This may be one of the most important passages in Romans for understanding Paul's whole discussion of Israel.
Here Paul gives us his olive tree. Some natural branches were broken off. Gentiles were grafted in. But Paul tells us exactly why the branches were broken off: unbelief. He also warns believing Gentiles that they stand by faith and can be cut off if they do not continue in God's kindness. Then comes the remarkable statement that unbelieving Jews can be grafted back in “if they do not continue in their unbelief.”
We should let Paul explain his own illustration.
BRANCHES BROKEN OFF
Romans 11:11–24
Paul has just described part of Israel as hardened.
That raises another question.
Has Israel stumbled beyond recovery?
Paul asks:
“Did they stumble in order that they might fall?”
— Romans 11:11
Again comes Paul's emphatic answer:
“By no means!”
Israel's stumbling is real.
Their unbelief has consequences.
But Paul does not describe their present condition as hopeless.
In fact, he immediately begins talking about God's purpose in using even Israel's stumbling.
THEIR TRESPASS BROUGHT SALVATION TO THE GENTILES
Paul continues:
“Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.”
— Romans 11:11
Israel's rejection of the gospel did not defeat God's purpose.
The gospel moved increasingly into the Gentile world.
Paul himself repeatedly followed this pattern.
He preached first among Jews.
When many rejected the message, he turned to Gentiles.
But notice Paul's purpose:
“To make Israel jealous.”
Why would God want to provoke Israel to jealousy if there were no possibility of their returning?
Paul still hopes for their salvation.
PAUL EXPECTS SOMETHING MORE
He says:
“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!”
— Romans 11:12
We need to be careful with “full inclusion.”
Paul has not yet explained everything he means.
So this is not the place to build an elaborate end-times timetable.
Keep reading.
Paul will continue explaining his hope for Israel.
PAUL SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO GENTILES
Paul says:
“Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.”
— Romans 11:13
That's important.
For several chapters Paul has been discussing Israel.
Now he tells us directly whom he is addressing:
Gentile Christians.
He continues:
“Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.”
But Paul hasn't forgotten his fellow Jews.
He hopes:
“Somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.”
— Romans 11:14
Notice:
“save some of them.”
Paul still believes unbelieving Israelites can be saved.
Again, their present unbelief is not necessarily their final condition.
LIFE FROM THE DEAD
Paul continues:
“For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
— Romans 11:15
There has been considerable discussion about exactly what “life from the dead” means here.
Does Paul mean resurrection?
Is he using dramatic language for restoration?
We shouldn't pretend the phrase settles every question.
But Paul's larger point is clear.
Israel's rejection has not brought God's saving purpose to an end.
Paul looks hopefully toward their acceptance.
Then he gives us an illustration that helps explain the whole situation.
ONE OLIVE TREE
Paul writes:
“If the root is holy, so are the branches.”
— Romans 11:16
Then he describes an olive tree.
Some branches have been:
broken off.
Other branches—wild olive shoots—have been:
grafted in.
The wild branches represent believing Gentiles.
They now:
“Share in the nourishing root of the olive tree.”
Notice something important.
Paul does not describe two olive trees.
He describes one.
Gentiles are not planted beside Israel in a separate tree with a separate salvation.
They are grafted into the existing olive tree and share its root.
DON'T BOAST OVER THE BRANCHES
Paul warns the Gentile Christians:
“Do not be arrogant toward the branches.”
— Romans 11:18
That warning matters.
Gentile believers might look at unbelieving Jews and think:
God rejected them and chose us instead. We must be something special.
Paul says:
Don't boast.
He reminds them:
“It is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”
Gentiles entered a story that began long before them.
The promises.
Abraham.
The patriarchs.
The prophets.
The Messiah Himself.
Gentile Christians have no reason for arrogance toward Jews.
WHY WERE THE BRANCHES BROKEN OFF?
Now Paul anticipates the Gentile response:
“Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’”
— Romans 11:19
Paul answers:
“That is true.”
But then he tells us why.
This may be the most important sentence in the illustration:
“They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith.”
— Romans 11:20
There it is.
Why were Jewish branches broken off?
Unbelief.
Why do Gentile believers stand?
Faith.
That is Paul's own explanation.
We don't have to guess.
“SO DO NOT BECOME PROUD”
Paul immediately says:
“So do not become proud, but fear.”
Why fear?
“For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.”
— Romans 11:21
That is a serious warning.
Paul is talking to people who presently:
“Stand fast through faith.”
Yet he warns them not to become proud.
Their present standing is not permission for complacency.
NOTICE THE KINDNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD
Paul says:
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God.”
— Romans 11:22
Both belong in our understanding of God.
Kindness.
And:
severity.
Severity toward those who fell.
Kindness toward the believing Gentiles.
But then Paul adds a condition:
“Provided you continue in his kindness.”
And then:
“Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
We should not soften that.
