Romans 11:17

Rom_11:17-24

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in.

The olive-tree

I. Why it is a symbol.

1. Of Gods faithful witnesses (Zec_4:5; Rev_11:3).

2. Of the Church, as the channel of grace to men.

II. Why it was chosen by Paul. Because of

1. The holy anointing oil produced by it (Exo_25:6).

2. Its beauty (Hos_14:6).

3. Its constant greenness (Psa_52:8).

4. Its fruitfulness.

5. Its usefulness.

6. Its long duration: (T. Robinson, D.D.)

The parable of the olive

This teaches us--

1. To compassionate the outcasts of Israel.

2. To watch lest we also fall.

3. To reverence and magnify the goodness and severity of God.

4. To look for the recovery of Gods ancient people. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The parable of the olive

I. We were before our engrafting wild olives. Without God, strangers from the commonwealth of Israel. This Paul bids us remember, that we may praise God for His mercy.

II. Having received grace let us carry ourselves without boasting against them that want grace. When thou seest a profane man disdain him not, but pray for him, remembering thy former estate.

III. Those which partake of the fatness of the olive are engrafted. This fatness is the grace given to the root.

1. The grace of justification. Oil is good for medicine-healing wounds and assuaging pain. Also it makes the countenance cheerful; so the grace of Christ, which is called the oil of gladness, maketh the righteous joyful.

2. The grace of sanctification. This may be known by its effects, which are--

(1) In the heart. If thou art engrafted thou hast the heart of Abraham: thou lovest goodness and hatest evil. The wood of the olive will not rot. This denotes soundness. The nature also of the oil is not to be mixed with other things. You may as soon mix light and darkness as grace and sin. The nature of oil, too, is to keep metal from rusting. So the virtue of this grace preserves the soul from sinning, which would eat in and perish the soul.

(2) In the tongue. The blossom of the olive is wonderful sweet; so if thou art of this tree thy speech will be gracious to the hearers. It is a vain thing for a man to seem religious if he refrain not his tongue.

(3) In the life if thou art engrafted thou wilt bring forth much fruit, for the olive is exceeding fruitful.

(a) For God. Oil was consecrated to the Lord, was used in sacrifice, and for the holy lamps.

(b) For man. It is both for medicine and meat. Our lives must be fruitful and profitable to the Church.

3. Sanctification may also be known by its properties.

(1) The olive is a quick bearer; so we must bring forth fruit quickly.

(2) An olive branch was a token of peace. If you pour out water it maketh a noise, but oil falls down softly and with great silence. So the servants of God must be peaceable.

(3) The olive is always green, and never casts the leaves, noting the constant tenor we should keep in our obedience (Psa_92:14).

(4) Our obedience must be cheerful and free. Anointing with oil makes us nimble, for if we have received hereof we shall not be stiff in the joints, but will run in the ways of the commandments. The olive requires no great cost to make it fruitful, nor a man truly sanctified great entreaty to persuade him to do good. (Elnathan Parr, D.D.)

The privilege and duty of the Gentile

His--

1. Past condition.

2. Gracious acceptance.

3. Present privilege.

4. Consequent duty. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Our duty to the Jew

I. The duty.

1. Boast not, etc.

2. Despise not.

3. Insult not.

4. But pity and pray for him.

II. The reasons. Remember--

1. What you were.

(1) Wild.

(2) Uncultivated.

(3) Unfruitful.

2. Your calling.

(1) Grafted in.

(2) Through grace at his expense.

3. Your privileges; enjoying the blessings of the covenant.

4. Your dependence. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The Gentiles may not despise the Jews

They which are advanced by grace are not to boast against them which are in misery (Psa_12:1; Exo_3:9; Deu_10:19; Deu_10:1; Corinthians 13:4, 5): The Pharisee disdained the publican, but the publican disdains not him, nor is disdained of God. The use of this.

I. In respect of the Jew. Some are broken off, not all. The Church of the Jews was never east away, only the unbelievers. The olive-tree is pruned, but not stocked up. The body and some of the branches remain, among whom we are grafted. We are grafted in among them, and receive of the fatness with them. The Church of the Jews, not of Rome, is our mother Church. We must be the seed of Abraham if we will have the promises, and therefore believing Gentiles are called the children of Abraham, not naturally, but by incision.

II. In regard of the Gentiles. Thou art made partaker of the fatness. The same fatness nourisheth the natural and ingrafted branches. The Jew is saved by faith in Christ, so are we. There is no difference between the way of salvation in the Old and New Testament, but as this, in grafting there is clay and binding about. The Jew is bound about with a red ligature in regard of circumcision, we with a white in regard of baptism and the white garments then used. Let us not then boast ourselves against the branches, for though they deserve contempt, woe be to them which are instruments to vex them. Let us love them, as we have good cause, for the roots sake. There is no name so honourable as that of a Jew; take heed thou use it not in contempt. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

Gentile and Jew

I. The exhortation. Glory not with supercilious contempt. Gentile Christians probably already began to show--

1. An overbearing disposition towards the Jews.

2. A policy of complacency in themselves. Such a spirit soon and long manifested by Gentile Churches. Faith excludes boasting either of ourselves or over others, and charity vaunteth not itself.

II. The reasons.

1. Thou bearest not the root. The Church not sprung from the Gentiles, and the Jews owe nothing to them.

2. But the root thee. Gentiles owe all to the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews (Joh_4:22). Christ Himself was a Jew. The Jewish Church was the foundation; Gentiles were built upon it (Eph_2:20). The true Christian and Jewish Church but one. (T. Robinson, D.D.)

Gentile and Jew

The Gentile--

I. Has no ground to exult over the jew.

1. The Jew fell by unbelief.

2. Privileged by His fall the Gentile only stands by faith.

II. But much more ground for humility.

1. God, who spared not His chosen people.

2. Will not spare the unbelieving Gentile.

3. Therefore be not highminded, etc. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Boasting

Observe--

1. The disposition in man to boast of his privileges.

2. The folly of this.

3. Its danger. (J. Lyth, D.D)

.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

The natural branches broken,

And the sinner for whose conversion things are working, spared a time.

I. A fact stated.

1. These branches were broken off.

2. For a double cause.

(1) That I might be grafted in.

(2) Because of unbelief.

II. A caution given--against--

1. Pride.

2. Indifference to God.

3. Carelessness.

III. An awful judgment implied. If we take not heed we too shall be broken off. Therefore, serve the Lord, and fear and love Him now. (W. P. Taylor.)

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith.--

Standing by faith

I. The jews have ever fallen through unbelief.

1. They came to the confines of the land flowing with milk and honey; the Anakims, and the cities fenced and walled up to heaven, stood before them for their prey. They measured the men and the walls accurately, but they did not measure how He that was for them was greater than all that was against them, and therefore they were sent back to wander and perish in the wilderness.

2. Presently we see them with God only as their King, but they could not appreciate an invisible King. As they had before shown no faith in Gods protection, so now they disbelieved His sovereignty. He gave them a king in His anger, and He took him away in His wrath.

3. In the midst of their distresses they began to lean on idols and arms of flesh, until unbelief, ripening into apostasy, they were carried away into Babylon. Because of unbelief they were broken off.

4. But in mercy God brought them back again, and infinite was their privilege and opportunity when Christ walked their streets. But their eyes were blinded, the living Truth was before their eyes, but they perceived Him not. The Holy Ghost descended upon them, they witnessed His wonder-works, they felt the drawings of His grace, but they denied His convictions and blasphemed His glory. And such as was their unbelief, so is their punishment. They were broken off, and there they lie, fruitless, despised, but never dead, till they shall be grafted in again.

II. What it is to stand by faith. Faith is simply a medium to transmit pardon and grace. But every saved man finds faith the actual instrument which holds him up. In the one case it is as the wire which conveys the message; in the other it is the invisible chain which holds the planet in its course.

2. There is an inferior sense in which a man stands by faith, since confidence is always the secret of composure, as composure is the secret of power. The little child will walk, and what is much harder, will stand as soon as he has confidence enough.

3. But in its truer signification to stand by faith is--

1. To have thrown away every other dependence. I am unable, everything in the universe is unable to keep me, Hold Thou me up and I shall stand.

2. To believe, and not doubt, that you are in a state of full acceptance with God. Without this there never will be firmness of principle enough to make you stand.

3. To be in continual communication with the Unseen. It is the strength of secret prayer. It is to feel yourself in the deep waters, upheld by an arm that will never, never let you sink.

4. To have the most entire conviction that the work is Gods work, and that He will complete it.

Conclusion:

1. Let us be very humble, for it is an easy thing to fall, seeing we only stand by faith, and faith is a fine, delicate thing, and we all know how hard it is to believe at all times.

2. Nevertheless, let us have a holy confidence, for Christ says, I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.

3. And by and by the Jews will stand as never a nation stood, and then that word will be true to them also, thou standest by faith. To help along, to help along one single child of Abraham to that stand of faith is the present duty. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)

Be not highminded, but fear.--

Highmindedness

1. At every turn remember this saying, Be not highminded. Hath God given thee riches, wit, beauty, etc.? Let this sentence alway sound in thine ears. Hearest thou any say: few have the knowledge you have, or can speak as you do? Let this sentence stand sentinel to keep thee from pride.

2. All other sinners fly from God. The proud man resists Him (Jam_4:6). God gives grace to the lowly. The rain stays not on the tops of the mountains, but the valleys are watered and made fruitful. God teacheth the humble. The proud man is empty. Height weakens a thing; and an empty vessel makes the loudest sound. They which brag most have least in them. The chaff is above the corn, not because it is best, but because it is lightest. Observe--

I. The signs of this highmindedness.

1. Impatience of admonition. The Pharisees take it in great scorn, that Christ reproveth them of blindness, when indeed they were beetle blind. Proud Zedekiah cannot endure Micahs admonition.

2. Diminishing the gifts of others while boasting of our own. The proud Pharisee abased the publican and exalted himself. Dost thou impute unto others coldness, covetousness, etc., saying thou wouldest be ashamed if thou wert no better than they, never looking at thine own infidelity, hypocrisy, etc.

3. Meddling with things above us. Many presently upon their supposed conversion enter into controversies and censure whole Churches. David approved his humility by not meddling with things which were too high for him.

4. Contention (Pro_13:20).

II. The remedy.

1. The place to which the remedy is to be applied. The heart, as Peter adviseth, Deck yourselves inwardly with lowliness of mind. There may be an abatement of pride outwardly, and none within. There may be as much pride under a leather jacket as under a velvet gown: who seemed more humble or was more proud than Diogenes in his tub?

2. The remedy itself--

(1) A continual remembrance of this and the like Scriptures. Draw these as a sword to take down this peacock.

(2) Remember the example and monition of Christ: Learn of Me (not to walk upon the sea, or to make a world), but to be humble and lowly in spirit.

(3) Consider how God hath judged the proud. Pride thrust angels out of heaven; our first parents out of paradise; hanged Haman upon his own gallows; made Nebuchadnezzar a beast, etc.

(4) Consider that if thou hast any excellency, it is the gift of God (1Co_4:6-7). It is an ass that will be proud of a lions skin, which is not his own. And God can take away thy knowledge, and make thee an idiot; and if thou beest rich, He can make thee poor.

(5) Doth thy heart tickle thee because of thy knowledge, faith, patience, etc.? Cast thy account, thou shalt find that thy wants are more than thy receipts. For one thing thou knowest thou art ignorant of ten. If thou hast one good thought, thou hast a thousand ill ones. Pliny records a secret of the bee--that in a storm it getteth up a little stone, by the weight of it to fly the more steadily, and to get home in safety. If thou be in danger to be blown away with pride, let the thoughts of thy wants be to thee as this little stone.

