Romans 11:17

But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee.

These two verses are only an extension of the homely metaphor of the preceding verse and are in no sense to be considered as some mysterious parable of the olive tree.

Some of the branches were broken off ... is a reference to pruning, the implied thrust of such an illustration being "and men gather them into bundles and burn them." This is a metaphor of old fleshly Israel. And what of the branches not "broken off"? They are the true Israel, the spiritual seed, who accepted Christ, and formed the first community of believers in Christ (Acts 2:5-10,22).

Thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them ... is impossible of misunderstanding, because the only thing in five thousand years of recorded history into which Gentiles could have been "grafted in among" Jews is the church of Christ, established on the day of Pentecost. The grafting did not take place that day, for it was some time before the early church got around to accepting the full import of the worldwide nature of the gospel.

Grafted in ... means converted to Christ.

Wild olive ... is a reference to the inferiority of Gentiles, generally, in comparison with the more cultured and perceptive Jew, who had had the advantages of centuries of exposure to God's true commandments.

Among them ... never could mean "instead of them," as asserted by some. The Gentiles were not accepted into God's church in place of anybody, nor did their coming in displace or exclude anybody. There is plenty of room for all; and "whosoever will may come." Regarding the alleged translation which some pretend, making this read, "instead of them," Lard said that

The original is incapable without great violence, of bearing such a rendition.[23]

The great error foisted off upon this verse is that the church built by Christ was but a continuation of the old Jewish "church" which, of course, had infants in it; and, by such a device, it is quite easy to premise an infant membership in God's church now; but the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a continuation of anything, but an altogether new thing. Note:

Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold they are become new (1 Corinthians 5:1).

That he might create in himself of the two one new man (Ephesians 2:15).

For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Galatians 6:15).

Christ is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:24).

Christians are not connected in any way with the old Jewish lump, but are a "new lump" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Here have been cited but a few of many passages which teach the total severance of Christianity from Judaism. Paul himself cut the umbilical cord that bound the infant church to the body of its parent Judaism.

Glory not over the branches ... Exactly here surfaces what was probably an underlying motive of the first magnitude leading to the production of this epistle with its almost extravagant emphasis of salvation's being "by grace," as contrasted with all human merit. This was Paul's warning of the Gentile Christians not to fall into the same foolish and fatal error that had destroyed the old Israel. Of that Israel, their pride of possessing God's law, and their superior knowledge, had led them into all kinds of boasting against the Gentiles; and, at the time Paul wrote (58 A.D.), the character of God's church was leaning more and more toward a preponderantly Gentile composition; and, alas, this presented an opportunity for the Gentiles to develop the same boastful and inconsiderate attitude as that which once marked the feelings of the Jews toward them. Alas, Paul's warning was not heeded. During the subsequent centuries, especially in the Dark Ages, the hatred of Christians for Jews, and their vigorous and relentless persecution of the once chosen people, extending even down into our own times, constitutes some of the blackest chapters of church history. The un-Christian conduct of the Christians toward the Jews surpassed anything the Jews ever did to them. "Glory not over the branches" burns like a branding iron in the conscience of the historical church.

The root thee ... Salvation had come to the Gentiles through the Jews, Jesus himself having pointedly declared that "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). Our Lord was Jewish, as were the apostles and practically all the original Christians. Judaism was the matrix in which had been formed the priceless jewel of Christianity, and no full understanding of Christianity is possible without knowledge of its Jewish origins.

That the pagan-bred, low cultured Gentile, reeking with the stink of Bacchus and Aphrodite upon him, through his conceit at having been accepted as a child of God, should already have begun to manifest an attitude of superiority and disdain for the Jews, is a consideration demanded by Paul's introduction of these warnings here. What a pity they were not heeded, except, possibly, for a little while. The Gentile should have recognized that his blessings were of the grace of God and not of any merit on his part, but the general failure of people of all ages to comprehend this, and the specific failure of the Gentiles to grasp it, a failure exactly like that of the Jews, were doubtless the underlying reason why Paul diligently strove in Romans to prove the absolute unworthiness of all people, and to establish the golden premise that salvation is of grace through an obedient faith, as positively distinguished from all human merit. Paul's awareness of the encroaching attitude of superiority in Gentile Christians must have produced emotions similar to those of a mother, whose entire family were ruined through alcoholic debauchery, beholding the start of the alcoholic habit in her only remaining son. In just a moment Paul would formally pronounce a doom upon Israel that should not be lifted for two millenniums. What must have been his thoughts as he contemplated the same godless self-righteousness which had destroyed fleshly Israel rearing its viperous head in the church of the living God?

Alas, the Gentile Christian, proud and boastful of his hope of heaven, fell into the trap of supposing that he deserved it, whereas the truth was that he deserved it even less than the Jew whom he came to despise, disdainfully ignoring the truth that neither he nor the Jew could ever be saved except upon the basis of God's unmerited love and favor. The Gentile's wickedness in this regard produced the Medieval Church with its apparatus of inquisition and its engines of torture.