Romans 11:17-18

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Remember that Paul’s audience was amongst a Roman society which had a general contempt for all things Jewish. The Romans looked down their noses at Israel, because Israel was a conquered, surrogate state. And Christians were often fearful of the Jews, because they were the first – before the Romans – to persecute them. Within 100 years of the writing of the New Testament, some people, now called Gnostics or Marcionites, literally went through the New Testament and removed every New Testament reference to the Old Testament. They tried to expunge the Jewishness of Christianity. But you can’t do that, because Christianity is Jewish inherently. So Paul is warning these Gentile Christians to understand that and think of the present Israel in view of the root of God’s word. Perhaps Paul wanted to prevent the Christians in Rome from displaying a general secular attitude toward Israel in his teaching here, but it sure works out nicely for us in the twenty-first century political realm.

Israel is the olive tree, and God is the gardener. It’s an illustration that everyone with any biblical literacy would have understood when Paul was speaking. The prophets often talked about how God tends and cares for the body of His people. Now the illustration that Paul is giving here is horticulturally odd. It was not common practice to take a wild olive branch and graft it into an old cultivated olive root. Normally it would be the other way around. The olive farmers of Paul’s day would normally have taken a branch from an older, cultivated olive that was becoming less fruitful and more vulnerable to disease and would have grafted it into a wild olive root, which would have produced good fruits. Paul knew that it was normally that way, but the illustration he offers, like so many of Paul’s illustrations, is designed to show how surprising it is that God has brought Gentiles into His people. In v24, Paul says that it is not natural to take a wild olive branch and graft it into a root of an old cultivated olive tree. Rather, it is contrary to nature. That’s his whole point. God’s grace to the Gentiles is surprising. And perhaps we’ve taken that for granted, but Paul reminds us again what a surprising thing God has done to the Gentile Christians. They were “wild” and God grafted them in; they didn’t graft themselves in. Paul is teaching us that grace produces humility. A proper view of God’s grace will bring about humility in Christians and not arrogance. You can be proud or you can be a Christian, but not both. And, once again, when we Gentiles are humble, we have a greater propensity to have compassion for the people of Israel, knowing that our roots lie in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, knowing that what God has done for us is surprisingly gracious. Here are 3 things we should display as a result of Paul’s teaching: (1) humility and (2) compassion towards Jews and (3) awe towards God.

Before moving on, I want to briefly mention here the eschatological considerations regarding Israel and the Church. Without really getting into it, let’s acknowledge that on the one hand, some theologians (Reformed or Covenant Theology) believe that Israel and the Church are one. There is a distinction made by the Savior’s earthly appearance, but the two entities make up one group – the Body of Christ. Both entities, as one group, share in the same covenantal promises. The Old Testament Hebrew people are our brothers, because we, as spiritual descendants of Abraham, are “Jews” in that certain sense. By faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, we have become the true Jews (Romans 2:28-29). Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (see Galatians 3:16). Gentiles, as the offspring of Abraham, inherit the promises made to "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). And on the other hand, some theologians (Dispensational Theology) believe that Israel and the Church are two. Because of what is called a “dispensational” distinction – not merely that the Messiah came and separated these two entities, but that God relates on completely different terms with these two entities – they say that the two entities really are two separate groups and should not be grouped into one "Body of Christ." God is working differently in Israel than He is working in the Church, having made different promises to them than He has made to us. And we, as members of the Church, have no relation to the Old Testament Hebrew people, as we are “Jews” in no real sense. This will come up again in v25-32.