Humility Regarding Our Place in God’s Righteous Plans (Part 2) – Romans 11:17–24

PRAY

Before we read the text for this morning, let’s just quickly be reminded of where we are in Romans.

In a broader discussion where Paul is defending God’s righteousness in the way that he is fulfilling his promises (Ro 9-11), Paul is now helping Gentile Christians gratefully appreciate their place in God’s plans without arrogantly belittling His sovereign selection of Israel out of all the families of the earth, to whom he made the former covenants that have carried forward to us (Ro 11:11-32).

For this purpose, in verses 17-24 Paul expands a metaphor introduced in verse 16, comparing the people of God to an olive tree God is cultivating, with both natural branches and wild ones grafted in. But in both cases, God’s true people are those of genuine, humble faith.

Romans 11:16–24 ESV

¹⁶ If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 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. 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.

Paul is evidently encountering and hearing about an attitude of superiority from Christian Gentiles toward Jews, which spills over into relationships within the church. It is true, during this period of Israel’s majority faithlessness in the Messiah, God is openly and directly inviting Gentiles to join the covenant people of faith in his saving promises. However, whether Jew or Gentile, we mustn’t think that God is having nothing more to do with Israel. So it certainly won’t do to have Gentiles participating in the new covenant community boasting over Jews and thinking that they have totally replaced Israel as God’s people.

So Paul has a metaphor to help curb this problem.

Picture God’s people as a cultivated olive tree to cultivate humility.

In other words, Gentile, be clear-eyed about the fact that the patriarchs of Israel received God’s covenant promises, who are the root of this true people of faith that you have been invited into. Also, this is not to say that the likes of Adam, Enoch, Noah, and others were not saved through faith, but that is not the point of Paul’s metaphor. Paul is talking about God’s true people in specific connection to the recipients of God’s covenant promises.

Even while Paul highlights the importance of Israel as a unique ethnic family of God’s choosing, he continues to proclaim that the true people of God are those who belong to him through faith, whether Jew or Gentile. And this faith in God’s promise is now specifically in the advent and accomplishment of God’s Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

Therefore, elevating God keeps us in our right place and directly impacts how we treat others. And elevating God’s plans, and his means of fulfilling his promises, will also mean that even a predominantly Gentile church at present should not boast over the Jews.

As we consider how Paul admonishes Gentiles in the Christian community, let it help us to exalt God’s sovereign plans, and also to help us see the importance of growing in humility for faith and health in community. We’ll look at Paul’s extended metaphor in three parts in order to make application for ourselves.

Cultivate humility by recognizing the wrongheadedness of self-exaltation (in this case boasting against Israel). (verses 17-18)

Verse 13 gave us the context of who Paul is addressing in this broader section: “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.” So here when he addresses a hypothetical “you” (singular), all the way through v. 24, he is addressing any Gentile who is participating in the covenant community. If you are such a one, here’s what you must get right in your perspective of what God is doing, which will have a direct impact on your attitude and treatment of others.

Romans 11:17–18 “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. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

Gentile, understand that through faith God graciously grafts you into the people of God, which has its foundation in God’s covenant promises to Israel, so do not boast over Jews.

In the illustration, yes, branches have been broken off (cut off, severed) from God’s people. Paul later clarifies, especially in v. 24, that these ones are natural branches, meaning Jews who are of biological descent from the patriarchs, but who were broken off in unbelief, v. 20. Paul is highlighting in this again the majority unbelief of the generation of Jews who did not welcome the Messiah in faith, Jesus of Nazareth.

So the Gentile grafted in is like a wild olive shoot being added in to the people of promise and getting to share in the “rich root” of the olive tree. Again, the rich root is the historical saving promises of God received by the patriarchs in faith. And if I can extend the metaphor for us, these roots of faith are firmly planted in the fertile soil of the living God and his gracious covenant and his own faithfulness to his word.

