Rom. 10.18-11.24

The Olive Tree

(Romans 10.18-11.24)

Jason Procopio

We’re arriving today at what is, I think, the most difficult section in Paul’s whole letter to the Romans. I said Romans 9 is difficult, not because it’s hard to understand, but because it’s difficult to accept. Romans 11 is difficult to understand and accept. But if we do the work well, it’s an incredible passage: it’s absolutely fitting that Paul closes off this section by a doxology.

We’ll be in this chapter for the next two weeks: there’s a lot here. But before we get into it, it’s absolutely vital that we remember what’s going on in this letter Paul is writing to the church in Rome.

This church is comprised of Christians from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. The Jews were exiled from Rome for several years, and have since returned to this church that was being run by the Gentiles in their absence. Now that they’re back, there’s some confusion over what exactly church life should look like for them, over what it means to be a “good Christian”, who has the better position in regards to salvation.

The Jews were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, they were the ones whom God rescued out of slavery in Egypt, to whom he gave the law through Moses and to whom he spoke through the prophets. So they had good reason to feel like they had the market cornered on God’s favor. The Gentiles, on the other hand, had received faith in Christ without the law and the prophets, so they had good reason to think all this Jewish heritage was sort of worthless—why think about it, if they had faith in Christ?

That’s why Paul took a lot of time at the beginning of this letter leveling the playing field, and establishing that we all need to be saved from our unrighteousness, our rebellion against God. We are all guilty before God, Jew and Gentile alike, because we have all rejected him. We all need his forgiveness and mercy; we all need to be saved from the punishment we deserve. And Christ is the means God gave us to be saved.

That’s not the question Paul’s addressing here; the Jews and the Gentiles, presumably, already agree about that.

The question Paul’s addressing here is twofold: first, what does God’s plan of salvation in Christ mean for those Jews who have rejected him? And second, once we have placed our faith in Christ, what does that change for us? How does that change the way we see ourselves?

Those are the questions this church is wrestling with.

So in chapter 9, Paul takes them back to basics and reminds them that even though salvation is absolutely by faith and faith alone, the law and the prophets were actually necessary tools that God used to bring the Jews to this salvation by faith alone. He reminds them that God is the one who chooses to save whom he will, and that for those whom he chooses to save, he uses the Old Testament (amongst other things) to bring them to faith in Christ.

And he reminds them that this has been God’s plan, and God’s way of doing things, since the beginning. Many other Jews had understood what God was doing—like the saints in the Old Testament, even if they didn’t have the whole picture yet—and had faith in God’s promise to save them. The Jewish Christians in Rome are a good example of this: they have grown up knowing about God’s promises to send a Messiah, a Savior to save his people—and they have understood and believe that Jesus Christ is that Messiah. Many of them have gotten it.

But at the same time, many of the Jews around them haven’t understood. They’ve sought to establish a law of righteousness by works, not by faith, which was their fatal mistake (as we saw two weeks ago in Romans 10.1-17).

The proof these Jews have missed the mark is simple: they’ve rejected Christ, who is the Messiah God promised, the means to salvation.

And in the text we saw last week, Romans 10.14-17, Paul gives this stunning reminder that while salvation isn’t easy, it is simple: God brings people to faith through the proclamation of the gospel.

That’s where we left off, in v. 17 of chapter 10: faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Israel has Heard (10.18-21)

So now Paul returns to the subject at hand and asks the next logical question. Romans 10.18:

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for [this is a quote from Psalm 19]

“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,

and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, [in Deuteronomy 32]

“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;

with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

“I have been found by those who did not seek me;

I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

So he’s setting the stage for where he’s going by saying, very clearly, these Jews who have rejected Christ have heard what they need to hear. All the way back in the time of Moses, God told them what they needed to know, and he told them how it would work.

The question is, why didn’t Israel, as a nation, understand what God was saying to them?

They didn’t understand because God was doing something specific (and here’s where it starts to get tricky: here Paul’s going to start hinting at the mystery he’s going to explore in chapter 11). God wanted his salvation to come not only to the Jews, but to every nation—to the ends of the earth, to peoples who are not Jewish, but pagan. People who didn’t know him, who weren’t looking for him, for whom God wasn’t even on their radar. He wanted to make himself known to all of them.