3. The parties that stand in need of it. All men, specially those which are extraordinarily graced by God. All other sins are in evil, this is in that which is good, and therefore the harder to be avoided. We are all of his mind, who, being asked what song he delighted most to hear, said that wherein his praises were set forth. Even Paul must be taken down with the buffetings of Satan, lest he be proud. Study and pray for humility, the honour of a Christian. Moses face shone when he had talked with God, and he wist not. An excellent degree of grace is it to be excellent and not to take notice of it. As boughs the more laden with fruit are the more lowly, and as when the sun is at the highest our shadows are at the lowest, so the more graze would be adorned with the more humility. The devil will tempt thee to all viciousness; if he cannot prevail that way, he will tempt thee to be proud of thy goodness; yea, to be proud because thou art not proud. In the midst of grace pray for a humble heart. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

Highmindedness and fear

There is no sin so heinous as self-satisfaction, and no virtue so agreeable to God as humility. These words are addressed to Christians, so highmindedness is not confined to worldly men. Notice--

I. The particulars of the failing. It includes--

1. Presuming on our privileges. The Christian has many privileges above the world.

(1) Liberty. But he must not presume on that liberty for egotism.

(2) Enlightenment. But he must not make the light to be a pretext for self-assertion.

(3) Holiness. This must not cause him to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

2. Trusting too much in worldly advantages.

(1) Wealth will make a man high-minded if not properly used.

(2) Ancestry and pedigree.

(3) Beauty of person, strength of limb, a high education, even personal liberality or usefulness.

3. Haughtiness towards others. The man who thinks highly of himself will act it, and treat his fellows with contempt. Like the Pharisee.

II. The antidote. In this case fear indicates self-mistrust, dread of falling, and reverence for God.

1. Fear is a restraining power. Dread of consequences is an important factor in society. Fear of God is not a slavish torment, but awe and self-abnegation.

2. But fear. It is the picture of one feeling his way in the gloom, knowing his own weakness and the awful consequences of a fall, and so taking all needful precautions. It induces therefore--

(1) Prudence.

(2) Watchfulness.

(3) Vigilance.

III. The details of the fear. Fear what?

1. The natural pride and teaching of the human heart.

2. The effects of self-righteousness. Pride goeth before a fall.

3. The danger of being a castaway.

4. The danger of perverting truth. (Homilist.)

Haughtiness of mind and its antidote

I. Be not highminded is good counsel Men of lofty eyes (Psa_131:1), being busy in the pursuit of things out of reach, oversee those more necessary things which are at hand. The malady here aimed at is an overweening conceit of our own worth, in respect of either knowledge or virtue. A disease fatal to the Jew, and to which the Gentile was most obnoxious. Men raised from the dung-hill to great fortunes have commonly all the vices of rich men, and more.

1. The cause of this malady is not in the gospel, or in the riches of the gospel; but in ourselves, who are willing to be deceived; and in the devil, the forger of all error and deceit. For as God, whose very essence is goodness, doth manifest that goodness out of sin itself, so the devil abuseth good unto evil; and when he cannot drive us to despair by reason of our sin, he makes us presume upon conceit of our righteousness. And all this proceeds from our own wilful error: for, Pride is the daughter of ignorance. We see the gospel ex uno situ, but on one side, and that the wrong side. We behold Christ as a Saviour, not as a Lord as well. We entertain prerogatives as prerogatives, and not as obligations also. We contemplate virtues as the work of our own hands, but are blind to their imperfections. We consider ourselves as branches grafted in, but cannot see that we may be cut off (verse 22). We consider our strength, not our weakness.

2. This haughtiness of mind hinders the very continuance of goodness: it doth not only wither the branch, but it also cuts it off. The Christian may fall, as the Jew; and, if he continue not in Gods goodness, he also shall be cut off (verse 22). When we have gone but a sabbath-days journey with the Jew and done but what was said to them of old, do we not begin to canonise ourselves? But if we forgive and do good to an enemy; if we fast a day, and give our provision to the poor; then straight, with Absalom, we raise up a pillar and write upon it, We shall never be moved. A cup of cold water shall answer for our oppression, an alms at our door for the fraud in our shop, our frequenting of sermons for our neglect of prayer. And all is now quiet within us; we seem to walk on the pavement of heaven, and from thence to behold our brethren (who have more piety, with less noise) as nothing in respect of ourselves. When our hypocrisy hath edge enough to cut us from the olive, our spiritual pride keepeth us in. But one day they will find it true, that doubting out of humility may find heaven-gates wide open, when bold presumption shall be shut out of doors.

II. But fear. Fear and hope are hewed out of the same rock. As hope is an expectation of good to come, so fear is the apprehension of some approaching evil. And seldom is any hope so strong as to be without some tincture of fear; seldom any fear so strong as to admit of no mixture of hope. For if they be alone and in excessu, they lose their names. Hope without fear is but confidence; and fear without hope is but despair (verse 21). Fear of being cut off, if St. Pauls reason be good, is the best means to repress in us all proud conceit.

1. And in a matter so great no care and circumspection can be enough. And the reasons are plain. For--

(1) There is an over-easiness to persuade ourselves that we are in favour with God. Men are more apt to presume than to despair, and if despair hath killed her thousands, presumption hath killed her ten thousands. The difference between the sicknesses of the body and of the mind is that in the one we are sensible of our grief, we send for the physician; but in the other we are senseless, and are more afraid of our physic than of our disease. We admit of miserable comforters, that will flatter us to death; and rather than we will want flatterers, we take the office on ourselves.

(2) There is the uncertain knowledge we have of the quality of our works. For in our best intentions there may be imperfections which we know not. My devotion may be irregular; my patience, stupidity; my zeal, rage. With what good meaning do many poor souls do evil! Who can tell how oft he offendeth? (Psa_19:12); therefore let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

(3) There is the over-ripe conceit and too speedy apprehension of our sufficiency and growth in the duties of Christianity. We are very apt to flatter ourselves that, when we are but newly set forth, we are at our journeys end. All excellency we can put off to others that have more time to learn it. The Jew is content with his ceremonies; and the Christian, with his outward profession, but less significant than they. But this fear is most requisite in respect of those enemies of our souls which are ever in readiness to surprise us (1Jn_2:16). Many men are cut off by themselves and their own folly, when the devil beareth the blame.

2. And, therefore, to keep this jealousy awake in us, the apostle awakes one fear with another, the fear of circumspection with the fear of being cut off. For, naturally, fear of evil works a fear of circumspection: and this fear ushers in that fear by which we may call, Abba, Father (Rom_8:15). For, seeing evil before us ready to seize upon us, we begin to advise with ourselves how to avoid it (Luk_16:3; Luk_14:31). Fear is the mother of advice; and consultation dies with fear (Luk_16:4). When we presume, counsel is needless; and when we despair, it is too late. The best preservative of a branch new-grafted is the sight and fear of that knife which may cut him off; and for want of it many branches have been cut off and cast away. (A. Farindon, D.D.)

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.--

All which continue not in grace shall be broken off

(Luk_13:3; Luk_13:5; Rev_2:1-29.):--God is not moved with outward privileges to tolerate in His orchard those which only cumber the ground. Thou art planted in the Church, which is Paradise, and art watered with those rivers of God, the Word and sacraments. If thou bringest forth no fruit, though Christ Himself had come of thy stock, thou shalt be broken off and thrown away. Here is a good take-heed for many.

I. For England, Germany, all reformed Churches. The Jews were the famous people of God, and yet cast away for their faithlessness. Where are those renowned Churches of Asia, of Greece? If we continue not to bring forth fruit we must look for the same measure which God hath meted out to them.

II. For profane persons. If judgment begin at Gods own house, how shall the wicked escape? If an Israelite go to the pot, what should a Canaanite, a hypocrite, a rebel look for?

III. For the children of God. Art thou one? Walk according to thy profession; if thou growest cold as others, take heed. Hast thou faith? keep it. Hast thou a good conscience? better the peace of it every day by righteous living. Hold that thou hast. Remember what is come to the Jews. When thou seest thy neighbours house on fire, it is time to provide water to save thine own. When two ships set forth, if the foremost run upon a rock and split, her consort will be warned. Thou seest covetousness to be the destruction of this man, pride of that, whoredom of another; pray thou against these sins and all other, and be careful. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

The rejection of the Jews a warning to Christians

There are two general remarks suggested by the language of the text.

1. The principle of Gods displeasure against sin and sinners is the same, whether it has reference to nations or to individuals. Hence the dismemberment of the Jewish community is adduced as a warning to every professor of the gospel of Christ.

2. The language of the text derives force from the contrast which it involves. Compare it with verse 24.

I. It is a dreadful thing to abuse spiritual blessings. Yes, it is so dreadful that, in the instance referred to, Jehovah, in His fiery indignation, turned the highest favours He could impart to a nation into a tremendous national curse. God spared not the natural branches. He spared them for a while, tis true; just as He spared the old world in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing; but in the end He destroyed them, and that with a sore destruction! The pleading voice of Christ in His gospel, accompanied as I believe it to be in every instance with some degree of Divine visitation, as regards the conscience, tends either to raise the soul to glory, and honour, and immortality, or to sink it into the lowest depths of misery and woe. Men walk in gospel pastures, but they do not feed upon them. The broad sunshine of mercy beams around them, but it finds no avenue to the recesses of their hearts. They approach just so near to the Saviour as to receive from His Spirit an influence, the abuse of which ripens them for destruction, and prepares them as fuel to feed the hottest flames of hell!

II. How highly it behoves all those who are privileged to enjoy spiritual blessings to look diligently to themselves lest they should fail of the grace of God.

1. Beware of procrastination, that is of putting off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day. St. Augustine prayed for victory over his besetting sin; but then he acknowledges that he did not wish his prayer to be answered just then. This is human nature; conscience and passion pleading against each other; reason warning and inclination rebelling. To put off coming to Christ until you have tasted more of the pleasures of the world is to create a fearful probability that you will never come to Him at all. If God, when His justice has been insulted, and His patience long tried, has refused to spare others, O take heed lest He spare not thee.

2. The subject says to us all--Beware of self-imposition. In other words, it says--Beware of a religion which is unable to protect the soul in an hour of emergency.

3. The subject says to each of us--Beware of trifling or tampering with conscience, and that not merely in reference to delays, but in reference to every other point. One will give up everything save a single prohibited indulgence; and another will give up everything except a single unhallowed pursuit; and each is willing to balance accounts by giving an overmeasure of piety in some other point: for example--the covetous man will be scrupulously honest, and the licentious man will be profusely liberal; but neither will yield, to the claims of the gospel, his besetting sin. Here is the solitary leak which sinks the vessel! You cannot compromise with Heaven. It were more easy to alter the laws of nature, to shiver a sunbeam, or to wrench a planet out of its orbit, than to change one iota of the Divine purpose, in regard to the terms of a sinners salvation. (W. Knight, M.A.)

