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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