddy.” How flip and glib we can be when we speak of the thrice Holy One!

• HE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS “of Him…” Nothing exists apart from Him. He called it all into being by a spoken word! Imagine grace like a river—God is the fountain from which it springs.
• HE IS THE SUSTAINER OF ALL THINGS “through Him…” He is also the channel through which grace flows. He holds all things together by the word of His power, and apart from His sustaining glory, everything would fly apart!
• HE IS THE SUM OF ALL THINGS “to Him are all things…” God is the boundless sea into which all things flow. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:28, “that God may be all in all.” Since His glory is the primary purpose of all things, then His glory should be our preeminent passion.

And all God’s people must joyfully join with Paul’s final word in this chapter, “Amen!”