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.--

The goodness and severity of God

I. In every revelation we have of God these two phases appear. Look to--

1. Nature.

2. Providence.

3. The Bible.

4. The Cross.

5. The Jewish nation.

II. The display of these two phases is necessary to man in this world.

1. To keep the mind from extremes.

2. To induce sinners to repent. (T. Levi.)

The goodness and severity of God

Let me endeavour--

I. To expose the partiality, and therefore the mischief, of two different views which might be taken of the Godhead.

1. One is incidental to those who bear a single respect to the attribute of goodness.

(1) They look to Him as a God of tenderness and nothing else, and ascribe to Him the fondness rather than the authority of a father. They would admit of no other aspect for religion than that of uniform placidness; and to decorate this bland and beauteous imagination the more, they would appeal to all that looks mild and merciful in the scenery of nature, and it is inferred that surely He, at whose creative touch all this loveliness hath arisen, must Himself be placid as the breeze, and gentle as the zephyr which He causes to blow over it. But Nature has her hurricanes, earthquakes, and thunder, as well as these kindlier exhibitions.

(2) This beholding of the goodness, without the severity of God, lulls the human spirit into a fatal complacency to its own state and prospects, and serves, in practice, to break down the fence between obedience and sin, and to nullify all moral government.

2. But there is also a mischief in looking singly to the sovereignty of God apart from His goodness.

(1) Theologians who have thus erred, and not so much by the views they have given forth of His inviolable sanctity; but rather by the views which they have given forth of such a dread and despotic sovereignty, as to impress the conception of a fatalism, against which all prayer and all performance of man are unavailing. However difficult it may be to adjust the metaphysics of the question, there is one thing unquestionable, and that is an amnesty, offered to all; a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. And, therefore, we would not that so much as one individual should be chilled into hopelessness by the dogmata of a hard or unfeeling theology, against returning to a God who waiteth to be gracious.

(2) But independent of all lofty speculations, there is abroad an impression of severity to which much of this worlds irreligion is owing, and it is a frequent anomaly that they who at times can take comfort in sin under an impression of His goodness have at all times such a sense of His severity as never to attain a thorough confidence in His favour. And just as a man would shut his eyes against a spectacle that pains them, so will they shrink from a contemplation that only serves to put dread into their bosoms, and there is an habitual distance kept up between the spirits of all flesh and Him who is the Father of them. Just as you would rather avoid than encounter the man with whom you are not perfectly at ease, so you have the same motive for shunning God. But it is our very distance from God that sheds a dimness over His character and ways, over His wrath, as well as over His love.

II. To point to the way in which these two views of the Godhead are so united in the gospel of Jesus Christ, as to form one full and consistent representation of it.

1. There is a severity. There is a law that will not be trampled on, a lawgiver that will not be insulted. The face of God is unchangeably set against evil.

(1) We cannot light upon a single instance of God so falling back from the severity of His denunciations against sin, as at all to soften the expression of His hatred towards it: not at the Fall, not at the Flood, not at the promulgation of the law on Mount Sinai, not at the entrance of Israel into the Promised Land, not in the subsequent dealings of many centuries with His own perverse and stiff-necked children, and, lastly, not at that terrible period when the Jewish economy was swept away, and even the tears of a compassionate Saviour did not avert the approaching overthrow. In all this there is an admonition to us.

(2) There is an immense delusion on this subject. We estimate God by ourselves--His antipathy to sin by our own slight and careless imagination of Him. Now if we measure God by ourselves, we should have little fear indeed of severity from His hand; for, save when there is gross and monstrous delinquency, we can bear very well, both with our own transgressions and those of others. No man, e.g., would ever think of vehemently denouncing another just because he thought little of God. This is adverted to by the Psalmist, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself, etc. Not therefore to you who are disgraced by profligacy, but even to you who live in a state of total and practical unconcern about another world, would we ask, Behold the severity of God. I am perfectly aware of many who look upon such representations as these to be too strong. They can see, and be impressed by it, as a great moral delinquency, when an earthly parent is thus robbed of the love and loyalty of his own offspring; but how then can you miss the more emphatic application of the same principle, though far more intense in degree to our Father who is in heaven? You know how to feel for the wounded feelings of the parents; and is there no reply to the complaining voice of Him who saith to us from heaven, Behold I stretch out My hand, but no man regardeth?

2. But along with this severity there is a goodness, and they meet together in the fullest harmony. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the leading peculiarity of the gospel. When God is severe it is never because of His delight in the sufferings of His creatures, but always because of His justice, holiness, and truth. Could a way be devised by which these might be inscribed as legibly in a deed of amnesty, then we may be assured that He who hath no pleasure in the death of His children, but who hath sworn by Himself that He would rather that they should all live, cause it richly to flow over to the utmost limits of this sinful creation. Now it is precisely this which distinguishes the evangelical system. The gospel is a mercy in full and visible conjunction with righteousness. With the pardon which it deals out for sin it makes most impressive demonstration of the evil of it, the mercy of the gospel meets with the truth of the law, and God can at once be a just God and a Saviour. A Saviour has been born, on whom God did lay the iniquities of us all. The Holy One of Israel now sitteth upon a throne of grace, The uncompromising doctrine of Scripture is this, if you refuse the mercy of God upon this footing, you will receive it upon no other. No man cometh unto the Father, but by the Son: while all that enter into His presence by the open door of the Sons mediatorship shall be saved. The mighty problem was resolved by God. You will meet with several expressions in Scripture on that subject: God being just, and a Saviour; God being just, and the justifier of them that believed in Jesus; Mercy and truth meet each other; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

III. Application.

1. Such is the goodness of God, now that this goodness has been harmonised with the other attributes of His nature, that it overpasses the guilt even of the most daring and stout-hearted offender among you.

2. In every proportion to this goodness will be the severity of God on those who have rejected Him.

3. None truly embrace Christ as their Saviour who do not submit to Him as their Master and Lord. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)

The goodness and severity of God

I. Goodness and severity are elements of a perfect character even among men.

1. Without goodness, the character repels instead of winning. There may be certain qualities which command our respect in a Draco, who ordains death as the penalty for every trifling violation of the law, or in a Brutus, who with tearless eye gives orders, in the way of duty, for the execution of his sons; but from such untempered austerity we recoil.

2. Without severity goodness degenerates into that moral pliancy which, under the name of good-nature, has often made men consent to the enticement of sinners, and has given them nothing in return, but the insipid reputation of having been enemies to none but themselves.

3. In a perfect character, if such existed among men, you would see the counterbalancing powers of goodness and severity held in exact equilibrium. And such, the Word of God assures us, is the character of Him with whom we have to do.

II. An illustration of this twofold element of the Divine character may be drawn from nature. God is light, says the Scripture. Now light is compounded of seven different rays; but it has two main ingredients: the sombre rays (blue, indigo, violet); the bright rays (orange, red, yellow, green). Both are essential to the delicacy and purity of the substance. Without the sombre rays light would be a glare--the eyeball would ache beneath it; without the bright rays light would approximate to darkness, and lose the gay smile which lights up the face of nature, and twinkles on the sea. Similarly, the holiness, justice, and truth of God (attributes which wear an awful aspect to the sinner), are an element of His nature as essential to its perfectness, as mercy, love, and goodness. Suppose in Him, for a moment, no stern defiance against moral evil, but an allowance and admission of it, and you degrade Jehovah to the level of a pagan deity. Suppose in Him, on the other hand, an absence of love, and you supplant the very being of God, for God is love. But combine both righteousness and love, intensified to the highest conceivable degree, and you are then possessed of the Scriptural idea of the Most High.

III. It is this essential character of the Divine being which forms the basis of the great doctrine of the Atonement. God presents us in this with the highest illustration of both His attributes. He may be conceived as standing by the Cross and pointing to it, saying, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. (Dean Goulburn.)

Severity and goodness

Two cases are here set before us. There are those who have fallen, and have consequently been broken off from the olive-tree. There are those too who continue in Gods goodness, and who still therefore partake of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. These are the present most opposite conditions of the two classes of persons described. It is added that, as the former may by Gods power and mercy be restored, so the latter must take heed lest they also be cut off. And, finally, as one great means of keeping themselves in their steadfastness, they are counselled to dwell earnestly upon the thought of the goodness of God, and of His severity, as displayed in the two examples brought to their recollection.

1. First, then, there are those who have fallen, and have consequently been broken off from Gods olive-tree. Who in our days are they? St. Paul, in his first Epistle to Timothy, makes a distinction which may assist us here. He says, Some mens sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment: and some men they follow after. There are some whose sins are so manifest, that they speak for themselves, and almost challenge the judgment which overtakes them. In our own days, amidst a very general toleration of some kinds of sin, there are others which even the world calls scandalous; which the common language of the least religious condemns; and which are visited even by them with a severity which, if not excessive in itself, is at least most inconsistent with their estimate of the criminality of other transgressions. Of this kind are acts of dishonesty and of meanness, of cowardice and open falsehood. One who has thus fallen meets with no tenderness. His sin goes before unto judgment. He has fallen; and even by the worlds sentence he is cut off from Gods olive-tree. Now what in such a case says the infallible Word of God? It does not palliate the grievousness of this mans transgression. It echoes the judgment already pronounced upon him by the conscience of his fellow-men; and adds to it, in tones yet more alarming, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But is this all? Has the gospel no word of encouragement for the fallen sinner, none of special warning to those who have cast him out? To him its language is, Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Thou hast lived as if there were no God, no Christ; no death, no judgment, no eternity. Because of unbelief therefore thou hast been broken off. God in His infinite mercy--because He desires not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live--has cut thee off for a while as it were from His olive-tree. He has brought thee to shame and suffering in this life, if perhaps thy soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. And know now that, if thou abide not still in unbelief: if thou refuse not still to hear the voice of Him who has afflicted thee; thy fall is not final: thou shalt be grafted in: thou shalt be restored to far more than thou hast ever yet known of the enjoyment of the grace of God. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: but in Me is thy help. And then of warning to all those who may be disposed to judge harshly of one who has thus openly fallen. To them, to all of us, the gospel says, Behold in every such example the severity of God. If for you this particular form of sin seems to have no attraction; if you cannot even conceive yourself to have been tempted to its commission; yet consider, to whom is this blessing due? Remember too that, if there be one class of sins which goes before to judgment, which outruns as it were by its open heinousness the adversary who is haling it to the judge, there is yet another kind which ends in the same result with the former, however much in this life it may seem to differ from it. Your sins may be more secret; you may fence them more carefully from the sight and the hearing of men: yet, if this be all, it amounts only to a postponement of the day of exposure; at last it will come and will not tarry. Or even if your sins be of such a kind that their disclosure in the worlds sight would bring with it no disgrace or punishment; yet a day is before each one of us, which will rectify these erring judgments, and in which even they whose only crime has been that they have forgotten God, that God has not been in all their thoughts, will awake from their sleep in the dust of the earth only to shame and everlasting contempt.

2. But we must turn now, in conclusion, to the other class here spoken of; that of those who, continuing in Gods goodness, are partaking day by day of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. Who amongst us are these? What is it to continue in Gods goodness? It must be something more than merely keeping ourselves from gross transgression; something more than partaking week by week in the ordinances of Christian worship; something more than the merely being appended, as a dead or fruitless branch may be, to the stock of Gods Israel: there must be a vitality in our connection with the olive-tree--a communication ever kept up with its root, with the living centre of all its growth and vigour--to give us any place amongst those Who are truly continuing in Gods goodness. Are we daily applying to Christ Himself, as our living Saviour, for grace and spiritual life? Do we return to Him in hearty sorrow when we have sinned? Do we take refuge in Him when we feel the power of temptation? Do we ask strength from Him to resist sin? Do we day by day commit the keeping of our souls to God through Him as to a faithful Creator and most merciful Redeemer? This and this only is the life of one who continues in Gods goodness. (Dean Vaughan.)

