Grafted In Series

Grafted In

Romans Series

CCCAG September 13,2020

Scripture- Romans 11

As most of you know this last week I was over in Marshfield doing nursing clinicals. This is the first time then I got to take care of patients as a nurse instead of being a paramedic.

After sorting through a lot of computer issues they had with us we finally hit the floor and got our patient. We went through our assessment, saw to his needs, then went back and charted everything.

During the regular nursing shift change I helped to give the handoff report to the next nurse then helped him help the patient do some surgical preparation for the next day. 9:00 PM rolled around, and it was time for us to go to our post clinical conference where we present our patients and explain what we did for them.

My partner asked me to give the verbal summary since I'm not afraid to talk in front of people and I gave a brief and thorough report on what we had done and accomplish for the day.

My nursing instructor congratulated us on a great first day and then ask me a question, “What was your nursing diagnosis and treatment plan for this patient?”

My brain totally went blank. I said “I never even thought about it. I just managed his medical condition and even helped notice that the necessary labs for him to receive surgery in the next day were not ordered so is regular nurse got that arranged” My instructor said, “and that was a great catch, but you are not here to be a medic. What is a good nursing diagnosis for your patient that will guide his care to complete healing after the doctors are finished fixing his problem?”

She saw that blank look on my face, and said, “Think it over, and tell me after the next group gives me their report.”

I'm not sure if I was blushing but I probably should have been. I’ve been in school for over two years now and missed the central point of being a floor nurse- nursing care plans. I stayed in a completely medical physician type mindset that treats the disease in order to fix the person, which is how paramedics are trained, and missed the developing the nursing mindset that starts with treating the person in order to defeat the disease.

I bring this up today to illustrate what Paul is talking about in Romans 11.

Paul continues to build on the idea of God’s sovereignty that we talked about last week. Paul speaks about the Jews being The Chosen of God, but despite thousands of years of interaction with the Father, they missed the entire point of what God wanted for them, and instead clung to a form of religion that had no power. Not only did it have no power, but it led them right into the devils trap of instilling pride in performance instead of what God was looking for- thankfulness and grace through faith.

That’s a synopsis of Romans 11:1-10. God assuring us that Israel has not fallen permanently away from His grace.

In fact, Paul mentions the reason for their falling away in verse 12-

12 But if their (Jewish) transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

There is still a future for the Jewish people in God’s plans. Most of it will occur during the tribulation period after the church is raptured into heaven. The spiritual stupor that has blinded them for thousands of years will be removed, and they will rise up as the leaders of the tribulation church until they welcome their Messiah when Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on earth.

Until then, Paul uses the rest of chapter 11 to explain the gentiles coming into faith in Christ by using the illustration of an Olive tree.

Before we read the central scripture for today, what does the Olive tree in this example represent?

The answer is found earlier in the book of Romans-

Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

So the olive tree is referring back to Abraham, but not just to the man, but to his defining characteristic. We see that described in Genesis

Gen 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abraham became the Father of all who would believe because he believed God. The trunk of the Olive Tree here in Romans 11 represents Abraham and more importantly- the spiritual characteristic that made him pleasing to God-