(32) For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. The word rendered hath concluded, means hath deliver^ ed over to the power of. Ps. 31 : 8, "Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy ;" Ps. 78 : 50, " He gave their life over to the pestilence." In both these cases the Septuagint employ the word here used by the apostle. So, too, Gal. 3 : 22, " The scripture hath con- cluded all under sin," i. e. declared all to be delivered up to the power of sin. The meaning of the passage, therefore, is, that God has delivered all men unto unbelief, i. e. has permitted all thus to sin ; or has delivered them over, in the sense in which, in ch. 1 : 28, he is said to deliver men up to the evil of their own hearts. The object of Paul seems to be to direct the attention of his readers to the fact that God's dealings with men, Jews and Gentiles, had been such as to place them upon the same ground. Both were dependent on sovereign mercy. Both had sunk into a state whence no effort and no merit of their own could redeem them, and whence, if saved at all, it must be by grace. As, therefore, all men had forfeited every claim to the divine mercy, and all were in the same condition of unbelief, God had determined to display his goodness by having mercy upon all (that is, upon the Jews as well as the Gentiles), and thus bring all ultimately to one fold, under one Shepherd.
(33 — 36) The apostle having finished his exhibition of the plan of redemption, having presented clearly the doctrine of justification, sancti- fication, the certainty of salvation to all believers, election, the calling of the Gentiles, the present rejection and final restoration of the Jews, in view of all the wonders and all the glories of the divine dealings with men, pours forth this sublime and affecting tribute to the wisdom, good- ness, and sovereignty of God. Few passages, even in the Scriptures, are to be compared with this, in the force with which it presents the idea that God is all, and man is nothing. The principal ideas presented in this passage are, 1. The incomprehensible character and infinite excel- lence of the divine Nature and dispensations, v. 33. 2. His entire inde- pendence of man, vs. 34, 35. 3. His comprehending all things within himself; being the source, the means, and the end of all, v. 35.
(33) 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways are past finding out ! Although it is not probable that, in such a passage, every word was designed to be taken in a very precise and definite sense, yet it is likely that Paul meant to express different ideas by the terms wis- dom and knowledge, because both are so wonderfully displayed in the work of redemption, of which he had been speaking. All-comprehend- ing knowledge, which surveyed all the subjects of this work, all the necessities and circumstances of their being, all the means requisite for the accomplishment of the divine purpose, and all the results of those means from the beginning to the end. Infinite wisdom, in selecting and adapting the means to the object in view, in the ordering of the whole scheme of creation, providence, and redemption, so that the glory of God,
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