Romans 11:18– Don’ t brag to the branches

Now if some of the boughs are broken out, yet you, being a wild olive, are grafted among them, and became joint participant of the root and fatness of the olive. Be not vaunting over the boughs. Yet if you are vaunting, you are not bearing the root, but the root you.

Believers of the nations have become partakers of “the root and fatness of the olive tree.” While they are not Israel and therefore cannot lay claim to the promise made to Abraham through the natural line, they nevertheless became part of “the Seed of Abraham” (=Christ; Gal.3:16,29).

However, the fact that “natural branches” (Israelites) were broken off because of unbelief is by no means a reason for believers from the nations to boast or look down on the “natural branches” with disdain. For the fact that God now ‘visits’ the nations and makes them share in “the blessing of Abraham” (= the root), does not detract from the promises that God has reserved for natural (ethnic) Israel.

On the basis of the promises to the same Abraham from which the nations benefit in our day, his natural progeny will soon be blessed in the promised land. That promise still stands and will surely be fulfilled!

Delen: