A WILD OLIVE TREE, WERT GRAFFED IN

Is there a future for Israel? There most certainly is, and Paul explains that at some length in Romans chapter 11. However, the history so far has not been good, at least not for them, but, as a result of their disobedience and by the grace of God, salvation has been offered to the Gentiles. The fall and diminishing of Israel through unbelief has brought significant spiritual riches to the Gentiles. If that be so, the argument of this section goes, then when Israel is restored to God the riches that will flow out to the nations at that time are quite unimaginable.

Two illustrations support this phenomenon. Firstly, the lump of dough offered as firstfruits represents the father of faith, Abraham, and carries a guarantee that the whole of the harvest is holy and for God. In the end, all Israel will be saved. The second illustration is more complex. We think of two olive trees; one is cultivated and the other is wild. The former represents, in its root, Abraham as the founder of faith and its branches are Israel, all of whom should have continued in his faith. But, because they were rebellious throughout history, even and per­haps especially so when the Lord Jesus was here, branches representing those who measured their relationship with Abra­ham only in the flesh, were cut off from the olive tree. Paul specifically turned away from the Jews in the preaching of the gospel. ‘I go to the Gentiles’, he said.

At that time, salvation was offered through the preaching of Peter, and to a greater extent through Paul, to the Gentiles. Some who heard the message and believed it by faith were then cut from their wild olive tree and grafted into the cultivated olive tree. Now, they had the blessing of partaking of the root and fat­ness of the tree and became an integral part of it. This was not due to their own efforts but solely to the grace of God. Boasting is therefore excluded and there needs to be an appreciation not only of the goodness of God but also of His severity towards those who appropriate the blessings of salvation but ignore its demands for obedience. Meantime, individual Jews who profess faith in Christ are grafted back into the line of blessing. They, with us, fully share in the blessings of God.