Paul indicates that even though Israel stumbled, through that stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles. This leads into the discussion of the "mystery" and Paul's reaching out to those Gentiles. Even though there were instances of the Jews evangelizing such as Jonah, they still to this day do not do much. Dr. Sproul discusses the significance of the Olive Tree to Israel and also the significance of circumcision.

We will continue today with our study of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. We are still in the eleventh chapter, and we will look at Romans 11:11–24. In this section, we see the Apostle teaching us that the rejection of Israel by God is not the final step in God’s plan of salvation. There remains a history for His people that is yet to be fulfilled. Let us look at the text beginning at verse 11 in chapter 11. I will ask the congregation to stand:

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, 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, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 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. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

May God have mercy upon us as we hear from His infallible, inspired, and inerrant Word. Please be seated. Let us pray.

Our Lord, we look to You to help us understand the depths and the riches of these things set forth in sacred Scripture. We know none of these things save by Your revelation of them through the Scripture to us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear these sacred things. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Stumbling Block

For the second time in the eleventh chapter, as he has done often throughout this epistle, Paul begins a section by using the literary device of the rhetorical question. Rhetorical questions are questions whose answers are so obvious that anyone should grasp them instantly.

One of the nice things about the Greek language that we do not have in English is that there are specific structures as to how questions are stated. These structures tell us conclusively whether the answer to the question is yes or no. Paul begins in verse 11 with one of those rhetorical questions.

“I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?” That is the question. Paul has already told us of the severity and the manner in which Israel missed their calling by seeking after the law, works, and so on. They had become blinded to the truth of their redemption. They tripped over the Messiah, who was the rock of offense to them and became a stumbling block to His own people. The metaphor Paul used was that the Jewish people were tripped up with their rejection of Jesus. They stumbled.

Paul is asking the question: For what purpose did Israel stumble? What was God’s design in their being tripped up over these things? Was God’s purpose in allowing His people to stumble over the stumbling block that they should fall? Usually, when we stumble, that is the result. When we trip, we fall. When we fall, we often get hurt. Sometimes we fall and we cannot get up. Paul is saying: “Was that the reason? Did God want His people to fall not just temporarily, but fully and finally?”

Paul answers this rhetorical question with the same emphatic response that he has used so often in the epistle: “Have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not!” Other translations say, “By no means.” Other translations say, “God forbid!” The last conclusion we should come to is that God’s purpose in the stumbling of Israel was their permanent fall into destruction. “But,” the Apostle says, “through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” This passage reeks with irony, does it not?

The Mystery of the Gentiles

Later, in verse 25, Paul will elaborate on the principle of salvation coming to the gentiles in order to provoke Israel to jealousy by referring to it as a mystery. This is one of Paul’s favorite concepts in his New Testament writings, particularly when he addressed the Colossian community. He speaks in Colossians of the concept of the mystērion, or the mystery. The Latin translation of the Greek mystērion is the word sacramentum. That linguistic connection between the Greek and the Latin is why some churches refer to the sacraments as the “sacred mysteries.”

Though the word mystērion is translated into English by our word mystery, there is a great chasm between our understanding of the word mystery and the Greek concept that Paul uses. We speak of mysteries in a couple of different ways. When we think about those concepts that come to us from the Word of God, or even from the realm of science, that we do not understand, we say that they remain mysteries to us. We have not been able to fathom their meaning. That which remains undisclosed and difficult to our thinking we call a mystery.

We also like to speak of mysteries with respect to whodunits, whether in novels or television programs on crime. We talk about the case of this or that criminal as a mystery, an unsolved problem. In stark contrast to those, in the New Testament the use of the term mystery or mystērion refers to something that once was hidden or concealed but now has been revealed and made plain.

The single most important mystery with which the Apostle grapples time and again in his writing is this: Christ in you, the hope of the gentiles. The grand mystery that was so heavily veiled in the Old Testament, concealed profoundly through hundreds of years of redemptive history, is now made clear: the gentiles are included in the people of God.

Even though this mystery was veiled in the history of the Old Testament literature, it was not totally hidden. If we go back to Abraham, we remember that the promise to Abraham was that he was blessed in order to be a blessing. Through this covenant that God was making with Abraham, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Implicit in that promise is the idea that at some point the non-Jews—the gentiles—would participate in the blessedness of this covenant that God makes with Abraham as the father of the faithful.

We think of the book of Jonah, where Jonah is sent as a missionary to a gentile land. The idea of reaching out to gentiles to include them in the covenant promise was not completely unknown in Old Testament Israel, but it was vague and in shadows for most of their history. Paul says that the grand design of God, the mystery of the stumbling of Israel, God’s purpose in having Israel fall through their apostasy was

We need to hear this because many of us are of gentile descent. We have some people in our congregation who are of Jewish descent who have become Christians. But for the majority of us, we are the “Johnnies coming lately” into the kingdom of God. We are the gentiles who are part of this mystery that has been revealed.