Gods character

I. Erroneous views of God.

1. All goodness.

2. All severity.

II. the evil result of those views.

1. They are partial.

2. The one leads to presumption.

3. The other to despair.

III. His true character.

1. A Sovereign.

2. A Father. (W. W. Wythe.)

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in.--

The restoration of the Jews

1. Is a matter of promise.

2. Will be effected by Divine power.

3. Is suspended on their reception of Christ. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The true hope of Israel

I. Wherein it consists--the prospect of restoration to the privileges of Gods people.

II. Whereon it depends.

1. The power of promise of God.

2. Suspended in faith.

III. How it is confirmed.

1. By the calling of the Gentiles.

(1) Once not a people.

(2) Now raised to loftier privileges than the Jews ever possessed.

2. How much more, etc. (verse 24).

IV. What feelings this hope should awaken in us. Zeal and prayer for the Jew that he may--

1. Relinquish his false hopes.

2. Embrace Christ in faith,

3. Become united with the living Church of God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Salvation barred by unbelief possible to faith

I. The chief bar to a mans salvation is an unbelieving heart. Our Saviour told the Pharisees, who exceeded all men in morality, that publicans and harlots should go before them into the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because they believed not. Morality is good, but not good enough to save a man. Faith cannot be without it, but it may be without faith. Morality without faith is like a goodly picture, which is fair to look upon, but a man can have no society with because it wants life. Labour therefore for faith, which is the soul of obedience, and it will save thy soul.

II. Here is a singular comfort to consciences distressed for sins. It is a comfort to a sick man if the physician tell him his disease, though dangerous, is yet curable, if it be not driven too long before remedies be appointed. So God is able to save thee if thou deferrest not thy repentance. If we look only to ourselves there is nothing but desperation; but if we look up to see what God is ready to do (only staying for our believing and repenting), there is great hope. Even thou, Jew, which hast crucified Christ, if thou canst cease from unbelief, thou shalt be saved. For as all the promises in the world, so the threatnings are conditional (Jon_3:9).

III. despair not of the salvation of any, neither finally censure even though never so wicked, for God is able to turn the heart of a Jew. He that converted thee can convert thy neighbour also.

IV. God is able to save, so He is able to destroy. Let His power make thee wary how thou livest. Art thou stronger than He that thou shouldst dare by thy sins daily to provoke Him? (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

For if thou wert cut out of the olive which is wild by nature … how much more … the natural branches.

The Gentiles like a wild olive-tree

I. They are wild by nature.

1. Nations before Christ were without spiritual culture.

2. The Mosaic law was confined to Israel.

3. The times of this ignorance were winked at by God.

II. They were Christianised contrary to nature. Grafting from a different kind of tree not natural.

1. Gentilism was pervaded with idolatry.

2. Gentile notions and practices were all opposed to a Divine life.

3. It is contrary to every mans nature to be a Christian.

4. This contrariety is increased by sin. (T. Robinson, D.D.)

Gods grace to the Gentile an argument for the recovery of the Jews

I. The past condition of the gentiles.

1. Not a people.

2. Strangers to the covenant of promise.

3. Given up to their hearts lusts.

II. Their gospel privilege.

1. Brought nigh.

2. Accepted.

3. Made children of Abraham.

4. By faith.

III. The consequent hope of israel.

1. Still heirs of the covenant.

2. Beloved for their fathers sake.

3. How much more, etc., when they believe? (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The prospects of Jew and Gentile

I. It is probable the Jews shall be called (2Sa_7:24).

1. A tree is not dead because it buds not in winter. This is the Jews winter, there is yet hope of a summer wherein they may yield fruit. The Jew is oft compared to a fig-tree, which buds first, but whose fruit ripens last. The Jews budded before us, the time of their ripe fruit is at hand.

2. Speak honourably of a Jew, for whatsoever he is in regard of his unbelief, yet Paul calls it a natural branch.

3. The Church is called the Jews own olive, into whom we are grafted; but when they shall be called they shall not be grafted into us, but into their own flock.

II. The Gentile hath not so great (though so sure) a prerogative and right to the promise as the Jew (Act_3:25; Rom_1:16; Rom_2:10).

1. Our natural condition is miserable. We should have been idolaters or savages if God had not given us His special grace. It is contrary to our nature to be in the right olive, to be worshippers of God, to please Him. We delight in good as a fish to be out of the water, we are out of our element.

2. By creation goodness was natural to us, as now evil, and goodness supernatural. We delight to possess the inheritance of our progenitors in us; let us then strive to recover that grace which our first parents spent in the subtilty of the devil.

3. Our conversion is contrary to our present nature. God will invert the nature and course of things for the salvation of His elect.

4. The state of nature and grace is easily discerned. He that despiseth the gospel and liveth wickedly is natural, but to believe and repent is gracious.

5. Contrary to nature, keep diligent watch over thine heart or else Nature will soon run after her Old course. Bend the bough of a tree downward, when thou lettest it go it will strive upward by and by. Waterfowls hatched under a land fowl will quickly to the water by nature. So, though by the warmth of the Spirit we be hatched under the Word, and become Gods chickens, as Christ compared us, yet we will be drawing to corruption if we daily mortify it not. By nature boats go down the stream, but by the force of wind and oars they be got up, and if such means cease they go faster downward than they were forced upward; so to proceed in grace is against the stream of nature. If Gods Spirit like a good wind blow not a prosperous gale upon us and we labour at the means, we are easily carried down the stream of our corruption. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:17-24 In Paul’s extended metaphor, God’s special olive tree refers to the people of God. The image is a natural one, because the olive tree is the most widely cultivated fruit tree in the Mediterranean basin, and it was already used as a symbol of Israel in the Old Testament (Jer 11:16; Hos 14:5-6). Paul refers to the Gentile Christians as branches from a wild olive tree because they were not originally included among the people of God.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 11:17. Συ, Thou) O Roman, who art a Gentile.—ἀγριέλαιος, a wild olive) the graft of the wild olive; a singularly expressive [δεινή. end. δεινότης] Synecdoche. [Sad experience even in our age proclaims this fact. A promiscuous multitude, unwilling to bear true Christianity, labour under the wildest ignorance; nor do we even except those, who boast no ordinary attainments in virtue and knowledge.—V. g.]—ἐν αὐτοῖς) among them: The word, them, is not to be referred to the word, some, but to the branches generally.—συγκοινωνὸς) Paul often uses σὺν concerning the Gentiles, Eph 2:19; Eph 2:22; Eph 3:6; comp. μετὰ, Rom 15:10.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:17-24. In pursuance of the figure, a warning to the Gentile Christians against self-presumption, and an exhortation to humility, down to Rom_11:24.

τινές] some, a portion of the branches; comp. on Rom_3:3.

ἐξεκλάσθ.] were broken off (Plat. Rep. p. 611 D), κλάω being the proper word for the breaking of the young twigs (κλάδοι); Theophrastus, c. pl. i. 15. 1. They were broken off on account of their unfitness for bearing.

σὺ δέ] individualizing address to each Gentile Christian.

ἀγριέλ. ὤν] although being of the wild olive. ἀγρ. is here an adjective, like ἐκ τῆς ἀγριελαίου, Rom_11:24. This view is assured by linguistic usage (Eryc. 4, in Anthol. ix. 237: σκυτάλην ἀγριέλαιον, Theocr. xxv. 255; see Jacobs, Delect. Epigr. p. 33; Lobeck, Paralip. p. 376) and necessary; for the traditional interpretation: oleaster, i.e. surculus oleastri, is as arbitrary as the apology for the expression when so explained, on the ground that Paul wished to avoid the prolixity of the distinction between tree and branch, is absurd (in opposition to Hofmann), inasmuch as he would only have needed to employ the genitive instead of the nominative, and consequently to write not a word more, if he wished to be thus sparing. The opinion of Reiche, Rückert, Köllner, Philippi, Krehl, Ewald, van Hengelthat the collective body of the Gentiles is conceived as an entire treeis inappropriate to the relation portrayed by the figure, because the ingrafting of the Gentiles took place at first only partially and in single instances, while the σύ addressed cannot represent heathendom as a whole, and is also not appropriate to the figure itself, because in fact not whole trees, not even quite young ones (in opposition to de Wette), are ingrafted either with the stem, or as to all their branches; besides, Rom_11:24 contradicts this opinion. Matthias also takes the right view.

ἐν αὐτοῖς] may grammatically be equally well understood as among them (the branches of the noble olive tree generally)so Erasmus, Grotius, Estius, and many others, including Rückert, Fritzsche, Nielsen, Tholuck, Philippi, Maier, Reithmayr, Hofmannor as: in the place of the broken-off branches (Chrysostom, Beza, Piscator, Semler, and others, including Reiche, Köllner, de Wette, Olshausen), which, however, would have to he conceived of, not as ordinarily, in locum, but in loco eorum (Olshausen has the right view). The first rendering is preferable, because it corresponds to the notion of the συγκοινωνός.

τῆς ῥίζης κ. τ. πιότ. τ. ἐλ.] of the root (which now bears thee also among its own branches, Rom_11:18) and fatness (which now goes jointly to thee) of the olive tree. On the latter, comp. Jdg_9:9. The assumption of a hendiadys (of the fat root) (Grotius and others) is groundless and weakening. The sense without figure is: Thou hast attained to a participation in holy fellowship with the patriarchs, and in the blessings of the theocracy developed from them,both which the unbelieving Jews have forfeited.

Has Paul here, Rom_11:17 ff., had in view the process, really used in the East, of strengthening to renewed fertility olive trees by grafting scions of the wild olive upon them (see Columella, v. 9. 16; Pallad. xiv. 53; Schulz, Leit. d. Höchsten, V. p. 88; Michaelis, orient. Bibl. X. p. 67 ff., and note, p. 129; Bredenkamp in Paulus, Memorab. II. p. 149 ff.)? Answer: The subject-matter, which he is setting forth, required not at all the figure of the ordinary grafting of the noble scion on the wild stem, but the converse, namely, that of the ingrafting of the wild scion and its ennoblement thereby. The thing thus receiving illustration had taken place through the reception of Gentile members into the theocracy; and the thing that had taken place he was bound to represent (figuratively depict) as it had taken place. Ordine commutato res magis causis quam causas rebus aptavit, Origen. But that, while doing this, he had before his mind that actual pomological practice, and made reference to it (Matthias: in order to exhibit the παραζηλῶθηναι of the unbelieving Jews, Rom_11:13), is not to be assumed for this reason, that here, conformably to the following καὶ συγκοινωνὸς κ.τ.λ., there is conceived as the object of the ingrafting the ennobled fertilization of the graft itself; whereas, in the practice referred to, the ingrafted scion was not to receive the fatness from the noble tree, not to become fertilized, but to fertilize; for foecundat sterilis pingues oleaster olivas, et quae non novit munera, ferre docet, Palladius.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 11:17-24 . In these verses, which in a sense are a long parenthesis, Paul anticipates an objection which Gentile readers might take to his use of the last figure, the root and the branches; and he draws from it two special lessons one, of humility, for the objectors; the other, of hope, for Israel.