This is what he was saying, in Psalm 19, in Deuteronomy 32, in Isaiah 65. So Paul’s saying that the nation of Israel, who had knowledge of the Scriptures, should have understood these prophecies (and others) that the  Gentiles would believe, and they should have taken taken the Gentiles’ belief as proof that Christ is the Messiah.

But they didn’t. God held out his hands to them, and they remained disobedient and contrary. (Not all of them, as we said, but many.)

A Remnant (11.1-12)

In response to this, Paul sort of goes back to the kind of question he asked earlier, in chapter 9: if the people whom God had chosen for himself have—as a nation—rejected his Messiah, what does this tell us about God? Is God faithful to his promises to Israel or not?

That’s the question he asks again, in chapter 11, verse 1:

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What’s going on here? Paul’s returning to the kind of argument he made in chapter 9—God has not rejected his people, because he has never said that every single Israelite, just because they were born into the nation of Israel and followed Israelite law, was automatically saved. Remember what he's said before: merely being a descendant of Abraham isn’t enough to save anyone (because our sin still remains); you have to share in Abraham’s faith.

And, Paul says, that’s exactly what’s happened for some of them. In v. 2-4 he gives this example from 1 Kings 19, when the prophet Elijah laments of the idolatry of Israel, and God reassures him—no no, I have kept for myself a group of people whom I will not let wander into idolatry. That’s a small picture of what God has done on a much larger scale.

God has kept a “remnant” among the people of Israel—a number of Israelites to whom he has given the ability to see what’s actually going on. Again, think of the saints of the Old Testament. Think of Zechariah and Anna in the temple. Think of Nicodemus. Think of the apostles, Jews every one. And look around, he says to the church in Rome, at your Jewish brothers and sisters who have placed their faith in Christ.

God has not rejected his people—he has made sure that a significant number of Jews came to faith, in the same way Abraham did. These people were given faith by God, as an act of pure grace.

But what about the rest of the nation? V. 7:

7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.

Stop there for a second—we’ve seen this before. Why did Israel—as a nation—fail to obtain the righteousness they were seeking? We saw that in 9.32: Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They didn’t obtain righteousness because they were trying to earn it, trying to reach it for themselves, instead of trusting God to provide it for them. That’s the first reason.

But there’s a second reason why they didn’t obtain it, which Paul already mentioned in chapter 9, but which he repeats here even more bluntly:

The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,

eyes that would not see

and ears that would not hear,

down to this very day.”

9 And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and a trap,

a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

10  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,

and bend their backs forever.”

In other words, from the very beginning, it was God’s plan to do it this way. And again, he said this was how it would work—in v. 8 he quotes Isaiah 29, and in v. 9-10 he quotes Psalm 69. God didn’t keep this from them; it wasn’t a secret. He had always said that this is how it would work.

God made the nation of Israel—with the exception of those Jews whom he chose to save (who were surely more numerous than we imagine)—hardhearted, with eyes and ears closed.

Now the question is, why did he do it this way? That’s what he’s going to cover in the rest of the chapter.

Why did God do it this way? Was God simply disregarding Israel, in order to open the door for everyone else? Was he being dismissive of his chosen people? Paul’s answer is complex, and we’re going to see the first half of it in the rest of our time today. V. 11:

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!

God’s plan here was not that Israel as a nation “might fall”.

Through their trespass, Paul says (through the rejection of Christ on the part of the nation of Israel as a whole) salvation has come to the Gentiles. His plan was not a condemnation of Israel—it was a way of opening the door of salvation to all peoples.

This sounds confusing, but we get a little picture of what he’s talking about here at the very end of Acts 28 (which is the very end of the book of Acts as a whole).

If you remember, in Acts 28 Paul is speaking to the Jewish leaders in Rome. (This is before the church in Rome was planted.) Some are convinced by what he’s saying, but others aren’t. They start bickering amongst themselves about these things, until Paul seems to get fed up with it and (yet again) quotes Isaiah, who prophesied about the hard and dull hearts of God’s people. And Paul concludes with this condemnation: because you will not listen, God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen (Acts 28.28).

That’s what he’s saying here, but now he’s explaining why God chose to do it this way. He allowed Israel to fall in order that they might understand why God was saving the Gentiles. And in turn, God sent salvation to the Gentiles in order to make Israel jealous.

That seemed insane to me when I first read it, and it still might sound insane to you. If that’s the case, just be patient: we’ll get to that part again next week.