Salvation has come to us. The means through which that salvation has come to us and to the gentile world is the fall of the Jews. This is what God has done: He has worked through the disobedience of one group to bring another group, a larger group, into His household of faith.

How Much More

Paul uses another literary device, common to not only his writings but also to the teaching technique of Jesus. Jesus would often make comparisons between various things. But the comparison would not be between two things where one was good and the other was better, or where one was bad and the other good. Rather, the difference between the two was so profound that the phrase our Lord used was, “How much more.”

You might remember the parable of the unjust judge, where Jesus talks about an unfortunate widow who has been disenfranchised. She seeks justice from a judge who has no regard for man or for God. He will not hear her case, but she keeps pestering him, persisting. She will not stop. Finally, to stop this pestering, the judge hears the case. It’s not because he has any concern for justice or for the woman. Rather, just to get his own peace and quiet, he hears her case and gives her a favorable verdict.

What does Jesus say? Does He say, “If the unjust judge will bring vindication to his people, do you not think that the just judge would do that as well?” No, the difference is that if an ungodly judge, on a given day, will render a just, vindicating verdict, how much more will God, who is just, vindicate His people, who cry unto Him day and night?

That is the device Paul uses in this text when he says, “Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” If God brings this good thing out of Israel’s failure, how much more blessedness will He bring through their restoration?

Paul began this section of his epistle with the promise of his passionate concern for his kinsmen according to the flesh. His concern here is not for spiritual Israel; his concern here is for ethnic Israel, his kinsmen kata sarka, his kinsmen according to the flesh.

Paul says in verse 13, “For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles.” Even though he is a Jew, the mission Christ gave to Paul was to be the Apostle to the gentiles. Paul magnifies his ministry not to magnify himself; rather, Paul wants to remind the Roman readers of the exalted level of authority that Christ chose him to carry out in his ministry to the gentiles, in which the Romans were included.

Jealous of the Gospel

Paul says, “I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.” Once again, he articulates his passion for his brothers and sisters of his own nation.

Paul keeps using this language of jealousy, talking about making his fellow Jews jealous. He says that they are hostile, bitter in their opposition to the Christian church. But as the glory of the church is being made manifest, Paul desires that his kinsmen will see the greatness of the gospel, the greatness of what Jesus has done. Instead of being angry with us, the Jews will be jealous of us and try to pursue the same things that we enjoy.

Let me make an aside here for a moment. One of the men with whom I ministered years ago on many occasions is the founder of Jews for Jesus, Moishe Rosen. I do not know of any organization, perhaps in history, that has been more effective in leading people of Jewish ancestry to Christ than Jews for Jesus.

At the same time, I do not know of any missionary organization that has provoked more controversy or more hostility in the secular world than Jews for Jesus. They have particularly provoked the religious establishment of American Judaism, which is deeply resentful against any type of Christian evangelism to their people. They are profoundly opposed to any type of proselytism.

I say to my Jewish friends, “You know, that really puzzles me.” They say, “Why?” They resent this evangelism. I say, “Do you believe that Judaism is true, and Christianity is false?” They say, “Yes.” I ask, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah?” They say no. I say: “We believe that He is the Messiah. According to you, we are wrong, right?” “Yes,” they say, “you’re wrong.”

I say: “If that’s the case, then our religion is false, and we are stumbling in darkness. You believe that we’re guilty of idolatry by worshiping a man who is a creature, and we’re denying the monotheistic foundation of the Jewish faith.” They say, “That’s right.” Then I say, “At the same time, you have antipathy towards our evangelistic efforts.

But why don’t you evangelize us? If you believe that Judaism is the truth of God, why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to help me out of my darkness and error, to bring me into the true religion of Abraham?”

They usually do not have anything to say to that, except to mumble: “It’s not for you. It’s just for us.” Nevertheless, Paul is saying: “I want to break through those barriers. I want to cut through that hostility and that resistance. I want to make them jealous of what God has given us.”

Life from the Dead

“For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” If Israel’s rejection is God’s plan for the reconciliation of the world, how much more would their acceptance bring blessedness to humanity? What would it be but life from the dead?

Some commentators on Romans believe that Paul is cryptically giving us an eschatological hint in this text. They say with The Late Great Planet Earth that the greatest sign of the times that will be the harbinger of the coming of Christ and the consummation of His kingdom will be the conversion of Israel. I certainly believe that the conversion of Israel is in view later in this chapter, but I do not think it is used here as an eschatological sign.

