The Ingrafting of the Gentiles

Israel’s stumble is not beyond recovery. Their trespass has opened salvation to the Gentiles, and their eventual fullness will bring even greater riches.

I¹¹ ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. ¹²But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, magnifies his ministry — hoping to stir his own people to jealousy and save some. Their reconciliation, if it comes, will be like life from the dead.

¹³I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

If the firstfruit is holy, the whole batch is; if the root is holy, so are the branches. Grafted-in Gentiles must not boast — the root supports them, not the other way around.

¹⁶If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

If Gentiles claim that branches were broken off to make room for them, Paul grants the point but turns it back: those branches fell by unbelief, and these stand by faith. Note the kindness and severity of God.

¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either. ²²Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

If the natural branches do not persist in unbelief, God is able to graft them back in — and more readily than wild branches were grafted in to begin with.

²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!