God’s Olive Tree

Reading:  Romans 11:17-24
    
    Paul now turns his attention back to the Gentiles.  “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, do not be arrogant toward the branches”(Rom 11:17-18).  He pictures God’s people as an olive tree, each branch connected to the root of the tree.  Some of the Jews have been broken off (by rejecting Jesus) and now the Gentiles have been grafted in in their place.  Paul warns them against arrogance based on their newfound position of grace and glory.  “Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’  That is true.  They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith.  So do not become proud, but fear.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you”(Rom 11:19-21).  Gentiles have attained a place of blessing due to God’s grace.  The danger is that this grace will breed complacency and pride; Paul encourages fear instead.  

    Paul’s picture teaches us about the nature of God:  “Note then the goodness 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”(Rom 11:22).  The story of salvation reminds us that God is good but also just and severe.  This means we can both trust him and fear him.  Paul also looks forward to the possibility that more Jews will rejoin fellowship with God:  “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”(Rom 11:24).  If God made Gentiles to fit among his people, how much more naturally will his own people fit?

    The image of the olive tree is fitting.  Like branches, we only survive as we have a connection to the roots, the source of life.  Faith—ongoing trust and commitment to service—is what keeps us connected to God.  When we begin to think that we are sufficient on our own or better than others, our connection to God is threatened.  

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One Thing to Think About:  Am I thankful that I can be a part of God’s people?

One Thing to Pray For:   Humility and gratitude in light of the grace I have received
 

Producing Holy Jealousy

Reading:  Romans 11:7-16
    
    Paul starts to draw some conclusions here about the Jewish situation.  “What then?  Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.  The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 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’”(Rom 11:7-8).  Israel has by and large rejected the gospel because they were seeking righteousness by works (Rom 9:32), so God has hardened them (Rom 9:18, 11:7-8) and caused them to stumble (Rom 11:9).  Yet Paul is extremely optimistic that this is not the end of the story for Israel and the gospel.

    He contends that God has allowed this all to happen to induce jealousy in Israel (see Rom 10:19).  “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”(Rom 11:11).  The name of their God is on the lips of Gentiles.  His word is being taught and lived.  People are changing their lives to follow Yahweh.  Yet they are not a part of it.  This produces jealousy in them—a passionate desire to return to God’s favor.  Paul even talks up his own preaching work to stir up jealousy:  “Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them”(Rom 11:13-14).  This hardening is not permanent or irresistible (Paul hopes to save them, v. 14) and he dreams of a future “full inclusion”(Rom 11:12) and “life from the dead”(Rom 11:15) for both Jew and Gentile.  Paul has faith that God is not done with his people.  

    Paul has an inspiring vision of God and his power.  Despite all the slights he has experienced at the hands of his countrymen, he longs for them to come to faith in Jesus.  He is confident that God can even use the current unpleasant situation to bring about something even greater.  Jealousy is a way to describe a holy passion to be a part of God’s plan and working.  God is capable of using anything that excites that passion within us to draw us closer to him.

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One Thing to Think About:  Would people be jealous of my relationship with God?  Why or why not?

One Thing to Pray For:   More people to come into a right relationship with God
 

The Remnant

Reading:  Romans 11:1-6
    
    So if God calls the Jewish people “disobedient and contrary”(Rom 10:21), is he done with them?  “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”(Rom 11:1).  God has not rejected his people in a permanent way.  Paul argues that he himself is evidence of this, since he is both Jewish and a Christian.  God is always willing to accept Jewish people who will submit to him by faith in Jesus, as Paul has.  The situation is similar to Elijah’s time in which he despairs at Israel’s wickedness and idolatry.  “I alone am left, and they seek my life”(Rom 11:3).  God responds that “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal”(Rom 11:4).  God always has his people.

    This small group of faithful ones is the “remnant.”  “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace”(Rom 11:5).  A remnant is a leftover part of the whole.  God reserved 7000 people in Elijah’s time.  In Paul’s time, there remain Jews who continue to serve God (including himself).  Yet it is notable that this remnant is “chosen by grace”:  “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace”(Rom 11:6).  The remnant is not solely those who have most perfectly obeyed the Law of Moses, but those who receive grace despite their inadequacy.   So Paul does not argue that he is better than other Jews, but that he has been accepted by grace.