But before we do, Paul turns the tables again, and speaks directly to the Gentiles, saying, If this is what’s happened, what does it mean for you, pagan men and women who did not belong to the people of Israel?

The Olive Tree (11.13-24)

Well, what would your reaction be if you read that the Jews’ failure meant riches for the Gentiles? How would you feel if you read the book of Acts and heard Paul tell the Jewish leaders, “Because you’ve rejected Christ, God is bringing salvation to the Gentiles, because they’ll listen”?

For the Gentile believers in Rome, the temptation would have been toward antisemitism, which was the overwhelming sentiment of the Roman citizens at the time. Rome was a profoundly antisemitic city. It would have been so easy for these Roman believers to slip into the mindset of their culture and look down on the Jews for this.

But Paul categorically closes that door starting in v. 13:

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.

He speaks of his own ministry—which, if you’ve read the book of Acts, you’ll know was directed toward the Gentiles. That was his own personal mission: share the gospel with the Gentiles. But part of his goal in sharing the gospel with the Gentiles was to make his fellow Jews realize what they were missing, and want to get in on it. He wants to make the Jews jealous in order to save at least some of them.

That, for Paul, would be the optimal outcome: if their failure resulted in good for the world, how much better for the world would it be if the Jews came back to God, and accepted Christ?

You see, he’s trying to protect the Gentile believers in Rome against pride. And to do this, he uses an image that may not speak to many of us here: that of an olive tree.

There’s a professor of sculpture at the University of Syracuse named Sam Van Aken, who had an idea to make a series of living sculptures out of trees using the technique of grafting. It’s a common practice to do this: you take an unhealthy branch from one tree, prune it off, and attach a healthy branch from another tree onto that same spot. If it takes, the new branch begins extracting the sap from the tree, and growing new fruit.

That’s what happened for Sam Van Aken’s art project, except he put a twist on it: he took a semi-mature stock tree and pruned off all the branches. Then he took sapling buds from dozens of different types of tree, and grafted them onto the trunk of this stock tree. Forty of the branches he grafted from other trees took, and they all managed to grow and start producing new fruit. The result is a single tree, which is producing forty different varieties of fruit, including almond, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum.

It’s an incredible idea, and one that helps us visualize the picture Paul is giving us in v. 17-18:

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.

The Gentiles were not members of the Jewish people—but they’ve been brought in to God’s plan for his people. They’ve been made a part of it. Their origins are different, but they’re attached to the same root.

In other words, Paul tells them, you Gentile believers are not starting something new. Christianity did not begin with the New Testament, in the gospel of Matthew; it began in the book of Genesis. It began with Abraham. It began with Moses. It began with David. It began with the prophets. You Gentiles have been brought into a much older story, and you need to acknowledge that this is not your thing—it’s God’s thing, and you have been brought into it.

Now at this point, as Paul often does, he anticipates an objection from his Gentile readers. V. 19:

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.

So you see the logic behind the arrogance: “God chose not to save them…because he wanted to save me.”

And surprisingly, Paul concedes that point. He says in v. 20, that’s true. And they deserved it because of their unbelief.

But (and that’s a big “but”) you Gentiles have to remember how you were saved in the first place. Remember, it wasn’t through works, it wasn’t because you were so awesome that God desperately wanted you on his team. You were saved by grace, through faith. That’s how you “stand fast”—through faith. Just like it was a grace for God to choose to reveal himself to the people of Israel, it is a grace for you to have a seat at the table.

It’s true that they were broken off because of their unbelief. But why are you here? Because of the faith God gave you, even though you weren’t looking for it. So, he says at the end of v. 20,

…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.

If God didn’t spare the natural branches (the members of his people who rejected his Messiah), neither will he spare you, if you think your right standing with God depends on anything else but God’s grace and mercy to you.

Now we need to be careful here, because this may freak some people out.

Paul’s not saying this to make the Gentiles worry that they might lose their salvation. He’s not saying this to make us afraid. He’s saying this to make us fear God. There’s a big difference.

When I was a teenager in Tennessee, there wasn’t much to do. So we would drive out to nearby farmland in the middle of the night and try to tip cows. The idea was that you could go up to a sleeping cow and push it over, and it wouldn’t wake up until it hit the ground. It’s a myth (as we quickly discovered); you can’t actually tip a cow over because cows don’t sleep standing up, and they’re way stronger than humans. But we still tried. We’d go out to these fields and walk up to cows that were standing still and try to push them over.

