Thursday, March 8, 2018

The People of God Pt. 10-Rom. 11:17-24


Last week we framed a complicated passage in Romans 11 with a helpful analogy of a door on a busy cityscape. Today we are going to make our way through another complex passage, only this time we are going to elicit Paul’s own metaphor for some help in organizing some of the things that Paul is saying. As Paul turns to address the Gentiles in his audience after having focused on the Jews for the better part of three chapters, he draws five comparisons that are witnessed in what we are going to refer to as the garden of God. Therein, there is tree that, if you look closely, reveals a lot about how the gardener (God) relatives to the fruit-bearing branches that he has planted (the people of God). So let’s go through the gate of this garden as presented in Romans 11:17-24, take a careful look at the five comparisons made, and learn about the attitude us Gentiles are to have concerning our the great gift that we have been given—our salvation.



a) Broken and Grafted Branches-11:17

Up to this point in Romans 9-11 Paul has spent a great deal of time and energy correcting many of the Jews in his audience who were tempted to reject Jesus and settle for their old and tired ways/means of relating to God—i.e. works, the law, and tradition. However, last week in Romans 11:7-16, Paul introduced the Gentiles into his discussion and made the case that because so many Jews had denied what God offered in Christ, the opportunity for salvation was extended to those who were not from Israel. I imagine that many in Paul’s audience who fit this category (saved Gentiles/Gentile church members) were sitting comfortably as the letter was read out loud all those years ago. However, in Romans 11:17-24, Paul arrests their attention and suggests that they ought not get too comfortable or worse, proud/sure of themselves.

To help aid the discussion, Paul endorses a new analogy that illustrates how everyone is relating to God at this current juncture in history—an epoch that has remained largely undisturbed to this day. The analogy he uses is of a garden and the pruning that takes place therein. First, in this garden he points out that some branches have been broken off—“but some of the branches were broken off” (11:17a). In the normal process of pruning and gardening, some branches that aren’t producing or prove unnecessary are removed to make room for better or more capable shoots. Here, the “branches” broken off are Jews who rejected Jesus and, as such, were discarded from God’s plan of redemption.  
I imagine many of you have either recently done similar things to some of your bushes or plants. Some of the bushes that I trim back every year in my yard are my knock out rose bushes. I also trim my crapes myrtles. Why? So that the dead/dormant branches go by the way side and new growth with more flowering bulbs emerge. This is similar to what God did in His garden when the winter of the Jewish rejection of Jesus settled on the world’s landscape.

Notice too that not all of the branches were broken off—only “some were.” In the same way the plants that we trim seasonally are not cut all the way down or totally removed, but a remnant is left behind to act as a foundation for the next season, so too is a remnant of Jews left behind in what Paul witnesses in the garden of God.

That said, in the place of those branches that were cut off, Paul continues, “you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partake with them of the rich root of the olive tree,…” (11:17b). It is interesting that Paul likens the ones to whom he was called to minister –saved Gentiles—to “wild olives.” Wild olives by nature bear small fruit and even then not much at all (Morris, Romans, 413). What was probably even more surprising to the general audience to which Paul wrote was that the symbol of the olive tree was typically reserved for Israel in the Old Testament. Therefore, Paul equates the Jews and the Gentiles within the context of God’s garden as both belong to the olive species of tree and are attached to the same “rich root.” However, he also draws a distinction between “wild” and “domesticated” olive branches, we will soon learn, in an effort to tamp down any potential pride among the newcomers to the faith—the Gentiles.

Therefore, in God’s garden you will see a single olive tree—a hybrid—that is made up of a Jewish remnant and added saved Gentile shoots. This combination forms what is called the universal church.

b) Branches and Roots-11:18

Having established these elements, the main burden of this section is identified in verse 18. There, Paul draws a distinction between branches and roots. In so doing Paul is warning believing Gentiles about the danger of boasting –“do not be arrogant toward the branches” (11:18a). More literally translated this would read “do not be boasting” or “do not be downgrading someone else.” The fact that a lot of Jewish branches were removed so that Gentile branches would be installed could lead to pride and, apparently, many Gentiles in the church at Rome were tempted to boast for this very reason.

At the risk of mixing metaphors let me call your attention to how my children behave on occasion. Sometimes, if one isn’t playing fair or unwilling to share something, Brianna and I will take it away and give it to the other who can handle themselves more appropriately. However, there is always the chance that the one who receives the toy looks back to the other and haughtily exclaims “ha, ha! I get to play with it now!” This juvenile tendency is what Paul is trying to prohibit among the Gentiles. They are not to go around and rub God’s grace in the Jews’ faces. 

To help admonish them to this end, he continues and says “but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root who supports you,…” (11:18b). To silence any possible pride, Paul reminds the Gentiles in his audience that they are a new wild olive branch in a garden of old and well-established trees. They are merely a part of the latest iteration of God’s salvation-history, and ought to embrace their status with all due respect and humility. After all, they are branches, not the root. Where would the former be without the latter? DEAD! Non-Existent! If it were not for God’s work through the Jews there would be nothing to graft the Gentiles onto in the first place!
I’ll never forget one of the questions Dr. Fink would ask upon learning the age of someone much younger than he (which was almost everyone as he was 81 years old). He would ask young bucks like myself “Did you know there was a whole world of history before you were born?” The inquiry was equal parts humorous the compelling as many people often assume that they are living in the most important generation. Paul wanted the Gentiles in his audience (and us Gentiles today) to remember that they stood on the shoulders of those who went before them. There was a whole world of history well before they were grafted into the tree and they ought to hold their place in God’s program of salvation with reverence, not pride.

c) Unbelief and Faith-11:19-20

In anticipating some of the rejoinders to his comments, Paul answers at least one possible response to this admonition in verses 19-20. In so doing, he compares unbelief and faith. “You will say then, ‘branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in” (11:19). This comment betrays the kind of pride and self-centeredness that Paul was trying to prohibit among those in the church of Rome—the attitude that sees salvation as self-serving leading to self-righteousness rather than a God-glorifying pursuit of Jesus’ righteousness.

