His Judgments and Ways

Our God is omniscient and wise beyond compare. It is altogether proper to praise Him for these and other attributes. But it is also good to praise the manifestations of His wisdom that we behold in His works of providence in the here and now. Thus, Paul now moves on to laud God’s “judgments” and “ways” (or “paths,” NIV). “Knowledge and wisdom are only potentialities,” Dr. James M. Boice writes in his commentary on Romans. “It is only when we get to the next step that the potentialities become actualities, as God’s wisdom expresses itself in His decrees, and His decrees determine the path His decisions actually take in human history.”

To speak of God’s judgments is to speak of His “decrees” or “determinations”—His decisions on what is to happen in time or space. Boice notes that the Greek word for “judgments” is krimata, which “is generally used in the sense of God’s judicial decisions, that is, God’s judgments on the wicked. . . But the word is sometimes also used of decisions or determinations.” Actually, it is more proper to speak of His “decree,” for He determined the course of history before it began, to the minutest detail. Paul’s reference to God’s “ways” has to do with “the course [God’s] judgments actually take in human history,” Boice writes. These are the outworkings of His judgments, the “acts of God” that occur from day to day and moment to moment, even if they do not seem significant enough to merit such a term.

How awesome are God’s judgments and ways? His judgments are “unsearchable” (from a Greek word meaning “cannot be searched to the bottom”) and His ways are “past finding out” (from a Greek word meaning “cannot be followed to the end”). Simply put, the decisions and actions of God are beyond our ability to fully understand. Not totally, of course—we can know some things of God’s ways, as evidenced by Paul making known His redemptive plan for Jews and gentiles in Romans 11. But Paul is saying that we cannot comprehend divine judgments and ways on our own; we need revelation if we are to understand God’s ways at all.

Where revelation stops, faith begins. We may not be able to understand God’s providence, but we can know that it is informed by His knowledge, guided by His wisdom, and determined by His decree.