When Paul says, “What would this be but life from death,” the image has its roots in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, when the vision is given of the valley of the dry bones, in which God says to His prophet: “Look. And what do you see?” Ezekiel says, “I see bones that are bleached from the sun. They are dried in this arid environment. They are in a state of hopeless death.”

Then the question that comes to Ezekiel is, “Can these bones live?” (Ezek. 37:3). The answer that God gives in the vision is that when His Word comes over the valley of the dry bones, suddenly there is a stirring. Suddenly, the bones begin to rattle. They begin to move together and are knit one to each other. Then flesh comes upon the bones—sinew, muscle, tissue—and life begins to course through the veins of these skeletons. Out of death in the valley comes life.

I think that is the image Paul has in view here when he says that if Israel’s rejection brings salvation, how much more will their acceptance bring? It would be like life from the dead.

The Firstfruit, Lump, and Root

Paul continues now, changing metaphors: “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.” He talks about firstfruits, he talks about lumps, and he talks about roots.

The firstfruits refer to the offerings that were brought into the temple in the Old Testament. The firstfruits from the harvest meant the initial blossomings. The best of the fruit was brought before God. But the idea was that if the firstfruits were consecrated when this offering was made, the blessedness did not simply remain restricted to the firstfruits. Rather, the whole crop was consecrated and sacred unto the Lord.

Then Paul uses the analogy of leaven in bread, which is made when you introduce a little piece of leaven in order to make the bread rise. If that leavening agent is sacred to God, holy and set apart, what about the whole loaf—the whole lump infused by the initial piece of leaven? Paul says that it is not just the initial piece of leaven that is holy, but the whole lump of bread is holy.

Paul now turns to the metaphor of the tree. He says, “If the root is holy, so are the branches.” But from whence cometh the consecration of the branches? This is the point the Apostle is laboring: What makes the branches holy is not something inherently or innately found in the branches of the tree; it is only by the connection of the branch to the root that the branch is considered sacred and holy.

A Wild Olive Tree

Paul presses the analogy: “And if some of the branches were broken off . . .” He is referring to those who were the disobedient Jews, who were apostate, who stumbled, who were cut off from the promises of God. Those wicked branches were cut off and thrown into the fire just as Jesus said they would be. But “if some of the branches were broken off, 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, do not boast against the branches.”

The metaphor focuses not just on any tree, but on the olive tree. The olive tree was of massive significance to the economy of Old Testament Israel. One of the most important, if not the most important agrarian product produced in the land was olive oil. That precious olive oil came from olives that grew on olive trees.

Of all the trees that grew in the Old Testament land of Palestine, the olive tree was the strongest, the most durable, and the most valuable. The roots went deep, and those olive trees would live for three or four hundred years.

We think about the Mount of Olives that separates the village of Bethany from the city of Jerusalem. Jesus went to Gethsemane, the olive press, when He agonized in prayer the night before He was executed. At that time, the slope of the mountain between Bethany and Jerusalem was covered with olive trees. Olive trees of great strength and of many years flourished.

One of the tragedies of the history of the Jews occurred during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when the Romans encamped on the Mount of Olives, waiting for the resources of food and water to dry up within the city. During the protracted siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans kept warm by cutting down those olive trees. They used their branches and wood to build fires to keep themselves warm.

It is a matter of history that the Mount of Olives was completely denuded of groves by the Roman soldiers who camped there during the siege of Jerusalem.

In terms of the general history of Israel, the symbol of strength and durability to the Jew was the olive tree.

Olive trees were carefully cultivated by the Jews because of their value. In contrast to the olive tree, which was the most valuable and durable of trees, the most worthless tree in the community was the wild olive tree—those that grew wild without any cultivation. They did not bear any fruit. They were worthless. They were big, giant weeds.

That is how we are described. The branches are cut off the root of the tree, “and you,” Paul says, speaking of the gentiles, “being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them.” This is what God did: He cut off the branches of this precious, durable, valuable olive tree. When He cut off the branch, He made a graft. The graft He put on the tree was taken from wild, worthless olive trees that had nothing to commend themselves to God.

Salvation Is of the Jews

“You, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree.” These spindly, worthless branches of the wild olive tree are now plugged into the root. They get the sap, they get the nutrients, and they draw everything that is valuable from the root of the olive tree. Salvation is of the Jews, and we must never forget that.

Martin Luther, in his elder years, became hostile toward the Jews in Germany. This was particularly because of their opposition to the gospel, and secondarily because the Jewish bankers were charging high, usurious interest rates. Luther denounced them in no uncertain terms. But earlier in his ministry, he was more sanguine.

