Now Paul put the remnant aside and dealt with Israel as a whole. Even while Israel resists God's plan centered in Messiah, the Lord is at work bringing Gentiles to salvation. Gentile salvation really depends on Israel's covenant relationship with God, as Paul illustrated with the olive tree. The salvation of Gentiles in the present age not only magnifies the grace of God, but it will also provoke Israel to jealousy and lead her ultimately to return to the Lord.
11:11 Another rhetorical question marks another advance in the movement of Paul's thought. The stumbling of Israel did not result in a hopeless fall (cf. 9:32-33; 11:9). God now deals with Gentiles on the same basis as Jews regarding their salvation because Israel as a whole rejected Jesus Christ. One reason God chose to do this was to make Israel jealous of the Gentiles as the recipients of God's blessings so Israel would turn back to God.
11:12 Paul here anticipated the national repentance of Israel that he articulated later (v. 26). God promised to bless the world through Israel (Gen. 12:1-3). How much more blessing will come to the world when Israel turns back to God than is coming to the world now while she is in rebellion against God!
"While pleromaprobably has a qualitative denotation--'fullness'--the context and the parallel with v. 25 suggest that this fullness' is attained through a numerical process. Paul would then be suggesting that the present defeat' of Israel, in which Israel is numerically reduced to a small remnant, will be reversed by the addition of far greater numbers of true believers: this will be Israel's destined fullness.'"334
11:13-14 Here Paul applied what he had said earlier to his own ministry. By evangelizing Gentiles Paul was causing more Jews to become jealous of God's blessings on Gentile converts. He was thereby playing a part in bringing some Jews to faith.
"The Gentiles are not saved merely for their own sake, but for the sake of God's election of Israel."335
"However strange it may sound, the way to salvation of Israel is by the mission to the Gentiles."336
11:15 When Israel returns to God and He accepts her, the results for all humankind are comparable to life from the dead (cf. Ezek. 37). God's blessings on humanity now will pale by comparison with what the world will experience then (i.e., during the Millennium).
11:16 The first piece of dough (firstfruits) describes the believing remnant in Israel now. The "lump"or "batch"refers to the whole nation. God has consecrated both groups to Himself.
The root and branches must refer to the Abrahamic Covenant and the believing and unbelieving Gentiles and Jews in view of how Paul proceeded to develop this illustration in verses 17-24.337
11:17 The cultivated olive tree was a symbol of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament (Jer. 11:16-17; Hos. 14:4-6). The wild olive tree represents the Gentiles. The rich root of the cultivated tree corresponds to the Abrahamic Covenant from which all God's blessings and the very life of the nation sprang. We might add to the illustration by saying that the roots derive their nourishment from God Himself.
Note that Paul said that God grafted the Gentiles in among the Jews. They became partakers with the Jews of the blessings that come through the roots. Paul did not say that the Gentiles became part of Israel, only that they partake with Israel of the blessings of the root. This is a very important point. The olive tree is not the church in which God has united Jewish and Gentile believers in one body (Eph. 3:6). The wild olive branches retain their own identity as wild branches even though they benefit from blessings that come through Israel (e.g., the Messiah, the Scriptures, etc.).
11:18 Gentile believers should not feel superior to Jewish unbelievers, the branches that God has broken off (vv. 17, 19). Gentile believers might conclude that their salvation is what was responsible for the continuing existence of Israel (cf. v. 14). Really it is God's faithfulness in honoring the Abrahamic Covenant that is responsible for that.
11:19-20 It is true that one of the reasons Gentiles have become partakers of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant is that many of the Jews have not believed. However the Gentile believer who may feel superior to the unbelieving Jew needs to remember that the only reason he is where he is is because he has simply believed God. He is not there because he has done some meritorious work that would be a ground for boasting (cf. 5:2).
11:21 Throughout this whole discussion Paul was viewing Gentile believers and Jewish unbelievers as two groups. This fact is clear from his use of the singular "you"in the Greek text (su, vv. 17-24). If he had been speaking of individual believers, we might conclude that this verse provides some basis for believing that a believer can lose his salvation. Paul's point was, if God set aside Israel temporarily because of unbelief, He could do the same with Gentiles because of boasting.
11:22 "Those who fell"are the unbelieving Jews, and "you"are the believing Gentiles. The positions are reversible. Gentiles can become objects of God's sternness, and Israel can become the object of His kindness. This depends on their responses to God. Their response determines whether God will spare them (v. 21) or cut them off (v. 22).
11:23 Belief is what resulted in God grafting in the Gentiles (v. 17), and belief could result in Him grafting in formerly unbelieving Israel. In the illustration the whole trunk of the cultivated olive tree represents Israel and the natural branches are the believing and unbelieving segments of it.
11:24 Here is another of Paul's "much more"comparisons (5:9, 19, 15, 17; cf. Luke 11:13). If God did the difficult thing, namely grafting wild branches onto cultivated stock, it should not be hard to believe that He will do the easier thing. The easier thing is restoring the pruned branches of the cultivated tree to their former position.
"The restoration of converted Jews to the Patriarchal communion must from the nature of the case be more natural than the conversion of the heathen."338
Obviously the branches broken off do not represent the same individuals as those grafted in in the future. They are Israelites who in the former case did not believe and in the latter case did. The grafting in of Israel will not involve the breaking off of Gentile believers in the future.
