The Wild Olive Grafted In: Do Not Be Highminded, but Fear (Romans 11:17–22)

Rom. 11:17–18. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches.

Having reached: “if the root is holy, so are the branches”—the Apostle now builds his exhortation to the believing Gentiles upon this: to be humble, as he intended, and does it thus: having said: “if the root is holy, so are the branches”—he suggested the thought that the Jewish people are holy in their entirety, yet there were many among them who did not believe and consequently were not holy. This could not fail to raise the question in the minds of the believing Gentiles: how is this? not all the branches are holy; as we see, the Apostle has already, though not clearly, settled this question in the words: “how much more their fullness” and: “what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” That is, they too will be holy, or—in possibility they are already holy. Therefore he does not repeat this now, but, agreeing with the objectors regarding the Jews, turns his attention to the Gentiles themselves and disposes them to fix their attention on themselves more than on the Jews, speaking as if: let some be broken off; do not fix your eyes on that, but look more to yourself. They are broken off, but you are grafted in. Disregard those who are broken off; God will arrange them according to His will. Direct all your attention to that which this grafting binds you to and how you ought to conduct yourself so as not yourself to be broken off like them.

Having given such a turn to the thought, the Apostle then teaches the believing Gentiles at length about humility and caution. But in setting forth this lesson, he uses such words as, while humbling the Gentiles, could not fail to touch the unbelieving Jews as well; so that it must be supposed that he had them in mind too, hoping that his words might humble someone and draw them to faith.

You, Gentile, a wild olive tree whose juices were bad and whose fruit was unfit for use, have now been grafted into a healthy and fruitful olive tree, not growing up from within it, but grafted on from without—as if to say: you are glued on and sit unsteadily; you have been grafted in and have become a partaker of the root and good juice of the olive tree. The good juices of the olive tree, foreign to you, have entered into you, displaced your bad juices, and made you fit to bear good fruit. You have nothing of your own; everything is foreign. One commentator notes: ordinarily a graft ennobles the juices of the tree; but, as ancient and modern travelers note, with olives it is different: a wild olive, grafted to the root, takes in good juices. This is how they rejuvenate old olive trees. All this is humbling instruction for the Gentile. From it follows: it is certainly praiseworthy that you have been grafted in, but you yourself have nothing here to boast of.

But how many strong admonitions for the Jew are contained in these words! It is this side particularly that Holy Chrysostom clarifies: “Observe the wisdom of the Apostle, how, apparently speaking to benefit the Jews and devising for them consolation, he yet strikes them in secret and through the words: root and first fruit—represents them as having no excuse. For imagine the worthlessness of branches that, having a sweet root, do not resemble it, and the worthlessness of the dough when it is not changed (does not rise and leaven) from the first fruit. ‘If some of the branches were broken off.’ Most of the branches broke off, but the Apostle wishes to console the Jews (that only some did). Meanwhile, however, he wounds them, proving (by the word ‘were broken off’) that they have separated from kinship with Abraham. For that is precisely what the Apostle was trying to say—that unbelieving Jews have nothing in common with Abraham. Because if the root is holy and they are not holy, then they are far from the root. Then, apparently consoling the Jew, he again strikes him by the very degradation of the Gentiles. For, having said ‘if some of the branches were broken off,’ he adds: ‘but you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them.’ The more worthless the Gentile, the more the Jew grieves, seeing that he enjoys his own possession. To the Gentile shame comes not so much from his worthlessness as honor from his change. And mark the wisdom in the Apostle’s words—he did not say: you were planted—but ‘you were grafted in’—by which he again wounds the Jew and shows that the Gentile came to stand on the tree in place of the Jew, and the Jew lies on the ground. And therefore he did not stop there and, having said ‘you were grafted in,’ did not end his discourse, though he had already said everything; on the contrary, he continues to describe the prosperity of the Gentile and expands in depicting honor, saying: ‘and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.’ Though apparently he places the Gentile at the level of something accessory (humbles him), yet he shows that he suffers no harm from this, but has everything that belongs to a branch proceeding from the root. That from the words ‘you were grafted in’ one might not conclude that the Gentile is debased before the natural branch, see how the Apostle makes him equal, saying: ‘and became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree’—that is, attained to the same nobility, received the same nature (by this he wounds the Jew). Then, when he instructs and says: ‘do not boast against the branches’—apparently he consoles the Jew by this, but in fact shows his worthlessness and greater dishonor. Therefore he did not say: do not boast—but ‘do not boast against the branches’—do not exalt yourself over them as over those broken off. You are placed in their place and enjoy what belonged to them. See how apparently he rebukes the Gentiles, yet in fact wounds the Jews.”