But we wouldn’t have been so cavalier about the game if, instead of a cow in that field, it was a lion. There is no such thing as lion tipping; no one would even try it.

Why? Because a lion can eat you.

That’s the kind of fear he’s talking about. It’s the recognition that God has all the power here. He has promised to keep those whom he saves. But he is the one who saves us and keeps us, that means that trying to establish a righteousness of our own (like these Jews who were cut off) is a serious miscalculation.

The only reason we’re here—the only reason the Gentiles are a part of this story at all—is because God is good, and has welcomed us in, even though we have no reason to be here, even though we have no part in this story on our own. He has grafted us in to this massive tree, as old as creation itself, and our being here is nothing but pure grace on his part.

And if he needed a final reason for the Gentiles not to look upon the Jews with pride, he gives us one more in v. 23-24:

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.

How were you Gentiles brought into God’s salvation? Through the faith in Christ that God gave you.

God has the same power towards the Jews as he did towards you: if he brought you in, he can bring them back in too. He can give them faith in Christ as well—and if they turn to Christ in faith, they will be grafted in again.

The Humility of Fearing God

Now I know that’s only one side of the coin: he’s talked about what the present inclusion of the Gentiles into salvation means. Next week we’ll look at what Paul says about the future inclusion of the Jews—their being grafted back in. The only reason I’m not talking about that today is because the end of chapter 11 is very difficult, so there will be a lot to talk about.

But I’ve often wondered why God chose to make it happen this way, and I wrestled with that question a lot this week. Of the top of my head, I can think of a million different ways to achieve God’s goal that would have been easier. Why not just keep all the Jews believing (instead of a “remnant”), and tell them—through a prophet or something—that the Gentiles are now welcome to come to the table?

There are several reasons, some of which we’ll see next week, but the first one—and the most pertinent one for most of us—is very simple. God wants to make it abundantly clear that he is Lord over salvation. That’s what we’ve been talking about for over a month now: it’s not a result of following the law, or of learning to obey; we’re not saved because we come to church every Sunday, or because we serve in church every Sunday, or because we go to a home group, or because we lead a home group; we’re not saved because we’re baptized, or because we take Communion every week.

We are saved because God made us part of his people. We are saved because he plucked us up from where we were, and put us somewhere else. We are saved because he pulled us up out of the mire of our sin, and placed our sin on Christ, and punished Christ in our place, and clothed us in Christ’s perfect righteousness.

That’s it, and that’s all.

So how backwards is it for a Christian, who claims to be saved by grace through faith, to look down on anyone? How backwards is it for a Christian to be impatient with someone who’s less mature in their faith? How backwards is it for a Christian to take pleasure when someone is caught in their sin, and suffers the consequences?

How backwards is an attitude like that?

And at the same time: how easy is it for us to fall into it?

If we are here—if we have faith in Christ—it is only because of the grace and mercy of God.

Now of course that doesn’t mean we should never voice useful criticism; it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t call one another out on our sin. But if we understand how we came to have faith in Christ, our correction and reproof of one another will have a very different “flavor”.

It’s easy to differentiate between someone who’s gloating over the failure of another, and someone who’s coming alongside their brother or sister who has fallen into sin, saying, “I can see you’ve fallen; let’s get you out of harm’s way. Let me help you up.”

A humble person doesn’t gloat before someone who has fallen. And by the same token, someone who understands God’s grace in Christ doesn’t resist when his brother tries to help him see what needs to be corrected in his life. Of course we have corrections to make—the way we were saved proves that to us. Why would we resist it?

Our understanding of God’s grace to us in Christ will have an impact on every single interaction we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and with the unbelievers around us. We will not be proud, but we will fear God, knowing how unfair it is that we’re even here. We will remember his kindness to us, and his severity toward those who have fallen—so we will want to continue in his kindness. We will be thankful, and our thankfulness will make us kind, and gentle, and patient.

If we are here—if we have faith in Christ—it is only because of the grace and mercy of God. This grace and mercy are what motivates our mission. God calls us to be a people who show the world that we understand the gift we’ve been given, and want to help others experience that same gift.

Do not become proud, but fear.