Romans 11:36

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom--"to Him" be glory for ever. Amen--Thus worthily--with a brevity only equalled by its sublimity--does the apostle here sum up this whole matter. "OF Him are all things," as their eternal Source: "THROUGH HIM are all things," inasmuch as He brings all to pass which in His eternal counsels He purposed: "To Him are all things," as being His own last End; the manifestation of the glory of His own perfections being the ultimate, because the highest possible, design of all His procedure from first to last. On this rich chapter, Note, (1) It is an unspeakable consolation to know that in times of deepest religious declension and most extensive defection from the truth, the lamp of God has never been permitted to go out, and that a faithful remnant has ever existed--a remnant larger than their own drooping spirits could easily believe (Rom 11:1-5). (2) The preservation of this remnant, even as their separation at the first, is all of mere grace (Rom 11:5-6). (3) When individuals and communities, after many fruitless warnings, are abandoned of God, they go from bad to worse (Rom 11:7-10). (4) God has so ordered His dealings with the great divisions of mankind, "that no flesh should glory in His presence." Gentile and Jew have each in turn been "shut up to unbelief," that each in turn may experience the "mercy" which saves the chief of sinners (Rom. 11:11-32). (5) As we are "justified by faith," so are we "kept by the power of God through faith"--faith alone--unto salvation (Rom 11:20-32). (6) God's covenant with Abraham and his natural seed is a perpetual covenant, in equal force under the Gospel as before it. Therefore it is, that the Jews as a nation still survive, in spite of all the laws which, in similar circum…

The apostle, having reconciled that great truth of the rejection of the Jews with the promise made unto the fathers, is, in this chapter, further labouring to mollify the harshness of it, and to reconcile it to the divine goodness in general. It might be said, "Hath God then cast away his people?" The apostles therefore sets himself, in this chapter, to make a reply to this objection, and that two ways: - I. He shows at large what the mercy is that is mixed with this wrath (v. 1-32). II. He infers thence the infinite wisdom and sovereignty of God, with the adoration of which he concludes this chapter and subject (Rom 11:33-36).

11:36 everything comes from him and exists by his power: This statement is similar to statements found among Greek Stoic philosophers in their descriptions of God. Paul regularly draws on literature from the Greco-Roman world to present and clarify the truth about God and his purposes (cp. Acts 17:24-29).