^{I. The Word: Romans 11:22-27}

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.

   ²⁵ Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers:^[a] a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

There is immediately something intriguing in the first verse we are examining today. After speaking of the kindness God has shown to us by grafting us into His family tree, it says we receive this “provided you remain in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”  At first glance, it can appear that we return to a works mentality that could somehow merit God’s favor by what we do, because it does imply some kind of condition and responsibility on our part, but that would contradict everything Paul has built his case on thus far in Romans. So I guess the question is what does it even mean to remain in His kindness?

I think to answer that question, we would first ask what does His kindness produce in us and why is that relevant? Romans 2:4 provides the answer to that. “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” The Greek word for repentance here, metanoian, means “to change the way you think, to change your mind”. When we see God’s great kindness and mercy extended toward us, an unconditional love when we didn’t deserve it, the (correct) response is to leave behind our old ways of thinking which are contrary to the nature of God, and to change and start to think and act like He would. So although we cannot earn God’s favor by our works, when we are actively remaining in Him by continually trading in our nature for His, we bring glory to His name and magnify His grace. He constantly shows us kindness, and we constantly desire to live as people worthy of that kindness lavished upon us. Remaining in His kindness=living a lifestyle of repentance.

Paul’s picture of the olive tree further illustrates this idea of our nature not being like God’s nature.  I always appreciate gardening imagery and symbolism, because I am a wanna-be gardener, with an almost green thumb, who shows real potential but lacks the time necessary to devote to the hobby. So I am not an expert in this category by any means, but what I do know is that it is much easier to cultivate and shape a shrub or a tree from the very beginning, when you have planted it, than to move to a new place and inherit trees that have not been tamed or tended to and have grown wild and free. It is not natural for a tree to be twisted or shaped into something we would design, but it can be “trained” by tying the branches down or tethering it to a stake, etc. from the very beginning.

The comparison of the Gentiles to a wild olive tree shows that the Gentiles (we) were enemies of God, uncultivated and unfruitful, everything in our nature opposite of His nature, so it would seem to go against what makes sense in the natural that we could be grafted into this cultivated, “good” olive tree and survive. We were not the tree He originally planted and cared for from the beginning. But that’s God for you, isn’t it?  He can make the impossible possible, and He can graft in whatever kind of branch He wants to, or even re-graft branches He removed already.

A good gardener will cut off branches that do not bear fruit for the overall health of the tree, the “severity” (which is the Greek word apotomian meaning “to cut off”) Paul refers to in God rejecting the Jews as useless branches that were not bearing fruit, although he does remind us about God’s covenant with them and explains part of the mystery of them being cut off was for the benefit of the Gentiles being grafted in. But now that we are grafted into a cultivated tree, one that bears fruit because it is cared for and tended to, it means we continually have to deny our old sin nature, the part of us that wants to grow wild and free against the nature of God, and submit to the bending of our will, the constant pruning and shaping of the master gardener. This requires us to continually change the way we think, or live a lifestyle of repentance, so we will remain fruitful and not be cut off. And what inspires and compels us to repent is remaining in His kindness, His great loving kindness  towards us.