Sermon Tone Analysis

17 Paul has issued a warning in previous chapters about the arrogance of the Jews.

There was a pride/arrogance among the Jews that extended not only to the unbelieving gentiles but also to Gentile believers.

The olive tree is seen as a symbol of the nation of Israel.

It’s a symbol of peace, the peace found because of God’s love towards His chosen people.

Now note the exact picture given.

The natural branches refer to Israel, and the wild olive branches refer to Gentile believers.

The olive tree refers to God and a right relationship with Him.

Some natural branches are broken off and rejected.

Some Jews did not and do not believe in Christ; therefore, they are not attached to God.

They do not have a right relationship with God.

But note: only some of the branches were broken off.

Some Jews did accept Christ as the Messiah and did maintain a right relationship with God.

Some wild olive branches were grafted into the tree.

Note that the words and thou or you are singular.

Paul is not speaking to Gentiles as a whole, but to the individual Gentile.

The Gentile believer is said to have been a wild olive branch.

The word wild means that the Gentile was not part of the olive tree (God); he was outside and estranged and alienated from the olive tree (God).

The Gentile believer is now said to have been grafted into the olive tree.

He is now attached to God, that is, in a right relationship with God; therefore, he now partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree.

Very simply, this means that the believer is fed and nourished by God.

The glorious privilege of being nourished by God becomes as much the right of the Gentile as it is of the Jews.

Now, the Gentile believer is grafted into the olive tree with the natural branches.

This is important to note, for it means there is only one family of God, not two.

Both the natural branches and the wild branches are part of the same olive tree.

The only difference is that the natural branches were the first branches that grew on the olive tree.

The wild branches had to be brought or grafted into the tree.

Note that some natural branches are broken off because they did not bear fruit.

Why was this warning for the Gentiles necessary?

18 The Gentile believer must not be arrogant and prideful over the Jews.

The idea is that.

There can be the tendency to look at the Jews differently or as inferior because they denied Christ.

It might also be tempting to boast that we know the truth about the Messiah and they don’t.

However, it gives us no right to place our faith above or over the Jews or anyone else.

It puts us in the same category as the Jews when they elevated themselves over the Gentiles.

If it had not been for Judaism, there would be no Christianity.

If it had not been for Jewish believers, there would be no Christian believers.

If Peter and Paul and the others had not surrendered their lives to preach Christ, then the message of Christ would have never reached us.

We must never forget that “salvation is of the Jews”.

What are the dangers of complacency and unbelief to the Gentile?

That we are more acceptable to God because we have replaced the Jews as the true followers of God.

That we are safe and secure in Christianity because Christianity is the religion that acknowledges God’s Son.

19-21 We must always remember what this Scripture is saying.

Israel was not rejected by God so that we, the Gentiles, might be saved.

Israel was rejected by God because of unbelief.

God did not and does not reject one people in order to save another people.

God reaches out to every nation of people longing for all to be grafted into Him.

God accepts a person because the person believes in His Son Jesus Christ.

The Jews did not believe; some Gentiles did believe.

A Gentile believer stands attached to the olive tree by faith, not because of any goodness or merit or value within himself.

Now note: the Gentile believer must guard against complacency, against feeling safe, secure, and more acceptable because he stands in Christianity, the religion that acknowledges God’s Son.

The Gentile believer must not be highminded, but rather fear.

He must fear, for God is less likely to spare the unnatural branches than He was the natural branches.

The warning is strong: “Take heed lest He also spare thee not”

If God spared not the Jews because of their unbelief, how much more will He not spare us.

The Jews were the natural branches; we are the unnatural branches.

In light of this and of so much more depravity, we must guard against self-complacency and conceit.

We must walk in humility and the fear of God, fearing unbelief lest we too be broken off.

What is the potential downfall of the Gentiles being self-righteous?

22 The severity of God is seen in the spiritual fall of Israel.

The word severity (apotomia) means abrupt, sharp, rough, cut off.

The Jews had committed the very sins the Gentiles are being warned about in this passage.

They had developed an attitude of arrogance and boasting toward other people, refusing to carry the Word of God to them and had felt highminded and complacent, feeling safe and secure, thinking themselves to be more acceptable to God than other people.

In addition to these gross sins, the Jews had rejected God’s prophets down through the centuries until they eventually killed God’s very own Son.

In one brief word, their sin was unbelief.

The vast majority of the Jews never did believe God, not to the point that they loved God supremely.

As a result, the judgment and severity of God fell upon them.

The goodness of God is seen in the grafting in and acceptance of the Gentiles by God.

But note the stress of this point: the goodness of God is given only to those who continue in God’s goodness.

A person who knows about the love of God must walk and live in God’s goodness.

It is the picture of a person who is remaining and abiding in the house of God’s goodness.

A Gentile believer must continue and abide, endure and persevere in the goodness of God, or else he too will be cut off (ekkopesei) just as the Jews were cut off.

What is the future of Israel, and how does that fit into the fourth warning?

23-24 The Gentile believer must know that Israel’s restoration is a probable event.

The restoration of Israel is conditional.

Note the word “if”—“if they abide not still in unbelief.”

Genuine belief is the condition for salvation.

A person has to run from his unbelief to belief in order to be grafted in and accepted by God.

No person comes to God unless he believes in His Son Jesus Christ.

God is able to graft the Jews back into the olive tree.

God loves everyone and will forgive any person for any thing if that man will turn from his life of sin and unbelief.

God will accept any person who approaches Him through His Son Jesus Christ (Both Jew and Gentile).

Romans 1:16 “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

He knows when a man’s heart is subject to Him and moving toward Him.

He knows just when to move upon a person’s heart, and He can arrange circumstances that will cause the person to turn to Him.

Therefore, when the time comes, He has the power to stir Jewish hearts to turn to Him in large numbers.

The grafting in of the natural branches (the Jews) is much more likely than the calling of the Gentiles was.

Paul is confident that God is not only able, but God will graft the Jews back into the olive tree.

Paul proclaims that the Jews will turn to Christ and be restored into a right relationship with God.

Will God restore the Jews?

Israel’s history is a surety.

God loves man with an infinite love, and God’s love is unchangeable.

Therefore, any person can be restored to God if the person will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Christ to save him.

This is clearly seen in the history of Israel.

Israel’s restoration is a surety and, as such, stands as a prime example of the unchangeable love of God toward man.

25-26 The mystery Paul speaks of is something that was unknown but now revealed.

The future of Israel is now revealed and made known to men.

Note exactly why God revealed the future of Israel: that we not be ignorant of Israel’s future, and that we not be wise in our own conceits or imaginations.

This last reason can mean two things.

Gentiles become guilty of looking down upon the Jews because the Jews are so different from the rest of us.

They have rejected Jesus Christ and are opposed to Christianity to such a degree that they remain almost exclusively among themselves.