Broken Branches

[Rom. 11:17-20] 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, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
18. 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.

Moving on from whether God has cast away His people, we come to Paul’s next subject. Skipping down a little in Paul’s argument in chapter eleven of Romans, he picks up the illustration of the Olive Tree and its branches. Paul states that those unbelieving Jews who stumbled at the gospel were branches broken from the Olive Tree on account of unbelief. The Gentiles, being wild olive branches, were grafted into the cultivated Olive Tree by faith. This gives the Gentiles no ground for boasting against the natural broken branches, for they partake of the root and richness of the Olive Tree by faith. There is no place for boasting for either Jew or Gentile.

However, even though they have been broken off of the cultivated Olive Tree due to unbelief, if they do not remain in unbelief, God is willing to graft them back in. Who or what does the Olive Tree represent? There are several suggestions, but the only one that fits is the Israel of God in Christ. It seems that Paul has borrowed this image of Israel as the olive tree, with its broken branches from Jeremiah 11:16.

The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

This was originally spoken as judgment against Judah and Jerusalem, when they had “done many vile deeds,”(v.15) in His house and offered incense to Baal. The resulting judgment would be the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians. Paul knew that this judgment was about to fall once more upon Jerusalem and its temple, as the Lord predicted. This would leave many branches broken off and scattered. The olive tree of Sinai’s Israel was about to be burned again, for its vile deeds, and shedding righteous blood. The only hope for those broken branches is to be grafted into God’s Olive Tree, the Messiah.

This is God’s only remedy for the broken-branch Jews to this day, for the old olive tree of Sinai will never bud again. It will never bear fruit again for Jesus cursed it to the root, so that it has withered away [Matt. 21:19]. They must come to Him by faith in Christ Jesus. It is only then that they might be grafted back into the cultivated Olive Tree of the Israel of God. There is no other remedy.

Those of natural Israel cannot approach God through the mediation of the old, and now defunct, Sinai Covenant. It is a dead-end, quite literally. It is dead and has come to an end.

If they desire to return and claim their inheritance from Abraham, they can only do so through faith in the Messiah Jesus. They cannot hope to drink the new wine of the Messiah from the old wineskin of the Law. Christ is God’s servant to the circumcised for the purpose of transmitting the Truth of God, and to confirm to them the promises God made to the fathers.

Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: [Rom. 15:8]

Christ came to confirm and bring to reality all the promises God made to the fathers.

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. [2 Cor. 1:20]

As the Seed of Promise, Christ brings to Israel all that God has promised them. Inheriting these promises requires faith in Him.

It is in this way that all Israel shall be saved. When Paul says, “And so all Israel shall be saved,” he is stating how something is done. The phrase, “and so” (καὶ οὕτως, kai houtōs), means in this way or after this manner. Paul never claims every Jew will be saved. He states in verse fourteen of this chapter,

If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those of my flesh, and I might save (rescue from danger) some out of them. (my own translation)

Paul hoped he might be able to save some, but certainly didn’t have any designs that all of natural Israel would be saved, in his day or in the future. He had already laid out the fact that all who are thought of as being Israel, are not counted as Israel (God’s covenant people).

As we have already seen, Paul makes the point that it is only those who come to God through the Seed of Promise who are counted as Israel. In Galatians chapter six, he states,

15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision (natural Jew) nor uncircumcision (a Gentile) has power with God. The only thing that has the power to make progress is a new creature. It is the new creation in Christ Jesus that has power with God, not what one is or isn’t in the flesh.

Paul then states that as many as walk according to this rule or standard, peace be on them, and mercy, even the Israel of God. What rule does the Israel of God walk by? The standard of the Israel of God is being a new creation in Christ. It is those who are born from above by the Spirit of God, who have the Law of God written upon their circumcised hearts.

Paul states that those branches broken off from God’s Olive Tree because of unbelief can be grafted back in, through faith in the Messiah Jesus, the Promised Seed of Abraham.

Their being received again, is “life from the dead.” Just as the Gentiles, who were “dead in trespasses and sin,” were made alive by faith in Christ, so also the natural Jew, broken off through unbelief, is dead in trespasses and sin. He may only be made alive unto God through faith in Christ.