John Calvin Commentary Romans 11:34

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" — Romans 11:34 (ASV)

Who has known the mind of the Lord? He begins here, as it were, to extend his hand to restrain the audacity of people, so that they do not clamor against God’s judgments. He does this by stating two reasons. The first is that all mortals are too blind to perceive God’s predestination with their own understanding, and to reason about an unknown thing is presumptuous and absurd. The other is that we can have no cause for complaint against God, since no mortal can boast that God is indebted to him; on the contrary, all are obligated to him for his bounty.

Therefore, let everyone remember to keep their mind within this limit, so that they are not carried beyond God’s oracles when investigating predestination, since we hear that humanity can distinguish nothing in this case, any more than a blind person in darkness.

This caution, however, should not be applied in such a way as to weaken the certainty of faith. This certainty proceeds not from the sharpness of the human mind, but solely from the illumination of the Spirit. For Paul himself, in another place, after testifying that all the mysteries of God far exceed the comprehension of our minds, immediately adds that the faithful understand the mind of the Lord. This is because they have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who has been given to them by God, by whom they are instructed about His goodness, which would otherwise be incomprehensible to them.

Therefore, just as we cannot by our own faculties examine God’s secrets, so we are admitted into a certain and clear knowledge of them by the grace of the Holy Spirit. If we are to follow the guidance of the Spirit, where He leaves us, there we must stop and, as it were, take our stand.

If anyone seeks to know more than what God has revealed, he will be overwhelmed by the immeasurable brightness of inaccessible light.

But we must keep in mind the distinction I have mentioned before: that between the secret counsel of God and His will made known in Scripture. For although the entire doctrine of Scripture in its height surpasses the human mind, access to it is not closed to the faithful who reverently and soberly follow the Spirit as their guide. The case is different, however, with His hidden counsel, the depth and height of which cannot be reached by any investigation.