Rom 11:17 . A Gentile Christian might feel that the very fact that Jews were rejected and Gentiles accepted qualified the assurance with which Paul had just spoken of the future of Israel. It is the disposition to think so, and to presume on one’s own favoured position, which the Apostle rebukes in μὴ κατακαυχῶ τῶν κλάδων . εἰ δέ τινες τῶν κ . ἐξεκλάσθησαν : τινες puts the case mildly: cf. Rom 3:3 . ἐξεκλάσθησαν , sc. , as fruitless. σὺ δὲ ἀγριέλαιος ὤν : σὺ is the presumptuous individual before the Apostle’s mind, not the Gentile Church collectively. The ἀγριέλαιος is the olive in its natural uncultivated state. ἐνεκεντρίσθης ἐν αὐτοῖς , sc. , among the native branches of the cultivated olive. The process here supposed is one that in horticulture is never performed. The cultivated branch is always engrafted upon the wild stock, and not vice versâ . This Paul knew quite well (see παρὰ φύσιν , Rom 11:24 ), and the force of his reproof to the presuming Gentile turns on the fact that the process was an unnatural one. [ Ordine commutato res magis causis quam causas rebus aptavit (Origen).] It gave the Gentile no room to boast over the rejected Jews. συνκοινωνὸς τῆς ῥίζης τῆς πιότ . τῆς ἐλαίας : there is an argument in συν . At the best, the Gentile only shares with Jews in the virtues of a root which is not Gentile, but Jewish: he has his part in the consecration of the patriarchs, the one historical root of the people of God, and in the blessings God attached to it. For πιότης cf. Jdg 9:7 . The accumulation of genitives is apparently an imitation of such Hebrew constructions as Isa 28:1 ; Isa 28:16 : the meaning is, a partaker in the root of the fat olive tree.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:17

The object of Rom_11:17-24 is to make such an application of the truths which Paul had just taught as should prevent any feeling of exultation or triumph of the Gentile Christians over the Jews. It is true that the Jews have been partially rejected from the church of God; that the Gentiles have been introduced into it; and that the Jews are ultimately to be restored. These things, however, afford no ground of boasting to the Gentiles, but rather cause of thankfulness and caution. Paul illustrates these truths by a very appropriate figure.

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree wert graffed among them, etc. The words ἐν αὐτοῖς may refer to the branches in general, and be rendered as in our version, among them; or they may refer to the rejected branches, and be rendered, in their place. Some of the branches have been broken off, and you have been inserted in their place. The purport of the passage is plain. Some of the Jews were broken off and rejected; the Gentiles, though apparently little susceptible of such a blessing, were introduced into the church, and made to partake of all its peculiar and precious privileges. The Jewish church is compared to the olive tree, one of the most durable, productive, and valuable of the productions of the earth, because it was highly favored, and therefore valued in the sight of God. The Gentiles are compared to the wild olive, one of the most worthless of trees, to express the degradation of their state, considered as estranged from God. As it is customary to engraft good scions on interior stocks, the nature of the product being determined by the graft, and not the root, it has been thought that the illustration of the apostle is not very apposite. But the difficulty may result from pressing the comparison too far. The idea may be simply this, As the scion of one tree is engrafted into another, and has no independent life, but derives all its vigor from the root, so the Gentiles are introduced among the people of God, not to confer but to receive good. It is however said, on the authority of ancient writers and modern travelers, to have been not unusual to graft the wild on the cultivated olive.‹61› Even if this were so, it would not be pertinent to the apostles object. He does not mean to say, that the graft imparts life and vigor to the root, but the very reverse. There is no necessity for departing from the common view. The Gentiles are saved by their introduction into that church of which the patriarchs were the root.

It is plain from this verse, that the root in this passage cannot be the early converts from among the Jews, but the ancient covenant people of God. The ancient theocracy was merged in the kingdom of Christ. The latter is but an enlargement and elevation of the former. There has, therefore, never been other than one family of God on earth, existing under different institutions, and enjoying different degrees of light and favor. This family was composed, of old, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants. At the advent, its name and circumstances were changed; many of its old members were cast out, and others introduced, but it is the same family still. Or, to return to the apostles illustration, it is the same tree, some of the branches only being changed.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is against the common course of husbandry, that the barren juice of the imp is changed with the juice of the good tree.

There is no cause why the Gentiles which have obtained mercy, should triumph over the Jews which condemn the grace of God, seeing they are grafted into the Jews’ ancestors. But let them rather take heed that that also be not found in them which is worthily condemned in the Jews. And hereof also this general doctrine may be gathered and taken, that we ought to be studious of God’s glory, even in respect of our neighbors: so far ought we to be from bragging and glorying, for that, that we are preferred before others by a singular grace.

In place of those boughs which are broken off.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And if--rather, "But if"; that is, "If notwithstanding this consecration of Abraham's race to God.

some of the branches--The mass of the unbelieving and rejected Israelites are here called "some," not, as before, to meet Jewish prejudice (see on Rom 3:3, and on "not all" in Rom 10:16), but with the opposite view of checking Gentile pride.

and thou, being a wild olive, wert--"wast"

grafted in among them--Though it is more usual to graft the superior cutting upon the inferior stem, the opposite method, which is intended here, is not without example.

and with them partakest--"wast made partaker," along with the branches left, the believing remnant.

of the root and fatness of the olive tree--the rich grace secured by covenant to the true seed of Abraham.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. And if some of the branches, c.] If the present nation of the Jews, because of their unbelief, are cut off from the blessings of the Church of God, and the high honour and dignity of being his peculiar people and thou, being a wild olive-ye Gentiles, being without the knowledge of the true God, and consequently bringing forth no fruits of righteousness, wert grafted in among them-are now inserted in the original stock, having been made partakers of the faith of Abraham, and consequently of his blessings; and enjoy, as the people did who sprang from him, the fatness of the olive tree-the promises made to the patriarchs, and the spiritual privileges of the Jewish Church:-

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. And if some of the branches, etc. He now refers to the present dignity of the Gentiles, which is no other than to be of the branches; which, being taken from another, are set in some noble tree: for the origin of the Gentiles was as it were from some wild and unfruitful olive, as nothing but a curse was to be found in their whole race. Whatever glory then they had was from their new insition, not from their old stock. There was then no reason for the Gentiles to glory in their own dignity in comparison with the Jews. We may also add, that Paul wisely mitigates the severity of the case, by not saying that the whole top of the tree was cut off, but that some of the branches were broken, and also that God took some here and there from among the Gentiles, whom he set in the holy and blessed trunk.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(17) And.—Rather, but.

Among them—i.e., among the branches of the olive-tree generally, both those which are broken off and those which are suffered to remain. This seems on the whole the more probable view; it would be possible to translate the words, in place of them (the branches broken off).

Partakest of the root and fatness.—The meaning of this is sufficiently obvious as it stands. If, as perhaps is probable, we ought to drop the second “and,” reading, “of the root of the fatness,” the sense is that the rich flow of sap in which the wild olive par-takes does not belong to the wild olive itself, but is all drawn from the root.

The evidence for the omission of the second “and” is that of the Vatican, Sinaitic, and rescript Paris manuscript—a strong combination.

(17-24) The admission of the Gentile to the privileges of the Jew is no ground for boasting on his part. It is merely an admission. The Gentile is, as it were, a branch grafted into a stem that was none of his planting. Nor is his position absolutely secured to him. It is held conditionally on the tenure of faith. He ought, therefore, anxiously to guard against any failure in faith. For the moment God has turned towards him the gracious side of His providence, as towards the Jew He has turned the severe side. But this relation may easily be reversed, and the Jew received back into the favour which he once enjoyed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. some of the branches] A tender statement of what, alas, was so great an amount of unbelief. See below again, Rom_11:25; “blindness in part.”

be broken off] The reference of time is specially to the crisis of the rejection of Messiah by Israel. It was true, of course, that at no period of the Church was any worldly and unbelieving Jew otherwise than “broken off” from God’s covenant of peace; but not till Messiah was rejected was it ever possible to think of the Jews, as a class, as being so situated.

thou] The Gentile Christian, who is throughout in view.

a wild olive tree] A scion of a race alien from the special Covenant of Salvation. This word, from St Paul’s pen, implies no Pharisaic contempt of the Gentiles. He merely points to the Divine choice, equally sovereign for nations and for persons, which had willed that Israel, and not Greece, Rome, or India, should be the recipient and keeper of Revelation; the heaven-cultured subject of its privileges and ordinances. Not merit, but grace, made the difference. But a real difference it was, none the less, and it left the wonder and mercy of the call of the Gentiles as great as ever.

graffed in] Grafting, as is well known, is always of the good scion into the inferior stock. St Paul reverses this, no doubt quite consciously. The mere outline of his language is borrowed from the olive-yard, and that is enough for him. The union of true believers to the true Church is vividly illustrated (cp., but with care, the Lord’s own great metaphor, Joh_15:5,) by the union of branches to a stem; the bringing of alien believers into a Church originally Jewish is vividly illustrated by grafting a piece of one tree into another. Here the likeness ends.

partakest] Lit. and better, didst become a partaker.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if some of the branches be broken,.... This is to be understood, not of the exclusion of the Jews from their national church; for the persons designed by the "branches", were the principal members of it, as the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, the priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, and the far greater part of the people; and on the other hand, the apostles and followers of Christ were put out of their synagogues, and deemed by them heretics and apostates: nor of the destruction of the Jewish nation, city, and temple; for as yet they existed as a nation, their city of Jerusalem was in being, and their temple standing: but of their being left out of the Gospel church, gathered among them, they not believing in the Messiah, but rejected and crucified him; and though afterwards the Gospel was preached to them, they despise it, contradicted, and blasphemed it; so that it pleased God to take it wholly away from them, when they might be truly said to be, "as branches broken off"; which phrase seems to be borrowed from Jer 11:16; they were withered, lifeless, and hopeless, being cast off by God, and neglected by his ministers, the Gospel being removed from them, and they without the means of grace and salvation: and this was the case of the generality of the people; for though the apostle only says "some", making the best of it in their favour against the Gentiles, and speaking in the softest terms; yet they were only a few, a seed, a remnant, that were taken into the Gospel church, and the rest were blinded, hardened, rejected, and left out for their unbelief:

and thou being a wild olive tree: speaking to the Gentiles, to some, not to all of them; for not a whole tree, but a part of one, what is cut out of it, a scion from it is grafted into another; and so they were a certain number which God took out from among the Gentiles, to be a people for his name and glory, and who before conversion were comparable to a wild olive tree; for though they might have some show of morality, religion, and worship, yet lived in gross ignorance, superstition, idolatry, and profaneness were destitute of a divine revelation, of all spiritual light and knowledge, of true righteousness and the grace of God; were barren and unfruitful in good works, were without hope, God and Christ in the world. This metaphor rather regards their character, case, and manners, than their original; in respect of which they and the Jews were on a level, being by nature equally corrupt, and children of wrath; and yet though a wild olive tree, were

grafted amongst them; meaning either the broken branches, in whose stead they were grafted; the Syriac version favours this sense, reading it "in their place"; as also in Rom 11:19; and so the Ethiopic version: or rather the believing Jews, of whom the first Gospel church and churches consisted; for the Jews first trusted in Christ, received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and were first incorporated into a Gospel church state; and then the Gentiles which believed were received among them. The first coalition of Jews and Gentiles, or the ingrafting of the Gentiles in among the Jews that believed, was at Antioch, when dropping their distinctive names of Jews and Gentiles, they took the common name of Christians, Act 11:19. So that this is not to be understood of an ingrafting into Christ unless by a visible profession, but of being received into a Gospel church state; which is signified by the "olive tree" in the next clause:

and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; the Gospel church is so called for its excellency the olive tree being a choice tree, as they were a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; for its fruitfulness, bringing forth berries that are wholesome, delightful, and useful, so the saints are filled with the fruits of grace, and good works, which are by Christ to the praise and glory of God; for its beauty when laden with fruit, so a Gospel church is beautiful maintaining the purity of Gospel doctrine, discipline, worship and conversation; "his beauty shall be as the olive tree", Hos 14:6; see Jer 11:16; and for its verdure and durableness, and growing on the mountains, all which may denote the continuance and firmness of the church of Christ. Now the Gentiles being grafted into a Gospel church state with the believing Jews, partook of the same root and fatness as they did, being built upon the same "foundation of the apostles prophets", Eph 2:20; rooted, grounded, and built up in the same church state they enjoyed the same privileges, had the doctrines of Christ and his apostles preached to them, communicated with them in the ordinances of the Gospel, and were satisfied with the goodness and fatness of the house of God; for they became "fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel", Eph 3:6, the apostle speaks according to the nature of the olive tree, which is unctuous, from whence an oil is taken, which makes the face of man to shine, the fruit of which fattens those that are lean; and hence it loses not its leaves, , "because of its heat and fatness", as Plutarch (x) says.

