Oh, 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 them?
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Therefore, I urge you,brothers and sisters, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as a
living sacrifice,holy and pleasing to Godthis is your true and proper worship.Do not
conform to the pattern of this world,but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then
you will be able to test and approve what Gods will ishis good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 11:33-12:2
The life we live as Christians comprises 3 aspects, that which we believe (orthodoxy), that which
we feel (orthopathy) and that which we do (orthopraxy), a proverbial three legged stool on which
our identity rests.How these engage with one another and the priority we afford them makes the
difference between a lop sided expression of faith and a solid, well balanced one.
A true saving faith engages the whole person-head,heart and hand.
When an overemphasis on one of these occurs we find our identity out of balance and how we
think, feel and live as Christians becomes a distortion of that which God wants for us. Many of
Christ's harshest words were reserved for those who magnified one of these aspects to the point of
idolatry.
In fact in Mark 12 when Christ wasconfronting the religious authorities who were guilty of
distortion and being hung up on legalism and externals, He spoke DIRECTLY to this issue.
When asked which was the greatest commandment He directly quoted Deuteronomy 6.
And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and
all your strength.
The book of Romans is often cited as being an influential book for many believers through the ages.
Coleridge calls the Epistle to the Romans"the profoundest book in existence."
Chrysostom had it read to him twice a week.
Luther, in his famous preface, says"This Epistle is the chief book of the New Testament, the purest
Gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of
his meditation day by day, the daily bread of his soul."
... Melanchthon, in order to make it more perfectly his own, copied it twice with his own hand. It is
the book which he expounded most frequently in his lectures. The Reformation was undoubtedly
the work of the Epistle to the Romans, as well as the epistle to the Galatians; and the probability is
that every great spiritual revival in the church will be associated as effect and cause with a deeper
understanding of this book. Why?
Reformer John Calvin wrote that "If a man understands Romans he has a sure road open to him to
the understanding of the whole Scripture."
Gleason Archer concurs, saying, "There is no more complete compendium of the Christian doctrine
in the sixty-six books of the Bible than the Epistle to the Romans." Likewise, Dr. Lloyd-Jones
called it "a colossal and incomparable statement of Christian truth."
The Book of Romans outlines in no uncertain terms how we should think, feel and live as believers.

Paul was a kindred spirit for us all, a man who had tried to climb the ladder of self effort to God. He
was a man who had mercilessly sought the suppression of the gospel, advocated the stoning of
Stephen. Our hearts before Christ were no less hateful than his to the things of God, we just didn't
have the opportunities to express them as he did. But the self same love of sin, and suppression of
truth in unrighteousness was that which makes us kinsmen with Paul.
But Christ broke in, in His Sovereign wisdom, and unending mercy, he handpicked Paul to become
arguably the most ardent messenger of the gospel. Paul, the Chief of Sinners made Co-worker and
friend of Christ. Paul explains in the epistle to the Romans, that all of us, outside of Christ are in
bondage to sin, and slave to our own evil impulses. He pulls no punches outlining our natural
condition in the fallen state. Outside of Christ we can do nothing to please God nor do we want to,
we are slaves-wholly given over to feeding our stomachs, massaging our ego's and feeding the
myriad desires of our flesh. Paul then takes the next 11 chapters of his epistle to unpack
magisterially how the mercy of Christ is applied in faith to our lives by the Power of the Holy
Spirit.
Gods amazing story of relentless grace is systematically laid out, the doctrine of salvation is laid out
for us, firstly for mankind in chapters 1-8 and then specifically moving onto the nation of Israel in
9-11. It first brings indictment, to the heathen, the moral gentile and the Jew and then brings the
solution, the precious mercies of Christ. Paul provides us with a framework for right thinking, not
only a framework for right thinking but also for establishing priorities.
Right thinking comes first, right thinking leads to right actions and right feeling.
Paul labours for 11 chapters as the Spirit lead Him, to provide us with the means to build a theology,
a theology founded on the righteousness of God, our wretchedness before Him and the deep
precious mercies found in Christ.
And having laid this foundation, Paul rests from his labours and we see him burst into the doxology
or expression of praise, wonder, gratitude and worship which started our reading off this evening.
When God reveals Himself through His Word, and that truth is illuminated to our minds and hearts
by the Holy Spirit what can we do aside from praise Him?
When we consider how we have lived our lives, when we think of our inner lives, the hate we store
up for brother and sister. How we can self deceive, self protect and self worship. When we see the
awesome holiness of God laid before us and feel the weight of our lack and feel the press of our
need. And when we think back to crying out to Christ, and understanding and experiencing and
trusting the grace of God extended to us in Christ. How how such praise should bubble up in our
innermost selves!!
Christian do you know of this? Is it a present reality or a distant memory If the latter I would
encourage you to gaze upon the precious mercies of Christ laid out in this wonderful letter. For the
glimpse we are given here is only the icebergs tip. Paul, after unfolding the plan of salvation
revealed to Him by Christ in the most profound way is moved to worship by the reality of how little
of God he knows, how unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out. Further, the
realisation of how totally undeserving of grace and unable to repay the mercies of God again
presses him further to praise.
How far has he come from climbing the ladder of self effort, after all dead men don't climb ladders
(little calvinist humour there) and born again men take the elevator!! The doxology closes with a
beautfiul paeon to the all sufficency of Christ in the face of our total depravity and inability before
The Most High God.