26-0726sc - Detailed Summary

Steve opens the class by announcing that the study will continue in Romans 11, beginning at verse 11. He acknowledges to Scott that he has been wrestling with how best to approach this particular section of the chapter. Before proceeding further, he leads the group in prayer. In the prayer Steve thanks God for the opportunity to grow in knowledge of the faith and of God’s involvement in the lives of His people. He expresses gratitude that God has related these truths through the Holy Spirit and through the pens of the various biblical authors. He specifically asks for special understanding and insight into Paul’s writings and the way Paul arranged the thoughts he was inspired to record. Steve closes by asking God to bless the class members both as students and as children of God, offering the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.

Steve notes that the more carefully he has read the passage, the more he has become convinced that the concluding portion of the letter supplies the key for understanding the heart of chapter 11 from verse 11 onward. He therefore proposes that the class first hear the text itself and then ruminate on it together. Reading from the New American Standard Bible, he begins at Romans 11:11 and continues through the doxology that ends the chapter. The reading covers Israel’s stumble that did not result in a final fall, the resulting riches that came to the Gentiles in order to provoke jealousy, Paul’s personal ministry as apostle to the Gentiles aimed at saving some of his own people, the reconciliation of the world through Israel’s rejection, and the hope of life from the dead that will accompany their future acceptance. The olive-tree metaphor is read in full: the first piece of dough and the root are holy, therefore the lump and the branches are holy as well; some natural branches were broken off because of unbelief while wild-olive Gentiles were grafted in; the grafted branches must not become arrogant, for the root supports them and not the reverse; severity fell on those who were cut off while kindness is shown to those who continue in faith; God is able to graft the natural branches back in again. The mystery is then declared: a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved, according to the prophetic promise that the Deliverer will come from Zion, remove ungodliness from Jacob, and take away their sins. Finally the reading reaches the declaration that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, that God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all, and the great doxology that marvels at the depth of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge, the unsearchable nature of His judgments, and the fact that from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

Steve returns to the doxology and observes that the concept of mercy is the thread that ties chapters 9, 10, and 11 together. Mercy, he explains, is the practical expression of love that reaches out to another person, seeks that person’s well-being, and acts for the other’s good. Because God is love, His mercy is displayed supremely in the gift of His only begotten Son; He does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to everlasting life. From that mercy flows grace, and grace is the gospel provision by which people are saved and justified so that they may live in relationship with God. Thus the sequence is love, mercy, and grace. Everything God is doing with both Israel and the Gentiles is therefore a product of His mercy. The doxology itself underlines that human beings cannot discover God’s judgments or ways by their own intellect; God must reveal what He wants His people to know. Steve briefly recalls the revelation given in Ephesians that God planned from the beginning to create the world, to create mankind, and to send Jesus as Savior. No one has known the mind of the Lord or become His counselor, and no one has first given anything to God so that God would be obligated to repay. People may make promises, but they cannot place God under obligation by their own good works. The entire unfolding of redemptive history is simply God’s plan being carried out according to His own wisdom and mercy.

Steve recounts that he recently began reading the opening chapters of Deuteronomy and found the material strikingly fresh. Moses addresses the generation of Israelites who are poised to enter the land after the wilderness wandering. He reminds them that they will not obtain the land by their own strength or worthiness; God Himself will deal with the Canaanite inhabitants whose iniquity is at last complete. The reason the land is being given is not Israel’s merit but God’s prior promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Steve emphasizes that this same promise framework is still operating when Paul writes Romans 11. He momentarily digresses with a light-hearted riddle asked of Joe—“What is the difference between a hippopotamus and a Zippo?”—and answers that a hippopotamus is a great big heavy animal while a Zippo is just a little bit lighter. Returning to the main point, he stresses that the foundational promise given to Abraham, and later reiterated to Isaac and Jacob, remains the key to understanding Israel’s present situation.

Steve carefully distinguishes the three elements of the Abrahamic promise: a land promise, a nation promise, and a seed promise. The land promise was fulfilled when Solomon ruled over the full extent of the territory Abraham had once traversed; the boundaries recorded in Kings match that territory and Solomon reigned over it in peace. The nation promise was likewise fulfilled: under David and especially under Solomon Israel became a great multitude and a powerful nation. The seed promise, however—the promise that through Abraham’s seed all the families of the earth would be blessed—was not fulfilled in the nation of Israel itself. That promise is fulfilled only in Jesus Christ. Prior to the call of Abraham the entire world stood on the same footing; the distinctive identity of the Hebrews arose solely from the covenant God made with Abraham. When God later gave Israel the Law and said “I will be your God and you will be my people,” He was not yet fulfilling the seed promise. Yet by Paul’s day many Israelites regarded their own national existence and religious system centered in Jerusalem as the complete fulfillment of that promise. Consequently they rejected Jesus, the true Seed through whom the blessing was to come to the whole world. Their refusal to acknowledge that God had already kept His word to Abraham by sending the Messiah is the unbelief that caused the natural branches to be broken off. Paul’s olive-tree imagery therefore addresses a people who have misunderstood their own place in the unfolding of the ancient promise.