Rom. 11:18. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

“Do not boast against the branches”—do not exalt yourself over these broken-off branches, do not humiliate them or mock them, seeing into what calamity unbelief has plunged them. “‘This,’ as Ambrosiaster noted, ‘was not to be done even by the general rule of the Wise, according to which one should not rejoice in another’s stumbling, because this is not pleasing to the Lord’ (Prov. 24:17–18). But the Apostle, to urge this upon them, brings that very thing of how the Gentiles have come into such a state that they could, even sinfully, boast over the Jews, namely that although they have become better than the broken-off branches, yet they are still branches on a foreign root, not a separate tree with their own root. You do not, he says, ‘support the root, but the root supports you’—that is, you have no stability in yourself and everything is foreign to you, so you have nothing to boast of.” “If you boast”—if temptation comes to you to boast, then, one must understand, “consider that the root bears you, and you do not bear the root, and you have need of it, not it of you” (Blessed Theodoret), and the temptation will pass; you will drive off the budding self-praise. By this the Apostle humbles the Gentiles. “But, as has been noted, in devising even a faint shadow of comfort for the Jew, by the very fact of rebuking the Gentiles, he strikes a timely blow against the Jews. Having said: ‘do not boast’—and: ‘if you boast’—he gave the Jew to understand that what was happening was worthy of boasting about, though one should not boast of it; and by this arouses and encourages him to faith, shows himself a champion of his cause, points out the loss he has sustained, and that foreigners possess his own possessions” (Holy Chrysostom).

By these words the Apostle suggests the thought that the race of the saved is one from the beginning of the world, like one tree of life, and that no one is saved separately, but, if he wishes to be saved, must be grafted into this tree of the saved race, enter into communion with its life, and become one with it. This race was preserved by special divine providence among the Jewish people, and then through the Lord Jesus Christ entrance into it, or kinship with it, was opened to all peoples. The Saviour Himself showed this when, conversing with the Samaritan woman, He said that: “salvation is from the Jews” (Jn. 4:22). To this also can be referred the prophetic blessing of the righteous Noah given to Japheth: “May he dwell in the tents of Shem”. And to Shem he had earlier foretold that the race of the saved would remain in his line and the Lord God would always be the God of Shem (Gen. 9:26–27).

Rom. 11:19–20. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. They were broken off by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.

“The Apostle continues to humble the believing Gentile and wound the unbelieving Jew. “A Gentile raises an objection: how should I not boast when so many goods have increased to me? They were broken off, and I was grafted in and enjoy the promises given to them, I who am a stranger to them and stand in no kinship with them” (Oecumenius). Every word is a wound to the Jew. What does the Apostle do? Though there is no causal connection here—the breaking off of some is not the cause of the grafting in of others; yet the Apostle agrees with this speech and says: ‘Well said’. Quite so; you see, I see it too, and everyone else sees that these events follow one another. But do not stop at this mere succession of events; look deeper into the cause of each. The cause of the breaking off of the Jews is not your grafting in, but their unbelief; and the cause of your grafting in is not their breaking off, but your faith. Each of these events, following one after the other, does not have one as the cause of the other, but each has its own cause. In them—unbelief; in you—faith. Let each of those involved in these events direct his attention to this. You are grafted in by faith, but faith gives all freely, and no external advantages are taken into account in this. Therefore you have nothing to boast of. They were broken off by unbelief; but what is easier, more convenient, and more at hand than faith? It requires neither special time, nor special place, nor labor; only an inner turning—commit yourself to God and lay everything upon Him. Therefore your unbelief can have no excuse. ‘Here again is new praise for the Gentiles, yet praise that overthrows their arrogance, and a new accusation of the Jews, one that can yet serve them as a strong inducement to faith’ (Holy Chrysostom).”