(x) Sympos. l. 8. qu. 10.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Ver. 17. Were grafted in] Gr. ενεκεντρισθης, pricked into the middle, the centre of the olive.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If some of the branches - The illustration here is taken from the practice of those who ingraft trees. The useless branches, or those which bear poor fruit, are cut off, and a better kind inserted. “If some of the natural descendants of Abraham, the holy root, are cast off because they are unfruitful, that is, because of unbelief and sin.”

And thou - The word “thou” here is used to denote the Gentile, whom Paul was then particularly addressing.

Being a wild olive-tree - From this passage it would seem that the olive-tree was sometimes cultivated, and that cultivation was necessary in order to render it fruitful. The cultivated olive-tree is “of the a moderate height, its trunk knotty, its bark smooth and ash-colored, its wood is solid and yellowish, the leaves are oblong, and almost like those of the willow, of a green color, etc. The wild olive is smaller in all its parts.” (Calmet.) The wild olive was unfruitful, or its fruit very imperfect and useless. The ancient writers explain this word by “unfruitful, barren.” (Sehleusner.) This was used, therefore, as the emblem of unfruitfulness and barrenness, while the cultivated olive produced much fruit. The meaning here is, that the Gentiles had been like the wild olive, unfruitful in holiness; that they had been uncultivated by the institutions of the true religion, and consequently had grown up in the wildness and sin of nature. The Jews had been like a cultivated olive, long under the training and blessing of God.

Wert grafted in - The process of grafting consists in inserting a scion or a young shoot into another tree. To do this, a useless limb is removed; and the ingrafted limb produces fruit according to its new nature or kind, and not according to the tree in which it is inserted. In this way a tree which bears no fruit, or whose branches are decaying, may be recovered, and become valuable. The figure of the apostle is a very vivid and beautiful one. The ancient root or stock, that of Abraham, etc. was good. The branches - the Jews in the time of the apostle - had become decayed and unfruitful, and broken off. The Gentiles had been grafted into this stock, and had restored the decayed vigor of the ancient people of God; and a fruitless church had become vigorous and flourishing. But the apostle soon proceeds to keep the Gentiles from exaltation on account of this.

Among them - Among the branches, so as to partake with them of the juices of the root.

Partakest of the root - The ingrafted limb would derive nourishment from the root as much as though it were a natural branch of the tree. The Gentiles derived now the benefit of Abraham’s faith and holy labors, and of the promises made to him and to his seed.

Fatness of the olive-tree - The word “fatness” here means “fertility, fruitfulness” - the rich juices of the olive producing fruit; see Jdg 9:9.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In this, and some following verses, the apostle digresses a little, and takes occasion to prevent the insulting of the Gentiles over the Jews; as also to persuade them to take warning by their example.

If some of the branches be broken off; the unbelieving Jews.

And thou; a believing Gentile: though he speaks as to a particular person, yet he means the whole body of the believing Gentiles.

Being a wild olive tree; a scion taken from a wild olive tree; i.e. from the heathenish and unbelieving world.

Wert graffed in among them; the believing Jews. Some read, for them, or in the place of the branches that are broken off.

And with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree: by the root he means Abraham, &c. as before: by the olive tree he means the church of Christ; by the root, or sap of the root, and by the

fatness of the olive tree, he means, all the promises and privileges, the graces and ordinances, the spiritual blessings and benefits, which belonged to Abraham and his seed, or to the true church of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Wild… grafted in—The Church of all ages is a cultured olive tree, and Gentilism is a wild olive tree. Contrary to custom, at least western custom, the inferior graft is inserted into the superior trunk. Columella and Propertius are quoted, however, in support of the fact that the wild olive graft in the cultured tree gave freshness and vigour to its growth. This thought, however, forms no part of the apostle’s illustration.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 17, 18. But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree (i.e. of the stock of a wild olive tree; cf. Rom_5:3-4) wast grafted in among them, and wast made partaker with them of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches. But if thou boastest, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. In thus addressing the Gentile in the second person singular, the apostle brings his warning home to any individual Gentile Christian who might be inclined to boast; though regarding him still as representing Gentile believers generally. They are compared to slips of the wild olive tree (h agrielaiov , oleaster), which was unproductive (cf. "Infelix superat foliis oleaster amaris"), acquiring richness and fertility by being grafted into the cultivated tree (hh kallielaiov , oleo). Whether or not such a reversal of the usual system of grafting would have the imagined effect does not matter, as long as the illustration serves St. Paul"s purpose well, and helps us to grasp, his conception. The common process is"...to marry A gentle scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind, By bud of nobler race.

In the illustration before us a scion of wildest stock is supposed to be made to conceive through the stock of nobler race to which it is united. The selecting the olive tree for illustration is happy, inasmuch as it was not only a characteristic produce of Palestine, but also regarded as symbolical of a plant of grace; cf. Psa_52:8, "I am a green olive tree in the house of God;" also Jer_11:16 Hos_14:6. See also the parable of Jotham, (Jud_1:9:8, 9) where the trees apply first to the olive tree to be their king; and observe also there the word "fatness," used here also by St. Paul: Mh apoleiqasaa ththta mou en h doxasousi tosomai kineisyai epi twn xulwn ; (LXX). The "branches" against which the ingrafted scion is warned not to beast are not exclusively either the broken-off or the remaining ones, but, as the sequel shows, the natural branches of the tree generally. The Gentile Christian is not to contemn the race of Israel because so large a portion of it is at present apart from the Church and under judgment; for it is, after all, from the stock of Israel, into which he has been engrafted, that he derives all his own fertility. As to the Christian Church being ever regarded as derived from that of Israel, the fulfilment and outcome of the ancient covenant, see note on Rom_1:2; and cf. Joh_4:22, "For salvation is of the Jews.

Vers. 17-24. The solemn warning.

It may be difficult, in such a passage as this, to keep the matters of individual salvation and election to privileges and responsibilities in the kingdom of God distinct. They do naturally bear an intimate relation the one to the other. But we shall be on safer ground in following the tenor of the entire argument here also, and seeing both the Jews of whom he speaks and the Gentiles to whom he speaks as related to God"s great world-purposes of salvation. For though it is true that the Jews who believed not forfeited their individual part in the kingdom of God, as well as the honour of extending that kingdom in the world; and that the Gentiles who believed became first partakers of a personal salvation, and then agents in disseminating God"s truth in Christ; yet it is the objective kingdom of Christ, and its extension, to which the apostle looks, and to which he would have them look. They, his readers, were now, in place, as it were, of the unbelieving Israelites, entrusted with the living power; it was for them, in conjunction with the believing Jews, to make known salvation to the world. We have here their position in the kingdom of God, their danger, and the ultimate aspect of the kingdom.

I First, the position of these Gentiles in the kingdom of God. "Grafted in among them." They had been "without God in the world;" but now, what a glory was theirs! made "partakers of the Divine nature"! And, being saved, charged as the heralds of God to carry this salvation to the ends of the earth! Truly, they had become "partaker of the fatness of the olive tree." And so they seemed to be in the place of the broken-off branches; they were "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Out of the very ruin of the Israelites had come their salvation; in the very room of the rejected Israelites they stood. Here was a transfer of blessing.

II But this very position was fraught with danger. "Glory not;" "Thou standest by thy faith." The danger of false pride was not an imaginary one; Gentiles probably did glory over the Jews. Nay, do they not glory still over these "unbelievers"? Do they not sometimes persecute them even to death? But how false was the pride! They were only grafted branches, borne by the ancient root of Israel. And yet they deported themselves with such consequence, and affected to despise their neighbour branches, as well as those that had been broken off. Another danger was involved in this: false, uncharitable pride was perilously near to a damnable unbelief; it was indeed that unbelief begun. Why had these branches been broken from the ancient tree? "Because of their unbelief." Was not the same excision impending over unbelief still? Instead, then, of pride, let them cherish a holy fear, and walk humbly with their God. For most surely, if God spared not the natural branches, neither would he spare them.

III Once again, if faith was the condition of a part in the kingdom of God, and unbelief alone incurred exclusion from its benefits and work, then these very Jew. s, unbelieving as they now were, might, in the time to come, by faith become again partakers: "God is able to graft them in again." God is severe indeed, and all wilfully wicked ones incur his wrath; he cuts off his very chosen ones if they cherish an evil heart of unbelief. But God is good, and none shall ever seek his face in vain. And seeking him, and finding him, they shall surely be restored to their forfeited place. Think of the history of the Gentiles their long abandonment because of unbelief. But God receives them freely as instruments for his work. "Much more shall the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree.

Let us learn how terribly we may fall, and therefore be not high-minded. But let us also learn how gracious and forgiving is the God of love, and how he will heal our backslidings, and will not remember our sins. T.F.L.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou - O gentile. Being a wild olive tree - Had the graft been nobler than the stock, yet its dependance on it for life and nourishment would leave it no room to boast against it. How much less, when, contrary to what is practiced among men, the wild olive tree is engrafted on the good!

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The design and scope of our apostle in these words, is to exhort the believing Gentiles not to despise and reproach the rejected and unbelieving Jews; and he draws an argument from the condition of the Gentiles, both past and present: in their past condition they were like a wild olive-tree we understand to visible church of God; by the root he means Abraham, he was the root of the olive-tree, the Jewish church.

But how so? Answer Not the root by way of cmmunication, but in a way of adminstration; not by way of communication, as if either Jew or Gentile did receive any sap of spiritual life from him, as branches receive a natural life from the root; for thus Christ alone is the root of the church. But Abraham alone was the root of the church. But Abraham was the root of the olive-tree in a way of administration, the Lord calling him forth as the first man with whom he was pleased to treat, and enter into covenant with.

Again, by the fatness of the olive-tree, we are to understand all outward privileges and ordinances, all spiritual benefits and blessings, which belong to the Jewish church.

By the branches of the olive-tree, we are to understand the members of the Jewish church; and by the wild olive, the Gentile world.

Now though the Gentiles, through rich grace, were instated in the privileges of the Jews, yet the apostle foresaw, that instead of thankfulness to God for the favours received from him, they would be puffed up with pride, and accordingly he advises them not to be high-minded, but fear; as if he had said, "O ye Gentiles, your state is nigh, let your hearts be humble. The Jews are fallen; and unless you walk in holy fear, you cannot stand: unbelief ruined them, take heed that pride doth not ruin you; for the just and holy God is no respector of persons. He that spared not the natural branches, will no more spare thee."

From the whole learn, 1. That man is naturally a very proud creature; and although he has nothing but what he has freely received, yet is prone to boast.

2. That man is especially apt to magnify himself, and to glory over those who are fallen before him, either into sin, or under affliction.

3. That the best preservative from falling, is humility and holy fear. If ever we stand in the day of trial, it is the fear of falling must enable us to stand. Take heed you do not fall, by thinking it is impossible to fall.

Be not high-minded, but fear. Timor tuus, securitas tua; Thy holy fear will keep thee from falling, when others’ security and presumption will lay them on the ground. Let not a man that stands on the top of a tree boast of his height, but look to his hold.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

GOD’S CHURCH IDENTICAL UNDER ALL DISPENSATIONS

17-24. Here we have revealed the indisputable fact that Christianity is not a de novo institution, as some erroneously claim, but simply another dispensation of God’s church founded in Eden when Jehovah preached the first gospel sermon to the fallen twain, serving as the herald of his own redemptive scheme, perpetuated under the Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian dispensations down to the present day. This, you see, clearly and unequivocally confirmed the statement, The Gentiles are cut out of the wild olive tree, i. e., Satan’s kingdom, and grafted into the good olive tree, i. e., the kingdom of God. So when the Jews are converted to God they are grafted into their own olive tree, i. e., just get back into the true church of God whence they were ejected when they rejected Christ. We see man’s failure in all of these dispensations He failed in Eden, winding up in the fall. He failed in the Antediluvian ages, winding up with the flood. He failed in the Patriarchal, winding up in Egyptian slavery. He failed in Judaism, winding up with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. He failed in our Savior’s ministry, rejecting it and crucifying Him. We are now in the Gentile dispensation, and there are a thousand reasons to believe that we are rapidly approaching the end. What will it be?

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou [O Gentile believer], being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree [Some commentators, recognizing that Christianity is a distinct thing from Judaism, have been unduly frightened at the manner in which the apostle here blends them as one tree. This has led them to forsake the obvious meaning of the apostle's words, in an endeavor to contort them so as to keep distinct the Christian and Jewish bodies. Some of these, therefore, regard Christ as the tree, and others regard it as representing the Christian church. But such exegesis violates the text, for the Jewish unbelievers are pictured as branches "broken off." Now, they could neither be broken off from Christ nor the church, for they were never joined to either. The tree is the Theocracy ( Jer_11:16 ; Hos_14:6 ; Eze_17:3 ; Zec_11:2 ). In a sense it is one continuous tree, for it bears to God the continuous relation of being his peculiar people, but in another sense it is, as the apostle here presents it, an entirely different tree, for all the branches which were formerly accepted on the basis of natural Abrahamic descent were broken off, and all the branches, whether Jew or Gentile, which had the new requirement of faith in Christ, were grafted in. Surely, then, the tree is distinct enough as presented in its two conditions. Yet is it the same Theocracy, with the same patriarchal root and developed from the same basic covenants and promises ( Heb_11:39-40 ; Eph_2:11-22 ). Christianity is not Judaism, and no pen ever taught this truth more clearly than Paul's. Yet Christianity is a development of the old Theocracy, and is still a Theocracy, a kingdom of God, and this is plainly taught; for the Christian, be he Jew or Gentile, is still a spiritual son of Abraham ( Rom_4:16 ; Gal_3:7 ; Gal_3:29 ; Gal_4:28 ), a member of the true Israel; the true Jew. Now, the Christian Jew, having already an organic connection with the Theocracy, is viewed by Paul as simply remaining in it. And here is the point where the confusion arises. If he became regenerate ( Joh_3:1-6 ), and, dropping the carnal tie of the old, received the spiritual tie of the new ( Joh_8:37-44 ), he indeed remained in the theocratic tree, but in it as transport at Pentecost. If the Jew did not undergo this chance, he was broken off and cast aside ( Mat_8:11-12 ). Thus the apostle makes it clear that the Jew, as a Jew, and without spiritual change through faith in Christ, did not remain in any divinely accepted Theocracy. But as God originally contemplated the tree, every Jew was to develop into a Christian, in which case the tree would have been indeed continuous. Jewish unbelief frustrated the divine harmony and made it necessary for the apostle himself to here and elsewhere emphasize the difference between the old and new Theocracies. "The Gentiles are called a wild olive because God had not cultivated them as he did the Jews, who, on that account, are called ( Rom_11:24 ) the good or garden olives. . . . The juice of the olive is called 'fatness,' because from its fruit, which is formed by that juice, oil is expressed" (Macknight). "The oleaster, or wild olive," says Parens, "has the same form as the olive, but lacks its generous sap and fruits."];

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Now if some of the branches were broken off. To understand the next seven verses we must have a clear idea of what is meant by the olive tree. That it means the chosen family of Abraham, not his children merely of the flesh, but his believing children, the heirs of the promise, is clear. The Jewish nation inherited the temporal promises as Abraham's children; we become heirs of the promise when we become his children by faith. See Gal. 3:28, 29. The Jews, the natural branches of this olive tree, “were broken off” by unbelief. The root is Abraham. Thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in. When the Jews, the natural branches, were broken off by their unbelief, the Gentile Christians, not natural branches, not of the seed of Abraham, but wild olive, “were grafted in;” that is, were adopted into God's family, and became Abraham's children. With them partakest of the root. With Jewish Christians, these Gentile Christians became partakers of all the blessings belonging to Abraham's seed.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

if you, a wild olive branch

The pronoun "you," and the phrase "a wild olive branch," refer to the Gentile people who have accepted salvation through Jesus. (See: Forms of You and Metaphor)

But if some of the branches were broken off

Here Paul refers to the Jews who rejected Jesus as "broken branches." You can translate this in an active form. AT: "But if someone broke off some of the branches" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

were grafted in among them

Here Paul speaks of the Gentile Christians as if they were "grafted branches." You can translate this in an active form. AT: "God attached you to the tree among the remaining branches" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

the rich root of the olive tree

Here "the rich root" is a metaphor that refers to the promises of God. (See: Metaphor)

do not boast over the branches

Here "the branches" is a metaphor that stands for the Jewish people. AT: "do not say you are better than the Jewish people God has rejected" (See: Metaphor)

it is not you who supports the root, but the root that supports you

Again Paul implies that the Gentile believers are branches. God saves them only because of the covenant promises that he made to the Jews. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

olive

boast

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

17. εἰ δέ τινες κ.τ.λ. δέ introduces the antithesis to μὲν of 13; μὴ κατακαυχῶ τῶν κλάδων )[217] τὴν διακονίαν μου δοξάξω. The point of the simile is that the Gentiles owe their present inclusion in the stock of Israel, the chosen people, solely to that mercy of GOD which first made a chosen people: the condition of permanence for them is the same as it has been for Israel, namely, faith; they have no reason then to boast over the discarded members of that stock, but rather to fear for themselves, lest they too should fail in the condition, and further to hope for those members, that the same creative act of GOD, which has brought them, the Gentiles, into union with this source of life, may also restore those who have cut themselves off from it. The argument is closely |[218] 1Co 10:1-13.

[217] )( opposed to

[218] | parallel to

The true Israel is the root or stock with the branches, individual members, whether new or old. The underlying thought is the unity of the life in and from Christ, constituting the unity of the new Church. We have the elements here of the thought of the ‘one man in Christ’ which is developed in Eph.; of. Hort, R. and E., p. 179; cf. Joh 15:1 ff.; Jer 11:16.

τινες τῶν κλάδων. Not all Israel were apostate; the remnant remained as a stock with some branches.

σὺ … ἐγένου. The singular emphasises the obligation of the individual.

ἀγριέλαιος. See Ramsay, Pauline Studies, p. 223 f. He refers to Prof. Fischer ‘Der Oelbaum’ to show that two processes of grafting were used in the cultivation of the olive: (1) the ordinary process of grafting a noble olive shoot on a stock of the same kind, all original branches of the stock being cut away, and the grafted shoot forming the tree. This was done when the stock was still young. (2) An exceptional process was employed to invigorate an old olive tree which was failing: the failing branches only were cut away, and a shoot of wild olive was grafted. The effect was both to invigorate the old tree and its remaining branches and to ennoble the new graft. According to Prof. Fischer this process is in practice in Palestine at the present day. If we may suppose it to have been in use in S. Paul’s time, it affords an admirable illustration for his subject. The fact seems to have been discovered first by Prof. Fischer and commentators from Origen downwards appear to have no knowledge of it.

ἐν αὐτοῖς. Among the branches which remained.

συνκοινωνὸς. Partner with the remaining branches in the root which supplies the richness of the olive. The root here too is the ‘remnant’ as in Christ; cf. 18.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17.] But (introduces a hypothesis involving a seeming inconsistency with the ἁγιότης just mentioned) if some of the branches (the τινες, as Thol. remarks, depreciates the number, in order to check the Gentile pride) were broken out (from the tree), and thou (a Gentile believer) being a wild olive (ἀγριέλαιος, the tree, spoken of a sprout or branch of it. Better so than, as Fritz., Meyer, to make ἀγρ. an adj., ‘of wild olive,’ which can only be used of that which is made out of the wood, as ἀγριέλαιος σκυτάλη. Thol.) wast grafted in ( Alex. Strom. vi. [15] § 119, p. 799 P., enumerates four different kinds of ἐγκεντρισμός, using it as a general term for grafting and budding. The difficulty here is, that the Apostle reverses the natural process. It is the wilding, in practice, which is the stock, and the graft inserted is a sprout of the better tree. I believe that he does not here regard what is the fact in nature: but makes a supposition perfectly legitimate,—that a wilding graft on being inserted into a good tree, thereby becomes partaker of its qualities. No allusion can be intended to a practice mentioned by Columella, de Re Rust. v. 9, of inserting a wilding graft into a good tree to increase the vigour and growth of the tree: for this would completely stultify the illustration—the point of which is, a benefit received by the wilding from the tree, not one conferred by the wilding on it) among them (i.e. among the branches,—τοῖς κλάδοις: or perhaps αὐτοῖς may imply the remnants of the branches broken off. The renderings, ‘in their stead,’ ‘in locum,’ as De W. after Chrys., Theophyl., Beza,—and ‘in their place,’ ‘in loco,’ Meyer, Olsh., are surely inadmissible), and becamest a fellow-partaker (with the branches: or perhaps simply ‘a partaker,’ σύν not implying fellows in participation, but merely the participation itself) of the root of the fatness (of that root, on union with which all the development of life and its fertility depend: which is the source of the fatness. With καί, it will mean, of the source of life, and also of the development of that life itself in all richness of blessing) of the olive-tree,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17-24. The metaphor used in the second part of ver. 16 suggests an image which the Apostle developes somewhat elaborately. The image of an olive tree to describe Israel is taken from the Prophets; Jer 11:16 ‘The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult He hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken’; Hos 14:6 ‘His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.’ Similar is the image of the vine in Isa 5:7; Psa 80:8; and (of the Christian Church) in Joh 15:1ff.

The main points in this simile are the following:—

The olive = the Church of God, looked at as one continuous body; the Christian Church being the inheritor of the privileges of the Jewish Church.

The root or stock (ῥίζα) = that stock from which Jews and Christians both alike receive their nourishment and strength, viz. the Patriarchs, for whose faith originally Israel was chosen (cf. vv. 28,29).

The branches (οἱ κλάδοι) are the individual members of the Church who derive their nourishment and virtue from the stock or body to which they belong. These are of two kinds:

The original branches; these represent the Jews. Some have been cut off from their want of faith, and no longer derive any nourishment from the stock.

