Rom 11:17-24 | PNT | STEP | And if some of the branches be broken off . To understand , we must have a clear idea of what is meant by the olive tree. That it means the chosen family of Abraham, not his children merely of the flesh, but his believing children, the heirs of the promise, is clear. The Jewish nation inherited the temporal promises as Abraham's children; we become heirs of the promise when we become his children by faith. See . The Jews, the natural branches of this olive tree, "were broken off" by unbelief. The root is Abraham. Thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in . When the Jews, the natural branches, were broken off by their unbelief, the Gentile Christians, not natural branches, not of the seed of Abraham, but wild olive, "were grafted in"; that is, were adopted into God's family, and became Abraham's children. With them partakest of the root . With Jewish Christians, these Gentile Christians became partakers of all the blessings belonging to Abraham's seed.

‏ Romans 11:17-24

And if some of the branches be broken off. To understand Ro 11:17-24, we must have a clear idea of what is meant by the olive tree. That it means the chosen family of Abraham, not his children merely of the flesh, but his believing children, the heirs of the promise, is clear. The Jewish nation inherited the temporal promises as Abraham's children; we become heirs of the promise when we become his children by faith. See Ga 3:28,29. The Jews, the natural branches of this olive tree, "were broken off" by unbelief. The root is Abraham.

Thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in. When the Jews, the natural branches, were broken off by their unbelief, the Gentile Christians, not natural branches, not of the seed of Abraham, but wild olive, "were grafted in"; that is, were adopted into God's family, and became Abraham's children.

With them partakest of the root. With Jewish Christians, these Gentile Christians became partakers of all the blessings belonging to Abraham's seed. Boast not against the branches. There is too much of this in the prejudice against the Jewish race.

Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. The riches of graces of the Gentile Christian are due to the fact that he is "grafted in" upon the Abrahamic stock, and becomes his child by faith. Thou wilt say. Perhaps the Gentile believer might boast over the Jews: "The Jewish branches were broken off, that we Gentiles might be grafted in. Is not this a preference of the Gentile"? It is not. Because of unbelief they were broken off. Had they believed, they would have remained. The Gentile is grafted in when he believes.

Thou standest by faith. Unbelief would cut off the Gentile branch as well as the Jew. For if God spared not the natural branches, the Jews, but broke them off on account of their unbelief, certainly he would not spare the Gentile, not a natural branch, if he was an unbeliever. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. "Severity" is shown in breaking off the Jewish branches on account of their unbelief; "goodness", in admiring Gentile believers. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief. As Gentile believers will be cut off unless they "continue in the goodness of God" (Ro 11:22), so the Jews, if they abandon their unbelief, shall again be grafted in. They are not cut off by a decree of God casting them away, but by their own unbelief. For if thou. This argument is to the Gentile.

Wert cut out of the olive-tree, etc. If wild branches were grafted into the good olive tree, the Gentiles grafted into the spiritual stock of Abraham, how much more likely is it that the natural branches, the Jews, shall be grafted again into their own olive tree, the seed of Abraham to which they belong by nature.