An Encouragement to Jewish Believers
And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! Romans 11:23,24
After warning Gentiles against pride and presumption, Paul unfolds a promise to Jewish unbelievers. If those grafted in could be cut off, then those cut off can be grafted in again. ‘And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again’ (11:23). The obvious difference between natural and grafted branches confirms this. ‘After all, if you’ (Gentile believers) ‘were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these (Jewish believers), the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!’ (11:24). In a very real sense, the restoration of Israel is an easier process than the call of the Gentiles.
The warning and the promise are paramount. The warning is that since the natural branches were cut off, the wild ones could be too (11:21). The Gentiles could be rejected like the Jews. There is no room for complacency. The promise is that since the wild branches were grafted in, the natural ones could be too (11:24). The Jews could be accepted like the Gentiles. There is no room for despair.
Basic to the whole picture of the olive tree is the unity of God’s people, a unity that crosses both historical and ethnic boundaries. There is only one olive tree, whose roots are planted in Old Testament soil and whose branches include both Jews and Gentiles. The olive tree represents the true people of God. The coming of Christ has brought an important development: the object of one’s faith became clearer and more specific and the ethnic makeup of the people changed radically, as God extended His grace in vastly increased measure to Gentiles. But Paul’s picture warns us not to view this transition as a transition from one people of God to another. Gentiles who come to Christ become part of that community of salvation founded on God’s promises to the patriarchs. Jewish converts to Christ, following in the same footsteps of their believing ancestors, belong to this same community.
Paul places a great stress on the historical continuity in the people of God. The church, defined as the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ, is the name for the people of God in this era of salvation history as Israel was the name of the people of God in the previous age. From the perspective of continuity, the church is the continuation of Israel into the new age. From the perspective of discontinuity, the church and not Israel is now the locus of God’s work in the world.
The coming of Christ did not involve an ethnic subtraction, as if Jews were now eliminated from God’s people. It involved an addition, with Gentiles now being added to believing Jews. Paul’s boundary for the people of God is faith in Christ.
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