Having established the background of the Abrahamic promises and Israel’s misreading of them, Steve returns to the grafting language of Romans 11. He begins again at verse 11, reading that Israel did not stumble so as to fall permanently; rather, their wrongdoing has brought salvation to the Gentiles in order to provoke the Jews to jealousy. If their failure has already resulted in riches for the world, how much greater will be the blessing that accompanies their future fulfillment. Paul addresses the Gentile believers directly, magnifying his own ministry as apostle to the Gentiles in the hope that some of his own people may be moved to jealousy and saved. Their rejection has produced the reconciliation of the world; their acceptance will therefore be nothing less than life from the dead. The first piece of dough and the root are holy, and therefore the lump and the branches share that holiness. At this point the transcript ends mid-sentence while Steve is still working through the implications of the olive-tree analogy for both Jewish and Gentile believers.

Steve continues by stressing that the class must understand where the source of holiness actually comes from. He illustrates the point with the Lord’s Supper, asking whether the table or the plate makes the communion holy. Neither does; it is Jesus Himself who makes it holy. Acknowledging that he is struggling to express the thought clearly, he sets the illustration aside for the moment and returns to the larger question of what is holy in the passage. He concludes that Paul is speaking of the promise God gave to the patriarchs and decides the class should continue to ruminate on that idea.

Steve remarks that he had planned to call on Jean as the resident horticulture expert but moves on without doing so. He returns to the promise, noting that it belongs to a plan God formed before He created anything. God singled out one family—Abraham and his offspring—from the rest of the world, thereby splitting humanity into two groups while still intending to bless the whole world. Once Jesus arrives as the answer, the two groups remain; the olive-tree imagery shows how God intends to bring them back together. The wild olive trees represent the rest of the world, while the cultivated tree is the family God chose. That cultivated tree wrongly concluded that the blessing would come through the nation itself, yet the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3 was only to pass through them. Romans 3 makes clear that both the wild branches and the cultivated tree are sinful; all alike fall short of the glory of God. God therefore grafts the wild branches in, even while the cultivated branches reject the very solution offered to them.

The premise Steve has been developing is that Israel itself forms part of the heritage but is not the fulfillment of the promise. The Israelites are true heirs and descendants of Abraham, yet God determined to bring the blessing through a particular line—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Echoing earlier chapters, Steve recalls that God declares He will have mercy on whom He chooses; no one may dictate the recipients of that mercy. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke demonstrate that God, as the divine husbandman, selected specific individuals—David, Solomon, Mary, and Joseph—through whom the lineage would run. Faith is required to accept that God works this way. God will not accept approaches through Ishmael, through Islam or Muslim identity, through Hinduism, or through any other religious system. He requires people to come to Him through Jesus Christ by faith and to become descendants of Jesus. The difference between Israel and the Gentiles is therefore clear: the natural branches are broken off because they refuse to come by faith and insist instead on coming through physical lineage and works.

A class member interjects that the “rage” (root) is Jesus, prompting Steve to quote Jesus’ own words: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” He affirms that the branches are individual believers, not churches as some claim. Jesus speaks of the one who abides in Him; each person as a branch must remain in Christ. While churches too must abide—as the letters to the seven churches in Revelation show—the primary reference is to individuals. God the Father is the husbandman who cares for the vine. No one can invent an alternative plan and expect God to accept it. Steve observes that many denominations forget this fundamental truth and urges the class to remain true to the pattern of the olive tree itself.

Returning to the text, Steve notes that the class’s earlier observations are correct yet insists that Paul’s central concern is the same warning Moses gave Israel before they entered the land. Fresh from a recent reading of Deuteronomy that felt almost new to him, Steve emphasizes Moses’ repeated charge: do not become arrogant or conceited; do not imagine that the coming blessings are deserved. The psalmist likewise declares that God takes no delight in the strength of a horse or the legs of a man; what delights Him is righteousness, the fear of the Lord, and the honor and worship His people render. Christians are now the focus of God’s providential care. He looks after His creation—animals, trees, and people alike—and Jesus in Matthew 6 teaches that believers need not be anxious about food or clothing. Therefore the Gentiles who have been grafted in must not grow proud simply because they now share the same relationship with God that Israel once enjoyed and, in God’s continuing faithfulness, still possesses.

Steve rereads Romans 11:17–24, underscoring that the wild-olive Gentiles have been grafted among the remaining natural branches and now share the rich root. They must not become arrogant toward the broken-off branches; the root supports them, not the reverse. The natural branches were removed because of unbelief; the Gentiles stand only by faith. If that faith is abandoned, they too will be cut off. God displays both kindness and severity—severity toward those who fell, kindness toward those who continue in faith. Should the natural branches turn from unbelief, God is fully able to graft them in again, and the process would be far more natural than the grafting of wild branches, which is contrary to nature. Steve compares the difficulty to an organ transplant: rejection is always possible, blood types and compatibility must be checked, and medications are needed to prevent rejection. In the same way God will not tolerate rejection of His gospel plan. Severity falls on those who refuse; kindness remains for those who accept by faith and continue in it. With that note the class time ends, and Steve thanks the participants.