    Even in times of widespread disobedience, God continues to have people who are faithful to him.  Like Elijah, we may bemoan the disobedience of those around us.  Yet like Elijah, we must also take heart from the remnant of others who are still trying to do right.  And undergirding all these thoughts is a sobering reality:  if I am to be a part of the remnant today, it will only be because of my humble and obedient faith.

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One Thing to Think About:  Am I a part of God’s people (the remnant) in my time?

One Thing to Pray For:   Confidence in and camaraderie with my brothers and sisters in Christ
 

Have They Not Heard?

Reading:  Romans 10:14-21
    
    Paul is still explaining the rejection of the gospel by many of his fellow Jews by employing many Old Testament passages and prophecies.  If God will save everyone who calls on the name of Jesus (Rom 10:13), then God still has some work to do.  “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”(Rom 10:14-15).  God must tell people about Jesus so that they can be saved by him, which means that he must broadcast the message.  He has done this; Paul himself is the proof.  Yet this has not produced faith.  “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.  For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”(Rom 10:16-17).  Hearing should produce faith, yet much hearing about Jesus has not produced this faith.  God has not failed; his people have rejected him.

    Paul then breaks down each part of the process.  “But I ask, have they not heard?  Indeed they have, for ‘their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”(Rom 10:18).  Psalm 19 describes how God has spoken through the natural world and Paul sees this as the beginning of a message that the gospel completes.  “But I ask, did Israel not understand?  First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’  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’”(Rom 10:19-20).  Paul gets nearer to his point here:  Israel has not rejected Jesus because of a failure to hear or understand, but because of their prejudice against Gentiles.  God has long wanted to save the Gentiles, while some stubborn and obstinate Jews reject this course (Rom 10:21).

    This text reminds us that rejecting the gospel is rarely about a failure to hear or understand.  Motives matter.  When we refuse to submit, dislike what God expects, or cherish our evil, God is not at fault.  Will we humble ourselves?

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One Thing to Think About:  What prejudices or obstacles might keep me from obeying Jesus?

One Thing to Pray For:  A deeper faith through hearing the word of Christ 
 

In Your Mouth and In Your Heart

Reading:  Romans 10:5-13
    
    While Paul is upset by the fact that many Jews have rejected the gospel of grace, he still maintains that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”(Rom 10:4).  “End” here means the purpose, goal, or fulfillment of the Law of Moses; the law points to Jesus.  Even the difference between works and grace is written there.  “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them”(Rom 10:5).  This is the equation for being good enough to please God under the Law of Moses:  if you do everything you are commanded, you will live.  It is based on perfect obedience.  

    Yet, working from Deuteronomy 30:12-13, Paul believes that even Moses wrote about a different kind of righteousness.   It does not require ascending to heaven or descending into the abyss, but “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(Rom 10:8).  It is close at hand and eminently doable.  How?  “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved”(Rom 10:9-10).  These acts of submission (faith and confession) do not require superhuman strength, wisdom, or perfection.  We all have mouths and hearts; we simply must use what we have to choose to follow Jesus.  This also opens salvation up to all people, even the previously wicked, who are willing to put faith in Jesus (Rom 10:11-13).  

    There is great news here: salvation has been brought down from heaven.  God does not require us to live sinless lives to receive eternal life.  Certainly Paul’s words do not mean there is nothing we have to do; he has stressed the life of following the Spirit and slavery to righteousness that follows our commitment.  The point is that we are no longer pursuing an unattainable goal, haunted by our consciences, enslaved by our passions, frustrated by the growing gap between us and God.  Salvation is near to us—in our mouths and in our hearts—as God forgives us through our obedient faith in Jesus.

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One Thing to Think About:  If I feel that salvation is unattainable, what does that say about how I am pursuing it? 

One Thing to Pray For:  A heart to continually “call on the name of the Lord”