To such a person Paul answers “quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief” (11:20a). The charge against the branches lying on the group, ready to be burned in the brush-pile was that they wanted nothing to do with light of Jesus Christ and the refreshing water of life that he alone provides. By refusing the light and the water, these branches dried up, failed to produce fruit, and were broken off to make room for new ones. The haughty Gentile had this much right! However, those who are prideful in their faith fail to remember something very important.

In case the believing Gentiles forgot, Paul reminds them, “but you stand by your faith!” (11:20b). Branches cannot pick themselves up and graft themselves onto another tree! A gardener has to do that. In the same way, Paul reminds the believing Gentile community that they didn’t bring themselves into a right relationship with God, but through faith God brought them the whole way. They were “standing” as a result of God picking them off their former “wild” tree, carrying them across the garden, and grafting them onto the family of God. Elsewhere Paul says it this way, “for by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift, not of works lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). In fact, instead of boasting about their situation, the Gentiles are called to fear –“do not be conceited but fear.” This sentiment is shared by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:12—“The one who things he stands should beware lest he fall.”

d) Kindness and Severity-11:21-22

But fear what? Paul answers this as he compares the kindness and severity of God in verses 21-22. He says, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you,…” (11:21). In other words, “If Jews who fell prey to unbelief were not spared God’s judgment, then neither will Gentiles who succumb to unbelief (because of their pride) escape his wrath” (Schreiner, Romans, 607). “This is precisely what many Jews believed, concluding that God would never reject the original branches on the olive tree. Paul insists in the strongest possible terms that no one can presume upon God’s grace and imagine that blessing will be theirs regardless of their continuance in faith.” Assurance of salvation does not and should not lead to being sure of oneself.  Anyone guilty of the latter betrays that he/she may not possess the former. Salvation doesn’t lead to pride, but humility before an awesome God who saved people in spite of themselves to awesome glory.

Reflecting of this awesome God of salvation Paul exclaims “Behold then the kindness and severity of God…” (11:22a). Earlier Paul called the Gentiles to fear and not pride (as reverence proves an antidote for boasting). Here, he demonstrates one reason to fear God and not presume upon His graces—the Lord is equal parts gracious and judging, kind and severe. He is kind to those who in humble faith recognize their need for His Son and follow Him all the way to glory and He is severe against those who reject His Son and haughtily execute their own plan for salvation with no success.
This is where Paul lands in the last part of verse 22—“to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off,…”. In Paul’s day, the severity of God was witnessed as many Jews were being cut off because of their rejection of Christ. On the flipside, God’s amazing kindness was drawing many Gentiles into relationship with His Son. However, the tables could easily turn if those Gentiles became proud of themselves and less impressed by what God had done to save them. They too could just as haughtily reject the light and the water of Jesus as many Jews before them, and, as a result, be cut off from the same life-giving tree. This is why Paul places a qualification on God’s kindness for the Gentiles when he says “if you continue in His kindness.” Those who humbly persevere to the end, in other words, demonstrate that they are legitimate branches who belong in God’s garden.

e) Reality and Potentiality-11:23-24

The possibilities continue in verses 23-24 as Paul shares “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft then in again,…” (11:23). As in verses 7-16, Paul indicates that there a potential future in which many Jews will come to faith in Christ and be reinstated in the tree. God is not only able to bring them back into relationship with Him, he is happy to do so if and when they turn from their pride and humbly accept the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul wraps up with an argument from the lesser to the greater in a final effort to prevent undue pride on the part of the Gentiles reading this letter. He states, “For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivate olive tree, How much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” (11:24). Gentiles are wild and contrary to nature, and yet they are added to a cultivated rich root. This root began as a Jewish root—(“salvation is from the Jews” and “to the Jew first and also to the Gentile”—see Jn 4:22 and Rom 1:16 respectively). Such a realization ought to inspire humble worship of a kind God, not lead one to the kind of pride that will incur the severity of the Lord. 

So What?

So how do you hold onto your salvation? Does it puff you up with self-righteous pride? Do you feel entitled to it because of where you come from or what family you belong to? As Paul walks around the garden of God he warns against such arrogance. Sure, many Gentiles are saved and being saved, but they are all wild branches grafted into an existing tree that began with another people altogether—people of promise, special blessings, and important implications. While their failure has led to our inclusion, make no mistake, whoever is saved is saved by God and as quickly as God broke off those who rejected him because of pride in the past he can do the same now and in the future.

The proper way to hold one’s salvation is with reverence, awe, and wonder—reverence for a kind but severe God, awe for his program of salvation that has spanned thousands of years, and wonder that he saw fit to save someone like you and me. Such sentiments breed humility before God and a grace toward others—not haughty self-absorption and misplaced comparisons.

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