Romans 11:11-24--Gentiles Grafted In

Romans 11:11-24
English Standard Version

Gentiles Grafted In
11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

​17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

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I've pointed toward this section in the past couple blogs.  Paul reaches back to a parable that Jesus told about the Vine and the Vinedresser to talk about how it is the Gentiles who are the wild branches that have been "grafted in" (See John 15:1-17).  The point just makes in John 15 is what Paul has been making all along, there is on people of God and they are all who rest in and find their identity in Christ and His finished work.

Paul goes even further though and talks to the branches that have been grafted in to not be arrogant or have pride about being grafted in or having the "natural" branches cut off (maybe supposing those branches were cut off to make space for them).  However, Paul says that if the Vinedresser was not willing to spare the natural branches then the grafted-in branches should not assume they will be safe.

I'll stop here for a minute to say that this passage is sometime quoted by those who hold to the Armenian viewpoint of having no assurance of salvation.  It is important here that Paul is saying these branches that were cut off never belonged to Christ, never had the Holy Spirit moving through them to produce the Fruit of the Spirit and were dead and were cut off.  Now there is a great promise of the gospel for us!  Even the branches that were "cut off" can be restored and brought back to life by God!  That is great news, especially for me and my family right now.  We don't give up hope that God can do His work to save someone that we may envision as "dead" and maybe even "beyond hope."  That's why salvation is always a miracle of God--all of us were counted as "worthless," "dead" and "without hope" before God intervened to saved us not only from sin and death, but from ourselves.  He does this for His good pleasure and the praise of His glory.

Paul reminds us all that we share one root, which is Christ, and the sap, which is the Spirit, flows through all of us.  It is the sap in us that makes the branches alive and fruitful.  It is Christ who is the root and the foundation that everything is built on.  Without the root, the whole vine is dead.  We rest on the firm foundation of Christ.
Paul says that the Gentiles should take note of both the severity (both the pruning and cutting off of the Vinedresser) and the kindness so that they won't misunderstand when they too are pruned or others around them are "cut off," for we often assume that someone is in the family of God simply because of the family they were born into (much like with the Israelites of the Old Testament), but the people of God have always been a people of faith, and not a people of flesh and blood.  The "children of Abraham" are those who are like him in his faith, for "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."  All of us who are grafted in are also counted as "children of Abraham.

Paul also makes a point that the Gentiles have been made holy or "clean" because they have come in contact with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  They do not pollute the organism by being grafted in, but we Gentiles are like this passage from Luke 8:42b-48

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Normally, anyone who was "unclean" who touched anyone who was "clean" would make the "clean" person "unclean."  In this case though, Jesus is so full of cleanliness, that He can impart His cleanliness to others (through the power of the Holy Spirit).  This time it was not the word of Jesus or even His touch that cleansed the woman, but her faith that she only had to touch the edge or His garment and she would be made well.  This is the story of us as Gentiles--if we even reach out and touch Jesus in the smallest way, we will be healed.  The issue with this analogy though is that the woman went out to seek Jesus and we were just told in Romans 10:20, 

“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
    I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
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That is the story for most of us.  We were not searching for God, but we were found by Him.  "10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10).  Paul says God is just as much out to graft back in the "natural" branches that are the lost sheep of Israel as He is to add the "wild" branches that are Gentiles which belong to Him to this Vine.  See John 10 where Jesus talks about us all being one flock with one Shepherd, but how He has sheep from other sheepfolds that the Israelites didn't know about.  This has been God's plan from the beginning.