Now since you are a wild shoot grafted in, don’t be boasting over (or against) “the branches,” meaning the natural branches, who are Jews. That’s what makes sense with, “If you are boasting” (where the verb is present again in the Greek), realize it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. The way God has made provision for our salvation began with his gracious election of the patriarchs. The present church is being built into that heritage of faith, not the other way around.

So Paul’s implication from this is, don’t be arrogant toward Jews, even unbelieving Jews, because you’ve actually been graciously brought in to the people of God’s covenant promise, initiated with Israel’s forefathers. 

And if we broaden this application just slightly to include the entire human problem of pride, we see the importance here of becoming aware of our self-exaltation and just how wrongheaded it is. And it’s so wrongheaded, so backwards and twisted, because God’s benevolence to you is the opposite of a reason for boasting over others.

God’s kindness (or benevolence, which comes in v. 22) means specifically that it isn’t because you somehow deserve it. You do not earn benevolence. You do not merit grace. There’s nothing in you to boast about. The only person worth boasting about is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is one with God, who alone is deserving of all exaltation.

Again, so far in the metaphor Paul has said to the Gentile Christian: You have been graciously grafted into God’s covenant people. Do not boast over the descendants of the original people God chose to initiate his saving purposes. From there he continues.

Cultivate humility because unchecked pride reveals a faithlessness leading to destruction. Instead, stand fast through humble faith. (verses 19-22)

As Paul continues, he is still addressing the mindset that is inclined toward an arrogant posture based on this wrong perspective. (vv 19-20a) “Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true.” 

When he says ‘that is true,’ Paul is referring again to the fact that Israel’s majority rejection of Jesus the Messiah, God is sovereignly using in his plan to now make a more direct and open invitation to the whole world to become a part of God’s people. Their faithlessness has provided a gap for you to be grafted in. Their unbelief has left empty field where God intends to cultivate a great number of saved Gentiles. So that much is true.

But now Paul clarifies the obvious with the intention to continue the strong warning against wrongheaded arrogance. Humility is critical to saving faith. (see verse 20 again) “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. (And 21) For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.”

Let me forego the argument for a minute about whether or not this describes losing your faith or falling from grace. The point is actually that humility is critical to saving faith. Just like Paul said about the self-righteous among Israel not being saved because they refuse to trust in God to provide forgiveness and righteousness, so the Gentile can only be firmly grafted in by a humble faith that doesn’t trust self but only Christ. Faith means trusting God and not self. So Paul’s warning is that unchecked pride reveals a faithlessness that will lead to being cut off in that unbelief.

So he continues (v 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.” First Paul highlights the consistency of God’s character in both his kindness toward those who believe and likewise his severe justice for those who finish life’s course without true faith. The result is a permanent and irrevocable fall for those individuals.

So Paul is saying this specifically as a warning against unchecked pride that reveals unbelief. Our protection against this is a genuine, humble faith that remains steadfast. And since there are Biblical texts that seem to clearly indicate the security of true believers, of our perseverance by God’s preservation, I take this to be a warning that just like many Israelites, you can hang around the community of God’s people but not really be among God’s true people through humble faith.

But again, because of what this metaphor might sound like if we read into it the possibility of having salvation through faith but then losing or rejecting it, here are some examples where Christ and his apostles say things that lead us to the doctrine of eternal security for true believers.

Examples from the words of Jesus: Jesus states (Jn 10:28-29) that He gives His sheep "eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand." He adds that the same is true with the Father, who is greater than all, thus providing a double divine guarantee of security. And in John 6:37-39 Jesus promises, "all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." He also declares it to be the Father's will that He "lose none of all that he has given me."

Examples from the writings of Paul: In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul explains that believers are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” who serves as a "guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it." And in Philippians 1:6 Paul expresses confidence that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Examples from Peter and John: In his first letter Peter writes (1 Peter 1:3-5) that believers have an "inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" and "by God’s power are being guarded through faith until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed."

