Romans 11.23-Jews Will Be Accepted By God If They Do Not Continue In Their Unbelief And Have Faith In Jesus Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 18, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:23-Jews Will Be Accepted By God If They Do Not Continue In Their Unbelief And Have Faith In Jesus Christ
Lesson # 378
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:16.
This evening we will note Romans 11:23 in which Paul teaches his Gentile Christians readers in Rome that the Jews will be accepted by God if they do not continue in their unbelief.
Romans 11:16, “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.”
Romans 11:17, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.”
Romans 11:18, “Do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.”
Romans 11:19, “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’”
Romans 11:20, “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear.”
Romans 11:21, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.”
Romans 11:22, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.”
Romans 11:23, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
“Also” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which is used to present a contrast between God rejecting Gentiles for rejecting His Son Jesus Christ with His accepting Jews if they accept by faith His Son.
“If” is the conditional particle ean (e)avn) (eh-an), which is employed with the subjunctive mood of the verb epimeno, “you continue” in order to form the protasis of a third class condition.
The third class condition in Romans 11:23 indicates the “certain fulfillment in the future” that the Jews will be grafted into the olive tree (Israel), i.e. accepted by God as true Israelites, if they fulfill the condition of not continuing in unbelief towards Jesus Christ.
In Romans 11:23, we have a third class condition, which offers a condition that is certain to be fulfilled in the future since Paul is speaking with respect to a spiritual absolute meaning that if the Jews reject Christ, God will reject them but if they accept by faith Christ, then God will accept them.
“They do not continue” is composed of the negative particle me (mhv) (may), “not” and the third person plural present active subjunctive form of the verb epimeno (e)pimevnw) (ep-ee-men-o), “they do continue.”
The verb epimeno means “to continue in the sense of continuing in an activity or state,” which is identified as “unbelief” according to the non apistia, “unbelief.”
Its meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not” negating any idea of the Jews continuing in unbelief towards Jesus Christ.
Together, these two words are used in a figurative sense of the Jews not persisting in unbelief.
“In their unbelief” is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun apistia (a)pistiva) (ap-is-tee-ah), which refers to the unbelief of the Jews, which was manifested in their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.
In Romans 9:31-10:4, Paul speaks of the reason why the nation of Israel rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.
“Will be grafted in” is the third person plural future passive indicative form of the verb enkentrizo (e)gkentrivzw) (eng-ken-trid-zo), which means “to cause (a shoot or bud: scion) to unite with the stock of a growing plant, graft of trees.”
The verb is used in a metaphorical sense but this time with respect to the Jews and speaks of the Jews being united to the olive tree, which is figurative of born-again Israel as a result of exercising faith in Christ.
Romans 11:23, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
“For” is the “causal” use of the conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces the “reason” for Paul’s statement that if the Jews do not persist with their lack of faith by exercising faith in His Son Jesus Christ, then God will accept them.
“God” refers to the Father since the articular construction of this noun in the New Testament commonly signifies the first member of the Trinity.
“Able” is the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective dunatos (dunatov$) (doo-nat-os), which describes someone who possesses the ability to perform some function.
In Romans 11:23, the adjective dunatos is used to describe God the Father as possessing the inherent ability or power to unite those Jews who do not persist in unbelief by having faith in His Son Jesus Christ with born-again Jews and Gentiles who compose the branches of the olive tree, which is analogous to Israel.
The word speaks of the Father’s omnipotence.
“Again” is the adverb palin (pavlin) (pal-in), which denotes that these Jews who do not persist in unbelief by exercising faith in Christ will be restored to the position that they were originally designed for by God but were removed because of their unbelief.
This word implies that Paul is holding out hope that some Jews in his day will turn from their unbelief in Christ and believe in Him.
So in Romans 11:23 Paul presents a contrast between God rejecting Gentiles for rejecting His Son Jesus Christ with His accepting Jews if they have faith in His Son.
In this passage, Paul teaches his Gentile Christian readers that if the Jews do not continue in unbelief by having faith in Christ, then God will unite them with born-again Jews and Gentiles.
He also instructs them that God can do this because He is omnipotent.
All of this is to instill humility in Paul’s Gentile readers in the sense of understanding that they are accepted by God because of the merits of the object of their faith, His Son Jesus Christ and not based upon the fact that they have more merit than the Jews.
This is to protect them from being anti-Jewish and to motivate them to evangelize the Jews along with their fellow Gentiles.
This statement is also designed to build unity among Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome and the churches throughout the Roman Empire.
Now, many expositors of this passage stumble over the fact that Paul uses an unlikely bit of horticulture by stating that God can engraft the branches broken off back onto the olive tree.
However, they fail to recognize that Paul is not talking about orchardists but rather He is instructing His readers regarding the power of God.
The engrafting of the Jews back onto the olive tree because of their faith in Christ is nothing more than an illustration that speaks of the power and grace of God.
In Romans 11:17, Paul teaches his Gentile Christian readers in Rome that they were analogous to a wild olive shoot of a wild olive tree that has been engrafted onto a cultivated olive tree, which is analogous to born-again Israel.
Now the usual procedure was to insert a shoot or slip of a cultivated tree into a wild one.
However, in Romans 11:24 Paul makes clear that the metaphor he is using is “contrary to nature” of grafting a wild olive branch (a Gentile) into a cultivated olive tree.
The normal procedure was to take a shoot from an olive tree that bears good fruit and graft it onto a wild olive stock whose fruit is poor.
The result is a tree with vigorous growth, which bears good olives.
However, Paul reverses the procedure and speaks of grafting a wild olive onto the stock of a good olive and then later he speaks of grafting back some of the olive branches that have been cut out.
Such a procedure was unnatural and would be unfruitful, which is precisely Paul’s point with his Gentile Christian readers.
He wishes to underscore the miraculous nature of their new relationship with God and other Jewish Christians.
Now here in Romans 11:23, Paul again uses a horticultural analogy, which again speaks of an unlikely procedure of regrafting a branch that has been broken off to illustrate that God will accept those Jews who do not persist in unbelief by exercising faith in Christ.
What the orchardist would never do, namely regrafting a broken off branch, God, with respect to salvation can and will do, namely accept those Jews who do not persist in unbelief by exercising faith in Christ.