NOTES for Rom 11:20-21

²⁰Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

²¹For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

The path Israel, God's chosen people, walks is difficult. Often this path is "against the goads" (to quote the Lord's words to Paul himself), a path of resistance to God's will. The apostle has already said much about this in his letter, and his pain for his kinsmen according to the flesh, for his brothers and sisters, is very great. And yet, speaking about the reasons that led to Israel's falling away from God, Paul persistently reminds us: yes, they fell away, but God did not take His election from them; God calls them, and Christ died for them as well. More than that, it is very important for the apostle to convey to the Roman community, and through it to all other Christians converted from paganism, an essential warning: one must remember the fate of those who fell away from God and draw the proper conclusions from it. And the chief thing from which he wants to protect the newborn Church is the disease of boasting.

Our personal encounter with the Lord is always an immense gift. At first we walk around stunned by grace unexpectedly received. I think we all remember the happiness of realizing divine love and forgiveness, on the one hand, and the undeservedness of this gift, our unworthiness, on the other. Yet human beings are made in such a way that they easily and gladly remember the first, and just as easily forget the second. And when we look at our brothers and sisters who for one reason or another turn away from God and fall away from the Church, we want to say to ourselves: well, that will not happen to me; it cannot happen.

And here it is, the message to us from the apostle Paul: "They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be proud, but fear." Do not look at your brother's path; "before his own Lord he stands or falls" (Rom. 14:4). He has his own relationship with God, and the Creator's design for each of us is completely unique. Look at yourself, watch yourself, and fear falling away from the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Other notes

For Rom 11:11-24

¹¹I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

¹²Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

¹⁴If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

¹⁵For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

¹⁶For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

¹⁸Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

¹⁹Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

²⁰Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

²¹For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

²²Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

²³And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.

²⁴For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

Reflecting on the historical fate of his people, Paul does not separate them from the... Read more

Reflecting on the historical fate of his people, Paul does not separate them from the Kingdom to which he bears witness. He does not doubt that the fate of the Jewish people precisely as the people of God is by no means over, that the Jews stumbled on the way into the Kingdom not in order to fall and never rise again (v. 11). The history of the Kingdom is paradoxical: former Gentiles go there ahead of those whom the Savior Himself called first, and the Jews' unwillingness to be first on this path only heats up the enthusiasm of those who are going. But the apostle is sure that at the end of time, when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness, his tribesmen will enter it, so that neither the fullness of the Kingdom nor the resurrection itself will be possible without their participation (vv. 12-15).

Paul understands that the people of God, conceived by God even before He created the world, were conceived by God as a people sanctified by His presence, "holy," and this holiness was not the people's privilege, but part of God's plan for the salvation of the world and humanity. That is why it is not determined solely by the historical fate of the Jewish people, within whom God always finds the remnant that corresponds to His plan for what His people should be. In the apostle's expression, the people's "holy root" has not gone anywhere simply because it cannot disappear. Its disappearance would mean the failure of God's whole plan of salvation, and that is impossible by definition.

And if so, then the branches too are made holy by the holy root (v. 16). Paul, as we can see, remains faithful to the prophetic tradition where the attitude toward Gentiles is concerned. The ancient prophets said more than once that in the messianic Kingdom, the remnant of God's people would meet Gentiles who sought the true God and finally found Him. But the apostle understands that God's priorities have remained the same: His people remain His people, and the salvation of former Gentiles is possible only if they acknowledge the fact obvious to Paul, that there is and can be no other people of God besides the one whose history begins with the call of Abraham. To illustrate this position clearly, the apostle uses the image of grafting and cultivating a wild olive tree, something that would be completely impossible if, first, there did not exist a "good" olive tree, a cultivated variety, and if, second, no gardener were found who was able and willing to perform such an operation (vv. 17-24).

As we can see, for Paul the history of the people of God is one single spiritual process, in which the fate of the Jewish people, the ministry of the remnant, and the history of the Kingdom become one whole.

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NOTES for Rom 11:20-21

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