By verses like these we would argue that the only condition of security is genuine faith. If some should faithlessly go out from us, that proves that they did not truly belong (1 John 2:19). So here Paul warns that although we are now hanging with the community of faith, unchecked pride might prove to reveal faithlessness, resulting in us being cut off from God true people.

Again, that highlights the severity of God in his justice, as opposed to his kindness if we are steadfast through humble faith.

It is this same emphasis on God’s kindness which carries forward into the next verses that express his willingness and power to graft back in Jews who will reverse course and respond in faith.

Cultivate humility by appreciating God’s kindness and ability to graft into his people those who will turn in faith to Christ (particularly Jews). (verses 23-24) 

Paul is specifically pinpointing Gentile arrogance toward Jews, who might be tempted to behave like God is finished with all of the natural branches because of their initial rejection of Christ (the majority of that generation). But in the context of God’s consistency in his severity and kindness, Paul says in verse 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.”

God is certainly willing and able to regraft into his true people any Jews (natural branches) who turn in faith to Christ. And if this should seem strange and unlikely to us, Paul presses home the point with a familiar “how much more” argument in verse 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.”

If God is willing and able to cut wild olive shoots and graft them into his cultivated olive tree (his true people), how much more is he willing and able to graft in branches who are natural descendants of this cultivated tree of covenant promise. Although God is saving a remnant of Jews even now, and Paul desperately desires and prays for more to be saved, it seems likely that he is emphasizing natural branches in the future who will turn in faith to Christ.

In other words, these are not the specific branches that have been cut and fallen to their destruction, but are natural branches that are a part of that group (Israel), which God will gladly add if they will respond in faith. And his argument seems to be that God would not only do this for a remnant of Jews even now, but will do this at some future point with a majority of Jews (vv. 25-26). 

Conclusion: Again, we are picturing God’s people as a cultivated olive tree to cultivate our own humility. Paul’s whole point is that Gentiles presently coming to faith in Christ shouldn’t be arrogant toward the Jews, as if we think ourselves better for being welcomed into God’s people. This true people of God is in fact supported by the root of the patriarchs of Israel who received God’s covenant promises and responded in faith. And we must not be boasting against Jews because unchecked pride could betray a faithless arrogance. Faith must be humble to be genuine. Finally, we shouldn’t be proud toward Jews because God in his kindness is willing and able to graft them in again to his true people. But all are grafted into God’s true people only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we wrap up our discussion for today, I would like to challenge us to think more deeply about the danger and damage of pride for ourselves and our community, and to consider the contrasting benefit of humility for faith and unity.

See pride as disastrously damaging to yourself and to the church. We need humility for faith and health and unity.

As we have reminded ourselves, genuine humility is required to not trust in self but to trust in God through Jesus Christ for salvation. But the danger of our pride doesn’t stop there. Ignoring the inherent and ongoing problem of pride in our sinful nature is like thinking that stopping weeds in your lawn is one and done. No, you will have to both keep killing the weeds of pride and keep cultivating the grass of humility. And this humility is chiefly cultivated and nourished by exalting God—elevating his character and his purposes and plans. Exalting God puts us in our place with a right humility and dependence that also knows the value that God himself has placed on us.

Our ongoing growth and health is similarly connected to this humility as we seek to serve God and be used for his purposes.

So too, pride is a barrier to unity like a team of players too arrogant to listen to the coach and too good to pass one another the ball. Pride disastrously erodes unity like soldiers who defy orders and foolishly prioritize their own safety over the protection of others and accomplishing the mission. The result is harm to everyone. 

But humble gratitude to God for his faithfulness to his promises, and for his grace to us, binds our hearts together in a steel cord of love for Jesus. Humility unites us in dependence on God for direction and strength, each one seeking to be used of God in whatever way he sees fit to bring about the greatest good for others and highest glory for our King.

PRAY

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