Overflowing with exuberance, the apostle gushes with praise for God. This was his pattern of writing—no dry, academic dissertation here. See Paul’s monumental work on the doctrine of Justification (we call it the Epistle to the Romans) where he lays out in eleven chapters, painstakingly tight, logical detail, the foundational truth of Christianity, the gospel of grace in all its glory. There the apostle can no longer contain an academic theologian demeanor, and breaks out in doxology: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!…… For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33–36). Likewise in other places, Paul becomes overwhelmed with the greatness of the truth about which he writes.

So here, the truth of the mystery that the Jew and Gentile have been brought together in one body by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, sends Paul into a moment of spiritual reflection and effervescent praise. It’s almost like, from human perspective, God has outdone Himself; as when an artist produces a piece of work that completely surpasses all his other works, in quality, design, color and nuance. He has outdone himself, and the piece is far and away better in every way than anything he has done before.

In God’s case, all His work is excellent: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1 NKJV) .“The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3 ). So God can’t really “outdo” Himself, because all His ways are perfect (Deut 32:4). But, from our perspective, new discoveries of God’s truth leave us in amazed wonder whether anything God does could get any better than what we have just comprehended. It’s like one preacher who asked, “When was God at His best?” and then going through the major events of God’s working in this world, beginning with creation ex nihilo, (out of nothing). Just when you think you have contemplated God at His best, you discover something newer and greater. Surely that thing must reflect the pinnacle of His greatness. In the end, God is at His best when He is able to do “beyond all we ask or think according to the power that works within us.” He is changing us, revealing Himself to us, loving us and loving through us. That is when God is at His best (from our humble, astonished perspective).