Romans 11:17-24 God's Kindness!

Romans 11:17-24  If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches.  If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.  You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”  Granted.  But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith.  Do not be arrogant, but tremble.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.  Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.  Otherwise, you also will be cut off.  And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Those who follow the natural order of the senses are the wild tree, an olive tree that is not cultivated or domesticated.  A bonsai tree begins as a wild tree, falling under the nature of its DNA.  This wild tree will have no other controls than those which are given to it by natural means: soil, water, insects, gravity, and so on.  In a real sense this tree will follow the world of nature unless a gardener takes over its care.  With humans, we follow our senses.  Because of the fall in the Garden, humans live fleshly lives for their own benefit.  The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  We find the world before Noah as a very fleshly world.  Everyone did what was right in their own eyes to the point God repented of this wild tree, repented of creating man.  All the people were crowned by their own desires and not crowned as children of God, motivated by his will.  They were definitely functioning outside of the goodness of the Creator, his mercy and grace.  In God’s time, a man of faith was chosen to lead people out of corruption: Abraham.  He became the cultivated, domesticated olive tree.  Abraham shaped his life by his faith in God and his word.  He never lost the desire to please the God of creation.  He did fail many times, but his desire to serve the living God never left him.  This tame tree of faith became the father of many branches, the Israelites.  This ethnic group believed in a Creator not seen by human eyes, not detected by the flesh, but who existed and was worthy of their service.  The faith of Abraham, the root that goes into the very heart of God, sprouted and thrived through these people, the cultivated olive tree.  In cultivating a bonsai, the owner uses wires and heavy pruning to bring out the shape he desires.  His purpose is to make a plant beautiful in his eyes.  Abraham’s faith brought about a people that God could design in his image.  He shaped the children of Israel with his law and its concomitant regulations.  God’s purpose was to shape humans into his image of goodness, mercy and grace.  But completely following the law and its demanding regulations never took hold with the Israelites.  For the DNA of Adam’s nature even in a domesticated tree constantly sprouted to the surface, contaminating God’s intentions.  Eventually, God dispersed the residents of Judah and Israel into all the world.  A heavy hand of discipline rested on their heads because of their disobedience.  They had lost their faith in the Creator and instead placed their faith in unknown gods of the wild tree.  However, God was not through with the people he domesticated through his laws and regulations.  No, someday they will accept the plan that Peter lays out so passionately and directly on the day of Pentecost.  In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women,  I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  (Acts 2:17-21)

In the last days, faith in Christ’s redeeming work will be part of God’s plan to bring people into the household of God.  So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3:26-29)  We who are of faith are now presently in the household of God, for we have been born again to a new life IN CHRIST.  The Gentiles have been grafted into this plan of God to become like him in righteousness.  The Gentiles no longer stand outside of the plan of conforming people to his likeness, for they have entered into this plan by faith in the only perfect human: Jesus Christ.  The law and its regulations attempted to cultivate the tree to righteousness, but flesh will always fail to please God.  Works to please God will fail because the work comes from faulty beings, born in sin, in the image of Adam.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are born out of a new seed, one of faith in Jesus’ work on the cross.  No other work than his is totally acceptable to God.  Jesus purchased our salvation at the cross, paying the price for our sins.  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  The law and its regulations attempted to prune and stress the Israelites into the likeness of God.  But rather than move them towards God’s likeness, the law brought rebellion into their lives in a real way as they failed to please God.  They placed their faith in their own gods rather than the God of the universe.  Their rebellion brought a hardness of their hearts.  Their ears became stopped to the cry of the prophets.  The prophets warned them of their hardness and predicted their dispersion to all lands if they did not change, but the Israelites were never able to turn completely from their wayward ways.  Consequently, their branches as people of faith in the living God were broken off because of unbelief.  Paul writes that because of this breaking, the wild branches, the Gentiles, were grafted in.  The Jews were left to their own means, their own strength.  The root of Abraham, established by faith, went into the very heart of God.  When that faith in the living God ceased in most of Israel, the cultivated tree was pruned, branches were broken.  An enduring, strong faith in God would have revealed to them that faith in the coming Messiah would make them holy and acceptable to God, but before his coming their hearts were already hardened because of unbelief.

Abraham received the promise of blessing all nations through his lineage.  He received a land that he and his descendants would inhabit.  Of course, Jesus told us that Abraham is now before the Father God.  He received his promise.  We also who believe in Christ Jesus will inhabit that promised land.  Abraham’s people grew up with the understanding that they were chosen to inhabit an eternal land, one created and established by God.  Initially, the promise to them was one of a natural dwelling.  Moses led them to this natural dwelling place, but in the spiritual sense, the law and its regulations always pointed to another land, one where God dwelt.  They needed to be holy to enter that place for eternity.  The law and its light was to deliver them to that eternal resting place.  But they could not hold this expectation in their minds.  As with all flesh, they thought of this world and its activities as the only real existence.  They attempted through their flesh to get as much out of this world as possible.  But the reality of that lifestyle brought them into the likeness of the wild olive tree.  Rather than look and act differently from the heathens around them, they became like them in their nature.  Rather than portray God’s image of love, grace and mercy to the world, they became the world’s image of hardness, destruction, and selfishness.  A lack of faith in the God will always bring about the nature of Adam: rebellion to God’s purpose and likeness.  We who are living now need to commit to God’s plan for our lives.  We should image him and not ourselves.  We should stay in the land of faith: believing in the God of creation; believing He has a grand purpose for our lives.  If we stop believing in his works, we will lose the shekinah glory.  We will lose the face of God in our lives.  We will become darkened in our visage, lonely in our lives, hopeless in our dreams.  Jesus came to give us full lives.  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  (John 10:10 KJV)  Those who are dedicated to God, who understand his voice, who walk with him in an intimate manner are new creatures.  We do not pick up manna from cultivated land; we pick up manna on uncultivated land.  Our daily sustenance remains a free gift given to us by God.  The Holy Spirit is that manna, not from cultivated ground, not from a tree we tended.  No, He gives free gifts.  Today, pick up that manna in your hearts.  Hear the voice of the Lord.  Live free from the constraints of the law and the stresses of regulations.  Live according to every word that comes from the Lord.  As Jesus said, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4)  Oral words need sound waves for us to hear them, but the Spirit needs no sound waves for us to hear him.  We hear the quiet voice of the Spirit within us.  Breakfast companions, live today as those who belong in the olive tree, those who hear the voice of God and know his mercy and grace.