So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. ¹² Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴ in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²² Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you,provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.²³ And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. 

Note the Kindness and the Severity of God

Those who do not exercise faith are cut off.  Those who do exercise faith are grafted in.  The kindness and severity of God are two sides of the same coin in some regards.  He is harsh to be kind.  It is by cutting us back that God grows us more.  It is in the face of disappointment that new opportunities arise.

It may be disappointing to think that those of us who are not Jewish do not have the ability to become so.  However, through Christ we gain the inheritance that that the Jewish people were promised in terms of reconciliation with God.

Prayer

May we be grateful that we are not cut off, but that we are grafted into a plant that is strong because through our reconciliation we receive the life of Christ.

Questions

1. Who is grafted in?
2. How is God both kind and severe?
3. Have you experienced God’s kindness and severity recently?