Branching Out

If the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. ¹⁷But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. ¹⁹You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. Romans 11:16-20

In Romans, Paul makes a compelling argument for how God’s salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is an extension rather than a repudiation of God’s salvific work in the Old Testament. In other words, there is continuity in the gracious way God interacts with humanity in both the old and new testaments. Salvation is by grace, through faith, apart from works of the law. It was the faith, not the works, of Abraham that was “reckoned to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) So while the people of Israel were chosen for a special relationship with God, this was always the gracious offering from God not the result of adherence to the law.

In the death and resurrection of Christ, this graciousness is revealed for all people, not just the Jewish people. Our relationship with God, and our salvation, is not a matter of the family you were born into, the faith tradition you inherited, or our moral perfection. Rather it is a matter of faith:

If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

Anyone who has faith has salvation. This is the central message of Romans and the heart of the gospel. Salvation is, and always has been, a matter of faith.

So what then becomes of the Jewish people who do not believe? Are the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the same people God chose for a special relationship, no longer included in the promises of God? Paul desperately wants the Jewish people, his family and friends, to be saved (cf. Romans 9:1-5, 10:1) but also recognizes that by rejecting Christ they are standing outside of the promises of God. He uses the familiar image of a tree to illustrate the situation. In the Old Testament the people of Israel are often depicted as trees in both positive and negative ways:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. ¹³They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. ¹⁴In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap. Psalm 92:12-14

To provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. Isaiah 61:3

The Lord once called you, “A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit”; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. Jeremiah 11:16

So when Paul uses the image of branches broken off from the holy root of God, and a wild olive branch grafted in its place, he is describing both the continuity of salvation and the situation of those who do not believe by using an image for God’s people that would be readily recognized. The grafted branches (Gentiles) should not however look down upon the broken branches (Israel) because:

And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. Romans 11:23-24

God has not given up on the Jewish people and they could at anytime be grafted back into the tree of salvation. Salvation is a gift of grace through faith and it is open to all. This is good news for all branches of the human family.