The Bible Study Podcast, episode 65. This is the 14th episode in a series in the book of Romans. I'm

titling Christianity 101. Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. I hope you've been joining us for this entire study of the book of Romans. We've got a lot of ground that we've covered so far, and I won't try and summarize it all yet, but I will invite you to go back and listen to the other 13 episodes. We're going to pick up Romans this week, starting in Romans 11, verse 33.

Last week we finished up a section where Paul was talking about Israel and his desire for

Israel to be saved and his understanding that that is still part of God's plan.

And then suddenly here in chapter 11, he goes into what we'd call a doxology, a little section of

praise.

And it goes like this.

O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out.

Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him

are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. It appears here that in the midst of this thought here where Paul is talking about

the deliverance of Israel, he thinks about God and he thinks about the plan and the wisdom and the

knowledge of God and just bursts out here into this section of praise.

And this doxology has three different themes, the first one being how far above our

thoughts or the thoughts of God, how unsearchable his judgments, for instance.

And the second one being that God doesn't need us in the sense that who has ever given to God that God should

repay him, that God is never indebted to us but always the other way around. And then that

third thought here is that it's all about God. For from him, through him, and to him are all things.

That God is intended to be the center of everything,

the center of our lives and from whom everything else derives.

Going on into chapter 12,

...