Romans 11:17-19 - Branches

11:17,18

Paul uses a horticultural analogy. It is important to remember that Paul is not seeking to make a horticultural point but a theological one! Moreover it is based on what God does, not how plants work. So the situation is that in human terms the Gentiles had no right to be part of God’s plans  (it was always God’s plan that Gentiles would come into the kingdom). So the Jews had been broken off, for a time, and the “unnatural” branches, the Gentiles, had been grafted onto God’s plans. The Gentiles were now sharing in all of the “nourishing sap” of the Old Testament, and the Jews were not.

This much was true, but the Gentile believers must not become proud. We must not consider ourselves superior to the Jews. We need to realise that we are “supported” by the root (ie by all that was revealed in the Old Testament and is fulfilled in Christ). We must have an attitude of humility. When the Israelites were going into the promised land God warned them not to say to themselves they had achieved all this by their own efforts. We must heed the same warning, and need to be aware how human it is to assume credit for something that we have no right to assume credit for. We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own wisdom, righteousness or effort in any respect whatsoever.

11:19

Another warning against pride. “You will say branches were broken off so I could be grafted in”. Now at one level this assertion is true.Indeed that is what Paul has been arguing, the rejection of the Jews was all part of God’s plan in bringing the Gentiles in, but it is so wrong on many other levels. It is not true that God thought the Gentiles were more deserving than the Jews. It is not true that it is the end of the story. We need to be so careful how we interpret events and how we interpret our own lives. Our human nature, our flesh, is so prone to claim credit for itself, so prone to justify itself.