Paul is warning people who have been grafted into the olive tree.
He tells them:
Continue.
Otherwise:
“You too will be cut off.”
CAN A BELIEVER BE CUT OFF?
Whatever theological system we bring to Romans, we need to let Paul's warning retain its force.
These Gentiles:
have been grafted in.
They:
stand by faith.
They presently experience:
God's kindness.
Yet Paul warns:
“Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
A warning only has meaning if the danger being warned about is real.
Paul does not tell them:
You stand by faith, so being cut off is impossible.
He says the opposite:
“Do not become proud, but fear.”
And:
“Continue in his kindness.”
AND WHAT ABOUT THE JEWS WHO WERE BROKEN OFF?
Now comes the other side of the picture.
Paul says:
“And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.”
— Romans 11:23
That is one of the clearest statements in the entire discussion.
The branches were broken off because of:
unbelief.
Can they return?
Yes.
Under what condition?
“If they do not continue in their unbelief.”
Why?
“For God has the power to graft them in again.”
Their present condition is not irreversible.
Unbelief broke them off.
Faith can bring them back.
“GRAFTED IN AGAIN”
Don't miss the word:
again.
These are natural branches.
They belonged to the tree.
They were broken off.
And Paul says God can:
“Graft them in again.”
That makes it difficult to turn the olive tree into an illustration of unconditional individual election in which people's relationship to the tree can never change.
In Paul's own illustration:
some are in, then broken off.
Others are outside, then grafted in.
And those broken off can be:
grafted in again.
The determining issue Paul repeatedly names is:
faith or unbelief.
THE NATURAL BRANCHES CAN RETURN
Paul concludes:
“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.”
— Romans 11:24
Paul hasn't given up on Israel.
Far from it.
He believes Jewish unbelievers can return.
They are natural branches.
The olive tree belongs to the history from which they came.
But their natural relationship does not automatically put them back into the tree.
Paul has already stated the condition:
“If they do not continue in their unbelief.”
NOTICE WHAT PAUL DOES NOT SAY
Paul does not say:
Jews are saved because they are Jews.
Nor does he say:
Gentiles replaced Jews and now Jews are permanently excluded.
Neither idea fits the olive tree.
There is one tree.
Some Jewish branches were broken off because of unbelief.
Believing Gentiles were grafted in.
Gentiles stand by faith and must continue.
Unbelieving Jewish branches can be grafted back in if they do not continue in unbelief.
That is Paul's picture.
DID THE CHURCH “REPLACE” ISRAEL?
The word replacement can actually make Paul's picture harder to see.
Paul doesn't describe one tree being uprooted and another tree planted in its place.
The olive tree remains.
What changes are the:
branches.
Some natural branches are removed.
Wild branches are grafted in.
Natural branches can be grafted back in.
So instead of beginning with labels such as “replacement theology” or “dispensationalism,” why not begin with Paul's own illustration?
One tree.
One root.
Branches broken off through unbelief.
Branches standing through faith.
Broken branches capable of being grafted in again.
Let the picture speak before giving it a theological label.
THIS ALSO TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT PERSEVERANCE
Paul's warning to Gentile believers is difficult to miss:
“You stand fast through faith.”
Then:
“Do not become proud, but fear.”
Then:
“Provided you continue in his kindness.”
Then:
“Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
Paul believes God is faithful.
He believes salvation is by grace.
But Paul also tells believers to:
continue.
Grace does not turn warnings into meaningless words.
READ PAUL BEFORE READING A SYSTEM INTO PAUL
Romans 11 gives us an unusually clear opportunity to do that.
Don't begin by asking:
What does Calvinism say?
What does Arminianism say?
What does dispensationalism say?
What does covenant theology say?
Begin with:
What does Paul say?
And Paul says:
“They were broken off because of their unbelief.”
“You stand fast through faith.”
“Provided you continue.”
“Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
And:
“If they do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted in.”
Before fitting those statements into any system, let them have their full weight.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Ask the text:
How many olive trees does Paul describe?
One.
Why were some natural branches broken off?
“Because of their unbelief.”
Why do the Gentile branches stand?
“Through faith.”
Should believing Gentiles boast?
No.
“Do not become proud, but fear.”
Must they continue?
Yes.
“Provided you continue in his kindness.”
What happens otherwise?
“You too will be cut off.”
Can unbelieving Jewish branches return?
Yes.
“If they do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted in.”
The olive tree gives us a remarkably simple picture:
Unbelief breaks off.
Faith stands.
Those standing must continue.
Those broken off can return through faith.
But Paul still has something enormous to explain.
He now speaks of:
a mystery,
a partial hardening of Israel,
and the famous statement:
“And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
What does “all Israel” mean?
We shouldn't answer that from a theological system.
We should let Paul explain it from the argument he has been building since Romans 9.
NEXT: AND SO ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED
Romans 11:25–32
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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