13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches . 17 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, 18 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. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 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. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 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!
Now here is the illustration which Paul the apostle uses. He is speaking to me and other Gentiles. The hope is that his own people would be aroused to envy and therefore some of them be saved. We have an immediate view of the fact that, “Not all Israel will be saved”. We will look again at that since it says in verse 26, “In this way, all Israel will be saved.”
But for now we have an olive tree. It is widely accepted that Gentiles, looking on, are the wild branches and that Israel are the cultured branches. Verse 15 speaks of the, “rejection”, of, “His own people”. Something else to deal with but nevertheless the language which the apostle uses. So, the tree has cultured branches, “Israel”. So what could we call the tree. If we name it we are stuck with a descriptor which may not work for long.
Is the tree Israel? Then we are about to change it to include Gentiles and it can only named, “Church”. Additionally, we can only from Paul’s narrative, name the branches not the whole tree since the root is viewed separately. What we do know is that God removes branches and replaces them with wild branches. The criterium for inclusion is the faith, by which the nourishing sap, (v17), the product of the root, is made available to the wild branches. It seems that the root hasn’t changed. For Israel it was by faith in God, looking to the coming of Messiah. For the Christian, Messiah has come and still looks to find faith. He, Jesus is our root. You want to suggest that this is replacement or perhaps I’ve got my labels wrong, but some branches are broken off and replaced by wild ones. I am now supported by the same sap from the same root which supported Israel. I was once told that Israel was my root. Paul says here that I am a partaker with both Jews and Gentiles of the same root. The fact that the root is the same for all is full of connotation.
The branches which are removed can, by faith be reinstated but now of course they are in with the new mix.
The branches are interchangeable but the root remains the same, it is not a new tree, its the same tree with grafted branches. The root, (the bones), the eternal promise remains the same. It is inconceivable that this root, if it is the continuum, the eternal factor, is other than the eternal promise of God, by whose blood, the eternal covenant is formed.