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"This God is our God."
#13.
The only wise God.
pp. 5 - 7
There are some attributes of God that are specially singled out in the Scriptures as
being His own peculiar possession. For example, we read, "Thou only art holy"
(Rev. 15: 4) and "There is none good but One, that is God" (Matt. 19: 17). This
exclusiveness is specially noticeable in connection with wisdom, and finds expression in
three passages of Scripture.
We find it in Romans in connection with the hiding of certain of God's purposes as a
secret or "mystery":--
"To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen" (Rom. 16: 27).
In direct and structural* (*We do not give the structure here, but hope to do so in a
series of articles dealing with Pastoral Epistles.) relationship with the "mystery of
godliness" in I Timothy we have the passage:--
"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and
glory for ever and ever, Amen" (I Tim. 1: 17).
In Jude 25 we have this title for the third time; and although there is no definite
reference to a mystery in the epistle, there is a reference to that spiritual foe whose
presence and activities seem always to be in sight where the mysteries of God are
concerned. It is in Jude that we read of the conflict between the Devil and Michael over
the body of Moses, and that epistle ends with the words:--
"To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both
now and ever. Amen."
Although Rom. 11: does not use the actual words, "the only wise God", the passage
inspires the fact:--
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and
it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are
all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11: 33-36).
Here once again a mystery is in view--the mystery of Israel's blindness (Rom. 11: 25).
It is to this blindness and its sequel that verse 32 refers; and this leads on to the
ascription of wisdom.