Anyone who has bought a mango sapling from a nursery in India has probably bought a grafted tree. A cutting from a good variety is bound onto a hardy rootstock, and the two grow as one. The new branch bears the fruit, but it lives entirely on roots it did not grow. Paul uses a picture like this, with an olive tree, to speak to Gentile believers in Rome who were beginning to look down on Jews. You are the grafted branch, he tells them. You do not support the root; the root supports you. It is one of the sharpest warnings against Christian arrogance towards Jewish people anywhere in the Bible.
Where it sits in the story: Act 3 and Act 5 held together, pointing to Act 6. Israel's story is not closed. Paul argues that Israel's partial hardening has been the means of the gospel reaching the nations, and that God's calling of Israel stands: 'the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable'. The history of salvation is a single tree, and its end is mercy on all.
What this chapter is doing: To complete the argument of Romans 9–11: God has not rejected Israel; the present situation is partial and temporary; Gentile believers owe their place to Israel's root and must not boast; and God's mercy will have the last word.
- 11:1–10 — Has God rejected his people? By no means — Paul himself is an Israelite. As in Elijah's day, when God had kept seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal, there is now a remnant chosen by grace. The rest were hardened, as the scriptures said.
- 11:11–16 — Did they stumble so as to fall for ever? No. Through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. If their loss meant riches for the world, how much more will their full inclusion mean — nothing less than life from the dead.
- 11:17–24 — Some natural branches were broken off and Gentiles, a wild olive shoot, grafted in to share the root. Do not boast; you do not support the root. They were broken off for unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be proud but afraid; God can graft the natural branches back in.
- 11:25–32 — A mystery: a partial hardening has come on Israel until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election they are beloved for the patriarchs' sake. God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.
- 11:33–36 — Paul breaks into praise: the depth of God's riches, wisdom and knowledge; how unsearchable his judgements. From him, through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever.
Key verse: Romans 11:29 · So what: For centuries many Christians taught that the church had simply replaced Israel, and that teaching fed contempt and violence against Jews. Romans 11 is a strong brake on that: Gentile Christians are guests on Israel's tree, and God's calling of Israel stands. Paul's final answer to the hardest questions is not a diagram but worship.