Of those he said: “were broken off”—but to him he says, not: you were grafted in—but: “you stand”. He wishes by this to express that you are firmly established on the root and therefore can be confident if you do not lose the power by which you were grafted in and now stand: for here “everything is not a matter of nature but a matter of faith and unbelief” (Holy Chrysostom). Since passage from unbelief to faith and from faith to unbelief is equally easy and can happen in an instant, the Apostle adds: “Do not be haughty, but fear”. Ascribe nothing to yourself and do not think highly of yourself, having been made worthy of great spiritual blessings by grace. For here all is from God, and faith itself is from Him. You only agreed to believe; God Himself gave the faith, and by faith all else was then granted. And the very foundation of faith is utter self-abasement: I am God’s debtor without hope of repayment and one condemned; I have no salvation in anything except the Lord Jesus Christ; to Him I commit myself with my whole soul. And faith, as it begins in this spirit of self-abasement, so stands by it, and from it all the zeal and solicitude for salvation comes in believers. Therefore the Apostle, having said: “you stand by faith”—added nothing else but “Do not be haughty”, because in not being haughty and humble self-abasement is the spirit of faith and the power of life by faith. Whoever begins a little to deviate into thinking highly of himself, his faith has begun to waver; conceit has already arisen toward the very thing of faith, indifference has begun to stir regarding salvation (Holy Chrysostom). And in all this what extreme danger! Therefore the Apostle also added: “but fear”. Walk with caution and with utmost vigilance watch over your heart lest high thoughts of yourself creep in. For as soon as they creep in, they weaken faith, and after this weakening comes a crack, and from a crack it is not far to breaking off, and in that is ruin. Fear haughtiness as fire, and with all fear and trembling work out your salvation.

Rom. 11:21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

The natural branches he calls the Jews descended from the patriarchs, their forefathers, to whom and whose race the promises were given. The promises extend to this race under the condition that those who make it up remain in the same spirit of faith in God and obedience to His commandments as the patriarch forefathers. This is indeed so: those who believed and listened to the Gospel partake, as you see, of the promises and are in the mercy of God, as their fathers were; but those who do not believe and stubbornly resist the will of God in this are deprived of the promises and excluded from the race of their fathers, because they became of a different spirit from these fathers. God did not look at the fact that they are descended from such great fathers and such a blessed race, but rejected them when by their unbelief they became unworthy of mercy. For God shows no partiality. Everyone receives according to their worth—either mercy or no compassion. Look, you, Gentile, who believed and for that were received into the blessed race of God, the race of the saved; reason and keep in mind that if God rejected those whose race He had as His own and watched so carefully until now, for their unbelief; then even more He will not spare you, a stranger, received into God’s race from without, if you become weak in faith or waver in it, or conduct yourself unworthy of it. Keep this in mind and fear—fear losing the good you have been granted and being deprived of God’s mercy.

“Unbelief made the Jews strangers to the root, and faith united you with the root and made you partaker of its richness. Therefore one ought not to be haughty, but to fear and tremble. For what? (That you might not lose this spirit of faith and for that not be deprived of God’s mercy.) For if that kinship by nature brought them no benefit when they did not have the same disposition as their fathers; then even more you, if you do not keep grace, will become a stranger to the root” (Blessed Theodoret). “And rightly so. For if God cut off those who by their fathers’ advantages were worthy, who were even given the promise to be adopted as God’s sons, because of their unbelief; what will He not do to those who are exalted so without any advantages, if they waver in faith or become haughty? For they are honored altogether without any merit” (Ambrosiaster).

The thought of the Apostle in the words: “He may not spare you either” is that He will assuredly not spare you either; but he expressed it so uncertainly and hesitantly, or in keeping with the word: “fear”, since fear usually manifests itself in uncertain expectations, lest this or that happen, lest one allow that or this; or to soften in the word the harshness of the judgment (Oecumenius), allowing the readers to understand it for themselves. And Holy Chrysostom says: “Having said: ‘For if God did not spare the natural branches’—the Apostle did not continue so: He will not spare you either—but says: ‘He may not spare you either.’ Thus, excluding harsh expressions from the speech and making the believer cautious, he attracts the Jews and humbles the Gentiles.”

Rom. 11:22. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

Two examples before your eyes—an example of God’s goodness and an example of God’s severity, that is, of His stern judgment and rejection of the guilty. The Jews did not believe, did not submit to God’s will in this, and fell away thereby from the race of God’s chosen sons—and God did not spare them, did not look to the fact that they have such fathers according to the flesh and that He Himself lavished so much care on them; but as soon as they became unworthy of His goodness through their stubborn unbelief, He immediately rejected them and deprived them of His mercy. You believed humbly and with submission—and God’s goodness poured out upon you all blessings predetermined for such. And these blessings will remain forever your possession if you throughout your life keep yourself worthy of God’s love and thereby remain in God’s goodness. But “if you do not do so, you too will be cut off” (Blessed Theophylact). Do not expect mercy; the example is before your eyes. Holy Chrysostom says: “The Apostle did not say: see your merits, see your labors—but: ‘consider the goodness and severity of God.’ By this he shows you that all has been accomplished by grace from above, and he brings you to fear. The very ground for vainglory makes you fear. The Master became merciful to you, and therefore fear. As the blessings are not yours to keep if you neglect them, so the evil is not unavoidable for the Jews if they change.”