Luther reminded the church of her everlasting debt to the Jews. It is out of the Jews, out of Israel, that our redemption came. They are the root; we are the wild olive branch that is grafted into the root. That should be the deathblow to any kind of anti-Semitism, which should never be numbered among Christian people.

“. . . do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” How could Paul be any more graphic? You are a wild olive branch, and the wild olive branch does not support the root. The root supports you. Remember where you came from. Remember the grace of God in bringing you to where you are.

Paul continues: “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. nd you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.”

Sometimes we read this text and say: “Shame on the Jews. They rejected the promises of God. But we have accepted the promises, so now we’re God’s chosen people.” Paul says: “Be careful. Do not become haughty. Just as apostasy polluted Israel, it can pollute you.” We have seen it. We have seen it in our own land. We have seen the unbelievable corruption of mainline churches in our society, which have become monuments of unbelief and apostasy. Just as God cuts off the branches of Israel, He will cut off the gentile branches that are unproductive.

The Severity of God

“Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God.” We like half of that statement. We love to contemplate the goodness of God, but that is not the Apostle’s admonition here, is it?

He says: “I want you to consider two things. Yes, contemplate, meditate, think about the goodness of God. It’s an incredible goodness. It’s an awesome goodness. It’s a wonderful goodness. But while you’re doing that, consider the severity of God. Our God is an all-consuming fire. When His judgment comes, when it falls upon wicked people, when He judges the apostate, the judgment is severe.”

Paul continues, “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.” But be careful. If you become apostate, then, “you also will be cut off.”

When Paul speaks about being “cut off,” he is using a powerful metaphor, speaking of branches that are cut off from the tree and thrown into the fire. But the principle of cutting is deeply rooted in Old Testament faith.

In the Old Testament, when covenants were made, they were cut. Cutting rites were associated with the most important covenants of the Old Testament.

The sign of the covenant of the Old Testament was the sign of circumcision. It may seem crude or crass to you when you think about it, but what was going on symbolically when the Jewish male children were circumcised, when the foreskin of their flesh was cut off? It had a twofold symbolic significance.

Circumcision functioned as a symbol of God’s saying: “On the one hand, I have cut you out of the world. I have separated you from lost humanity. I have consecrated you to Myself in this covenant. Yet, at the same time, if you do not keep the terms of this covenant, you are saying to Me by your circumcision, ‘O God, if I violate this covenant, may I be cut off from Your blessing just as the foreskin of my flesh has been cut off.’”

That was the negative sanction of the symbol that every Jewish male carried in his own body. That principle of cutting runs deeply through the Bible. The worst thing that could ever happen to a human being is to be cut off from God.

I have to give you an illustration. Several years ago, I was dealing with a discipline case in another church. A woman left her husband and took up with another man in an adulterous relationship. It became known to the church, and the church was responsible to exercise discipline.

When you join the church, you agree to submit to the discipline of the church. You are not an island. If you become involved in gross and heinous sin or public scandal, it is the responsibility of the church to call you into account and to plead with you to repent. If you refuse to repent, then the church must suspend you from the sacraments, cutting you off from that means of grace in the hope that it will make you jealous to get back into the safety of the fold.

But if you persist in your impenitence, then the final act of punishment is excommunication. Do you know what that means? It means that the church of Jesus Christ turns you over to Satan. It cuts you out of fellowship with the people of God. That is what excommunication is, and that is what the church is commanded by Jesus to do to people who persist in gross and heinous sin.

After the session had talked to this woman, I talked to her. I was weeping. I said to her, “Do you realize what excommunication is?” She was a professing Christian. I said: “We pray in the Lord’s prayer, ‘Lead us not into the place of tempting, but deliver us from evil.’ Do you realize that if you’re excommunicated, we are delivering you to the tempter, but not to destroy you. The final hope of excommunication is that you will come to your senses, finally repent, come back to the fellowship of the church, and be received once more into the family of God.”

As long as you persist in your sin, you are cut off and exposed to the very severity that the Apostle Paul is describing in this text. Beloved, you do not ever want to be excommunicated. A lot of people do not even worry about it. They say: “What do I care about that? Who does the church think they are?” The church is the organization of which God said, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). We must take that seriously.

“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.” Since our time is running out, I will stop at that point and pick it up at verse 23, God willing, in our next meeting. Let us pray together.

Our Father and our God, we are debtors to Your Old Testament people, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, to the whole history of redemption that brought to us our Messiah, our Savior. We confess we are nothing but wild olive branches, worthy of being thrown in the fire. But in Your goodness, You have grafted us into that root and consecrated and nurtured us with that which is holy. For that we will be ever grateful. Keep our minds, O God, from apostasy, lest we too be cut off. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.