Romans 11:11–24 (ESV)✞: Gentiles Grafted In
Passage
Paul has been talking about God’s relationship with the Jewish people, and especially about the fact that many of them did not (in Paul’s day) believe in Christ. In 10:5–21 he talked about his fellow Jews refusing to come to Christ, and in the last passage he mentioned the concept of Israel “stumbling.” In this passage he extends that beyond his fellow Jews to bring the Gentiles in again.
To begin, he rhetorically asks why the Jewish people have “stumbled:”
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!
Did they stumble just for the sake of them stumbling? No, there was a purpose behind it. And Paul doesn’t even believe it’s a permanent situation; he seems to believe that yes, at some point, his fellow Jewish people will come to the Lord. In the meantime, though, the fact that they hadn’t had opened up an opportunity for the Gentiles to be saved.
I’m curious what Christian “thought leaders” have to say about the idea of Gentiles’ salvation making the Jewish people jealous. Has this happened? Is Paul saying this should have happened (regardless of whether it actually did)? Is it [still] a forward-looking thing? I have no idea. (And I have such a fear of antisemitism in the Christian Church that I’d be afraid to start doing Google searches on the subject…) But Paul continues the idea:
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.
Paul, as mentioned, is an Apostle to the Gentiles; much of his ministry was focused on them. We read of many instances in Acts where he starts off by preaching to his fellow Jews and then moves on to speak to the Gentiles in that city when his fellow Jews reject the Gospel, whereas I’m getting the impression that some of Paul’s Jewish Christian contemporaries might have been continuing to focus on preaching to their fellow Jews.
But just because Paul is an Apostle to the Gentiles it doesn’t mean he has given up on the Jewish people. We read back in 9:1–29 about Paul’s anguish for them, and here he’s saying that even when he ministers to the Gentiles he has the Jewish people in the back of his mind, hoping they’ll still come to Jesus.
Speaking of branches, Paul now expands that metaphor further. He doesn’t specify branches of what, he just gives us a mental picture of a tree, the root of which is the Jewish people and their pre-Jesus relationship with God, and to which have been added additional “branches” – the Gentiles.
To start with, if some of the original “branches” were broken off and we (the Gentiles) were grafted in, the last thing we should do is make that an excuse to give in to pride!
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. 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. 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.
Unfortunately, Paul was very right to give this instruction – an instruction that Christians have historically ignored! I’m sure there are many, many Christians who are arrogant toward Jewish people, giving exactly the reasoning Paul argues against here: “Well they wouldn’t believe, and I did, so they got what they deserved!” Wait… did you get what you deserved? Or did you believe by faith, instead of by works? Did you earn your salvation, or was it Grace?
I don’t think most antisemitism is actually driven by theology, I think it’s based on fear and conspiracy theories, but I also think Christians are more than happy to use the Bible to believe nasty things, and nasty beliefs about Jewish people have often been held by Christians.
Verse 21 should be considered especially poignant: if God didn’t “spare” His Jewish people, with whom He’d had a special relationship for millenia, why couldn’t he also do the same with others? Am I saying He will? No – but I’m also saying we shouldn’t get cocky about it. I think I’m speaking to my American readers more than any others, but my fellow Canadian Christians might also need to hear this…
Paul ends this passage with a word of hope:
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.
It makes logical sense; using this tree metaphor, if God was able to graft in “wild” branches, why couldn’t He graft in branches that had originally been part of the tree in the first place? (Having said that, I know nothing about horticulture, nor the art/science of grafting branches onto trees, so… I shouldn’t state this too emphatically.)
Thoughts
I’ve mentioned in other posts that there are Christians who have “end times” beliefs centred on large numbers of Jews coming to Christ, and I don’t know if this passage fits into those beliefs. I’m not getting into any of that.
It is clear, however, that Paul is not giving up on his fellow Jewish people, and neither should we: we Gentiles should not get arrogant toward Jewish people, we should welcome them just like any other people group.
Which sounds obvious, why would we treat Jewish people any different from anyone else, except that it apparently hasn’t been obvious to Christians because we historically (and currently) have treated them differently.
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