1. The Sadness of the Broken off Branches and the Future Triumph (15,16,23,24,26,27)
What a storm we might have seen or experienced!
The images in this part of Romans speak so clearly to the sadness of the situation of those branches broken off from the Tree.
Have you seen trees whose branches have been damaged by a storm? Of course you have! You will have seen the Tsunami news recently on TV.
To find out what the broken branches mean in today’s passage from the book of Romans, let us look.
Are there any signs in these verses that the persons addressed are in need? Are they devastated? Let’s have a look…
In v.11 we see the words “stumbled,” “fallen,” “jealous,” “salvation.” These words all imply need of some help from God. God is never attributed with creating the sins of people but He is pronounced or declared as their Saviour, their Deliverer. Indeed “the Deliverer will come out of Zion.” (26) Which is exactly what we celebrate during Advent and Christmas.
Verse 15 has the words “cast away,” “reconciling” “life from the dead.” All, again, imply a need, that we are reminded throughout Scripture can only be met by God.
In v.17 we read “broken off” implies some in need of re-connection to the Olive Tree.
Verse 18 “the root supports you” implies we need help and support.
Verse 20 “broken off” branches, “unbelief,” “haughtiness”
Verse 21 speak of being “cut off” in “unbelief”
Anyone would think that the Jews were in some sort of trouble…well they all are, says Paul. They are devastated branches; like those blasted off a tree in a Tsunami. They will remain so as long as they do not trust wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ!
And you Gentiles, as long as you look down your noses at the Jews and say “Hey, you were broken off the Olive Tree so that we could be grafted on to the tree…” you will be accounted guilty for your boasting! 20 “Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.”
Remember who supports who.
The root supports the branches. The branches do not hold up the root!
Now this idea of grafting.
What is the purpose of grafting olive branches onto an olive root? So I looked it up!
“Grafting is done for several purposes, but most commonly in the olive oil industry it is to get the hardy roots of one variety with the fecundity of another variety. The whole point of grafting is that each part of the grafted tree keeps its original character. The variety used for the root stock may be resistant to fungus or other pests but has a small or low yield olive. The graft may have weak roots but large fruit with high oil content. The resulting tree has the best of both varieties.
Fruit trees are commonly grafted for backyard use so that one tree yields several types of related fruits. A peach tree could be grafted with two different types of peaches and a nectarine. You would probably not see a grafted tree with unrelated species such as peaches, walnuts and avocados on it.” (http://www.oliveoilsource.com/scripts/dictionary.asp?p_do=item&p_id=486)
The Pain and the Warning
It is wonderful to know that God cares for us so much that He is prepared to suffer for us. This is implied in the grafting metaphor. He sent His Son to suffer and die. Imagine what the Father suffered as His only begotten Son suffered and died on the cross?
His ‘chosen people,’ the Jews, suffered in their long pilgrimage as recounted in the OT. God was with them in their suffering. And so we come to believers who live today, ourselves in fact…
In order to graft us on to the Olive Tree there was a cost. V 19: ‘Branches were broken off that I (Gentile believers, that’s us) might be grafted in.’
We are the latecomers to this event…yet all that was done was done to enable us to join with Christ.
We are told in Eph 2: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…” (EPH 2:14)
Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ.
It must be a very special purpose of God. All one in Christ Jesus.
First of all, there is the breaking off of the Old branches (v.17) who are God’s chosen people, the Jews. This is in order that Gentiles may be grafted on says Paul. 17 “And if some of the branches were broken off…” He says, “and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree...”
Grafting means cutting the tree and sap running down the trunk. It involves the joining of a foreign branch and its possible rejection. So we are to conclude that the parent Olive Tree suffers too, as indeed it suffers when the original branches are broken off.
Then verse 21 “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”
In John’s Gospel we read the words of Jesus 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away…”
In Isa 5 God says of the vineyard of the Lord, i.e. Israel, that after all that God had done for them, they acted unjustly and became corrupted in their ways: Isa 5:4 “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?”
Verse 7 “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.”
The joy and a warning to those grafted on to the tree
In vv17-19, 26, 27 we find the joy; and in vv. 20-27 the warning
Psa 52:8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.”
Hosea 14:6: “His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.”
There is a spreading all over and a fragrance of His pleasure and love.
A beautiful picture of God blessing and giving His people fruitfulness in their lives.
In the Gospel reading in John we see fruitfulness blessing and a warning too:
John 15: 5 & 6 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 15:6 ‘If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.’ ”
Words of warning
Rom 11 V 20-27 contains the warning
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
So according to v.20, the Jewish problem was unbelief.
It stops many people from entering Christ and God’s Kingdom. So long as the Jews listened to other people who claimed God’s authority or an authority which contradicts God’s word and did not listen and obey God through faith, they ended up broken and devastated. As Hebrews says: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”(Heb 4:2)
We are not left out of this warning:
Romans 11:22 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; (that’s the Jews) but toward you, (that’s you Gentiles) goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”
Life is not easy, so if we are tempted to take up the cry of the old negro spiritual: “Nobody knows de troubles I seen…” in order to express a sorrow for myself:
Nobody knows de trouble I seen
Nobody knows but Jesus
Nobody knows de trouble I seen
Glory Hallelujah!
Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down
Oh, yes, Lord.
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground,
Oh, yes, Lord….
Then few will blame you. But better than that is to recall the words of Jesus to His disciples:
I will read John 16:33 from the Amplified Bible:
”In the world you have... distress and frustration; but... [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]... I have... [deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you]”
John 16: 33 (Amp Bible)
Or the words of Paul to young pastor Timothy:
2 Tim 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”
So God in His great and wise plan of salvation has joined two peoples together that we might become one with all His people...Heb 11:40 “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
We will always be incomplete without all the Jews that God is calling to Himself in Christ. It behoves us to pay attention to Jesus, the King of the Jews and to follow all He taught and His Apostles taught about our relationship with His people, the Jews.
It is the same Messiah that we both worship.
It is a New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven for us and it this same Messiah who will usher us into the Shekinah glory, the very presence of God, in order to worship Him in heaven forever. Amen.