The branches of the wild olive which have been grafted in. These are the Gentile Christians, who, by being so grafted in, have come to partake of the richness and virtue of the olive stem.

From this simile St. Paul draws two lessons. (1) The first is to a certain extent incidental. It is a warning to the heathen against undue exaltation and arrogance. By an entirely unnatural process they have been grafted into the tree. Any virtue that they may have comes by no merit of their own, but by the virtue of the stock to which they belong; and moreover at any moment they may be cut off. It will be a less violent process to cut off branches not in any way belonging to the tree, than it was to cut off the original branches. But (2)—and this is the more important result to be gained from the simile, as it is summed up in ver. 24—if God has had the power against all nature to graft in branches from a wild olive and enable them to bear fruit, how much more easily will He be able to restore to their original place the branches which have been cut off.

St. Paul thus deduces from his simile consolation for Israel, but incidentally also a warning to the Gentile members of the Church— a warning made necessary by the great importance ascribed to them in ver. 11f. Israel had been rejected for their sake.

17. τινές: a meiosis. Cf. 3:3 τί γὰρ εἰ ἠπίστησάν τινες; Τινὲς δὲ εἶπε, παραμυθούμενος αὐτούς, ὡς πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν, ἐπεὶ πολλῷ πλείους οἱ ἀπιστήσαντες. Euthym.-Zig.

ἐξεκλάσθησαν. The same simile is used, with a different application, Enoch xxvi. 1 καὶ ἐκεῖθεν ἐφώδευσα εἰς τὸ μέσον τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἴδον τόπον ηὐλογημένον, ἐν ᾧ δένδρα ἕχοντα παραφυάδας μενούσας καὶ βλαστούσας τοῦ δένδρου ἐκκοπέντος.

ἀγριέλαιος: ‘the wild olive.’ The olive, like the apple and most other fruit trees, requires to have a graft from a cultivated tree, otherwise the fruit of the seedling or sucker will be small and valueless. The ungrafted tree is the natural or wild olive. It is often confused with the oleaster (Eleagnus angustifolius), but quite incorrectly, this being a plant of a different natural order, which however like the olive yields oil, although of an inferior character. See Tristram,Natural Hist. of the Bible, pp. 371-377.

ἐνεκεντρίσθης ἐν αὐτοῖς: ‘wert grafted in amongst the branches of the cultivated olive.’ St. Paul is here describing a wholly unnatural process. Grafts must necessarily be of branches from a cultivated olive inserted into a wild stock, the reverse process being one which would be valueless and is never performed. But the whole strength of St. Paul’s argument depends upon the process being an unnatural one (cf. ver. 24 καὶ παρὰ φύσιν ἐνεκεντρίσθης); it is beside the point therefore to quote passages from classical writers, which, even if they seem to support St. Paul’s language, describe a process which can never be actually used. They could only show the ignorance of others, they would not justify him. Cf. Origen viii. 10, p. 265 Sed ne hoc quidem lateat nos in hoc loco, quod non eo ordine Apostolus olivae et oleastri similitudinem posuit, quo apud agricolas habetur. Illi enim magis olivam oleastro inserere, et non olivae oleastrum solent: Paulus vero Apostolica auctoritate ordine commutato res magis causis, quam causas rebus aptavit.

συγκοινωνός: 1Co 9:23; Php 1:7; and cf. Eph 3:6 εἶναι τὰ ἔθνη συγκληρονόμα καὶ σύσσωμα καὶ συμμέτοχα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου.

τῆς ῥίζης τῆς πιότητος τῆς ἐλαίας: comp. Jud 1:9:9 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ἡ ἐλαία, Μὴ ἀπολείψασα τὴν πιότητά μου … πορεύσομαι; Test. XII. Pat. Levi, 8 ὁ πέμπτος κλάδον μοι ἐλαίας ἕδωκε πιότητος. The genitive τῆς πιότητος is taken by Weiss as a genitive of quality, as in the quotation above, and so the phrase comes to mean ‘the fat root of the olive.’ Lips. explains ‘the root from which the fatness of the olive springs.’

The genitive τῆς πιότητος seemed clumsy and unnatural to later revisers, and so was modified either by the insertion of καί after ῥίζης, as in אc A and later MSS. with Vulg. Syrr. Arm. Aeth., Orig.-lat. Chrys., or by the omission of τῆς ῥίζης in Western authorities D F G Iren.-lat.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Branches were broken off [κλαδων εξεκλασθησαν] . See on Mt 24:32; Mr 11:8. The derivation of kladwn branches, from klaw to break, is exhibited in the word - play between the noun and the verb : kladon, exeklasthesan.

A wild olive - tree [αγριελαιος] . To be taken as an adjective, belonging to the wild olive. Hence Rev., correctly, rejects tree, since the Gentiles are addressed not as a whole but as individuals. Meyer says : "The ingrafting of the Gentiles took place at first only partially and in single instances; while the thou addressed cannot represent heathendom as a whole, and is also not appropriate to the figure itself; because, in fact, not whole trees, not even quite young ones are ingrafted, either with the stem or as to all their branches. Besides, ver. 24 contradicts this view."

Wert graffed in among them [ενεκεντρισθης εν αυτοις] . The verb occurs only in this chapter. From kentpon a sting, a goad. See on Rev 9:9. Thus, in the verb to graft the incision is emphasized. Some render in their place, instead of among them; but the latter agrees better with partakest. Hence the reference is not to some of the broken off branches in whose place the Gentiles were grafted, but to the branches in general.

With them partakest [συγκοινωνος εγενου] . Lit., as Rev., didst become partaker with them. See on Rev 1:9; and partners, Luk 5:10. With them, the natural branches.

Of the root and fatness [της ριζης και της πιοτητος] . The best texts omit kai and, and render of the root of the fatness : the root as the source of the fatness.

Paul 's figure is : The Jewish nation is a tree from which some branches have been cut, but which remains living because the root (and therefore all the branches connected with it) is still alive. Into this living tree the wild branch, the Gentile, is grafted among the living branches, and thus draws life from the root. The insertion of the wild branches takes place in connection with the cutting off of the natural branches (the bringing in of the Gentiles in connection with the rejection of the Jews). But the grafted branches should not glory over the natural branches because of the cutting off of some of the latter, since they derive their life from the common root. "The life - force and the blessing are received by the Gentile through the Jew, and not by the Jew through the Gentile. The spiritual plan moves from the Abrahamic covenant downward, and from the Israelitish nation outward" [δωιγητ] .

The figure is challenged on the ground that the process of grafting is the insertion of the good into the inferior stock, while here the case is reversed. It has been suggested in explanation that Paul took the figure merely at the point of inserting one piece into another; that he was ignorant of the agricultural process; that he was emphasizing the process of grace as contrary to that of nature. References to a custom of grafting wild upon good trees are not sufficiently decisive to warrant the belief that the practice was common. Dr. Thomson says : "In the kingdom of nature generally, certainly in the case of the olive, the process referred to by the apostle never succeeds. Graft the good upon the wild, and, as the Arabs say, 'it will conquer the wild; ' but you cannot reverse the process with success.... It is only in the kingdom of grace that a process thus contrary to nature can be successful; and it is this circumstance which the apostle has seized upon to magnify the mercy shown to the Gentiles by grafting them, a wild race, contrary to the nature of such operations, into the good olive tree of the church, and causing them to flourish there and bring forth fruit unto eternal life. The apostle lived in the land of the olive, and was in no danger of falling into a blunder in founding his argument upon such a circumstance in its cultivation" (" Land and Book, Lebanon, Damascus and Beyond Jordan, "p. 35). Meyer says :" The subject - matter did not require the figure of the ordinary grafting, but the converse - the grafting of the wild scion and its ennoblement thereby. The Gentile scion was to receive, not to impart, fertility. "

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 17, 18. “Now, if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in their place, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches; and if thou boast, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee.”

We might give δέ the sense of but (“but if, notwithstanding their natural consecration, the branches were broken off”); or that of now, which is better, as the argument continues down to the inference drawn in Rom 11:18.

Undoubtedly an event has happened which seems to be in contradiction to this people’s character of holiness; a certain number of its members, like branches struck down with an ax, have been rejected. The term some indicates any fraction whatever, small or considerable matters not (see on Rom 3:3).—Σὺ δέ, and if thou. Some commentators think that this style of address applies to the Gentile-Christian church personified. But in that sense would not the article ὁ have been needed before ἀγριέλαιος, the wild olive? Without an article the word is an adjective, and denotes the quality, not the tree itself. Besides, it is not one tree that is engrafted on another. By this style of address, therefore, Paul speaks to each Christian of Gentile origin individually, and reminds him that it is in spite of his possessing the quality of a wild tree that he has been able to take a place in this blessed and consecrated organism to which he was originally a stranger.

The words ἐν αὐτοῖς, which we have translated: in their place, properly signify: in them, and may be understood in two ways: either in the sense of among them—that is to say, among the branches which have remained on the trunk, converts of Jewish origin—or: in the place which they occupied, and, as it were, in the stump which has been left by them, which would apply solely to the branches which have been cut down. The prep. ἐν, in, which enters into the composition of the verb, might favor this latter meaning, which is, however, somewhat forced.

Once engrafted on this stem, the wild branches have become co-participants (συγκοινωνοί) of the root. This expression is explained by the following words: and of the fatness of the olive, of which the meaning is this: As there mounts up from the root into the whole tree a fruitful and unctuous sap which pervades all its branches, so the blessing assured to Abraham (ἡ εὐλογία τοῦ ᾿Αβραάμ, Gal 3:14) remains inherent in the national life of Israel, and is even communicated by believing Jews to those of the Gentiles who become children of the patriarch by faith; comp. Gal 3:5-9. The Alexs. reject the word καί, and, after ῥίζης, root: “the root of the fatness of the olive.” It would be necessary in that case to give to the word root the meaning of source, which is impossible. This reading must therefore be rejected, as well as that of the Greco-Latins, which omit the words: of the root and of: “co-participant of the fatness of the olive.” The meaning would be admissible; but this reading is only a correction of the text once altered by the Alex. reading.

This passage demonstrates in a remarkable way the complete harmony between St. Paul’s view and that of the twelve apostles on the relation of the church to Israel. The Tübingen school persists in contrasting these two conceptions with one another. According to it, the Twelve regarded Christians of Gentile origin as simply members by admission, a sort of plebs in the church; while Paul made them members of the new people, perfectly equal to the old. The fact is, that in the view of Paul, as in that of the Twelve, the believers of Israel are the nucleus round which are grouped the converts from among the Gentiles, and God’s ancient people, consequently, the flock with which the Gentiles are incorporated. “I have yet other sheep, said Jesus (Joh 10:16), who are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.” Excepting the figure, the thought is identical with our passage.

It has been objected to the figure used here by the apostle, that a gardener never engrafts a wild branch on a stem already brought under cultivation; but, on the contrary, a stem is taken which still possesses all the vigor of the wild state to insert in it the graft of the cultivated tree. There are two ways of answering this objection. It may be said that, according to the reports of some travellers, the course taken in the East is sometimes that supposed by the figure of the apostle. A wild young branch is engrafted in an old exhausted olive, and serves to revive it. But there is another more natural answer, viz. that the apostle uses the figure freely and without concern, to modify it in view of the application. What proves this, is the fact that in Rom 11:23 he represents the branches broken off as requiring to be engrafted anew. Now this is an impracticable process, taken in the strict sense.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.