Grafted

INTRODUCTION: We Are All Grafted In

Paul has a discourse in Romans 10 and 11 talking about Israel’s rejection of Christ. In this he explains how God used His chosen people to show he great works, but also explained how their rejection of the Word… and the Gentile’s embrace of it… leads to an interesting dynamic.

Paul’s imagery is that of a tree with the root being God. He explains that the Jews were the firstfruits of the tree but that we have all been grafted into this tree, making us all individuals fed from the same root.

Read Paul’s metaphor about grafting branches into the tree of life, rooted in Christ, found in Romans 11:16-24. How do you normally see the people of Israel and the Hebrew people as relating to your personal faith? Does it seem to relate at all? How does Paul’s analogy here maybe shift how you see your Christian faith as it relates to the peoples found in the Old Testament?

Romans 11:16–24 CSB

16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?

Two themes we can exegete from this

Message 1: We are grafted into the covenant of Abraham

Message 2: What has been pruned can also be re-grafted

MESSAGE 1: Covenant Theology

Paul’s first major theme involves our status as Gentiles into the bigger picture of God’s covenant.

Read the covenants that we are “grafted into” given to Abraham (Genesis 15:5-6), then to his son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), and finally to his grandson Jacob (Genesis 28:13-15). (1) It’s all “one covenant”, but each affirmation has some slightly different elements. What are some differences you notice? (2) How are these differences significant?

Genesis 15:5–6 CSB

5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

This covenant is confirmed first to Isaac...

Genesis 26:3–5 CSB

3 stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, 5 because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.”

...And yet again to Jacob.

Genesis 28:13–15 CSB

13 The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. 14 Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

On the surface, simple: You’ll have awesome descendents, BUT NOTICE...

Abraham: Constant (ongoing) belief led to righteousness.

FOR US… it is a promise DESPITE our actions, not due to them.

FOR US… a covenant credited by faith.

Isaac: All Nations are to be blessed

FOR US… promise of the Old Testament isn’t a stagnant history lesson; it’s active promise of blessing

FOR US… the proof of this promise is personified in Christ; the root.

Jacob: Shows that the promise was always for the Gentiles as well

Jacob’s offspring will be “spread out toward the west, east, north, and south”… just they are also localized to this specific land?!

It is Paul’s lesson on grafting, directly built into the covenant itself

We inherent God’s covenant and are nourished by the root (Christ).

This means that God’s love, God’s power, God’s redemption, and God’s mercy He showed to Israel is the same which He shows us.

Testimony of this was shown through the life of Christ and the gift of grace.

Just as with Abraham, the only burden placed on us is faith...

Faith in God’s promise over our reason.

Faith in God’s mercy over our flawed ideas of justice.

Faith in God’s divine plan over our own desire to control our lives and search out our own meaning.

MESSAGE 2: Pruning, Grafting, and Re-Grafting

Revisiting Paul’s discourse, we see affiliation with the root as being something somewhat fluid: there is pruning of dead branches, grafting of new ones, and probably most significantly there is re-grafting of the dead back into the living tree.

Pruning: Paul is speaking directly of the Jews who are rejecting Christ

Leads to Christian persecution

Persecution leads to spread of the Gospel

Grafting: We are compared to “wild branches”

Interpretation.… no innate understanding of the Covenant or academic understanding of the Father and promise of the messiah

Leads to an interesting thing in verse 25-27

Romans 11:25–27 CSB

25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

Prior chapters 9-11: Israel is… well… Israel (the race)

Verses 25 and 26 --> Transformation to “all Israel”, which includes us.

We are being GRAFTED IN. Consider God’s promise for the glory and salvation of Israel. That includes you!

Re-Grafting: A non-academic point… what has been pruned can be grafted again!

Romans 11:22–23 CSB

22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again.

Though speaking about groups of people, Paul addresses “you” (the Roman Christians) in verse 22… PERSONAL APPEAL AND APPLICATION

But what is lost is not lost forever… it can be grafted in again!

This is, perhaps, the most mind-blowing portion of this entire section. We have grown up knowing that those who do not believe are separated from the tree while those who do believe are grafted in… BUT THIS IS GRACE BEYOND UNDERSTANDING!

Simply because you have fallen, stagnated, or spent time in rebellion does not excommunicate you from God’s love.

If anything, it increases the testimony of God’s glory even more to show that NO ACT OF MAN can separate us from the immeasurable love and grace of Christ!

Consider the re-grafting of people back into the faith in Romans 11:22-23. (1) How do you see people push away God due to their own preferences, guilt, or fundamental misunderstandings of Grace? (2) How can some of these misunderstanding actually reveal what makes Christ’s grace so divine? What does it reveal about God’s forgiveness vs our own? (3) Do you have an example of someone who has been “re-grafted” back into the tree, rooted in Christ, after seeming to go a different route? How do those testimonies impact you?

You Are Inheritors of Promise

Paul later writes earlier in Romans about us becoming heirs of God’s promise.

Romans 8:17 CSB

17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

The core of Christ’s redemptive power is our surrender of ourselves and embracing of becoming something new.

You can not be grafted into the tree of life and also remain grafted into an independent tree of death.

We know God will remain faithful, because He has proven His faithfulness to His Chosen people through covenant. You now inherit that evidence of God’s faithfulness!

CHALLENGE: Upon what are you rooting your own life? Are you still trying to bear fruit of your own cultivation? We are grafted into the tree of life through our faith in Jesus Christ. If you have embraced that faith and been grafted, what is the fruit you are producing?

And if you haven’t wanted to think about it or maybe has been avoiding this fruitful life Christ’s promises, what are you waiting for? What do you think is holding you back? God has the power to graft anything back into the tree… all it requires is that we turn away from diseased plants and instead turn to the cross.