Romans 11:24

For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

Wild olive tree ... is an apt metaphor of the Gentiles who had continued for uncounted generations in pagan debauchery, without the knowledge of God in any degree comparable to that of the Jew. Gentile culture lacked the noble instincts which enhanced that of the Jew; and Gentile nature has proved to be difficult and slow of transformation, as attested by the experience of missionaries all over the earth until this day. If the Jew accepts Christ, he much more readily assimilates the great spiritual truths of the gospel, such being the meaning of "how much more."

Contrary to nature ... emphasizes the looseness of Paul's metaphor. People do not graft a wild olive into a good one, but vice versa. But the unbelievable had happened; Gentiles had been grafted into the spiritual Israel, exclusively identified since Pentecost as the church of Christ.

Grafted into ... is the Pauline metaphor for "conversion."

Their own olive tree ... is used accommodatively. In no actual reality can it be said that the institution of the body of Jesus Christ is "theirs," in the sense of belonging to fleshly Israel; and Paul could not have had anything of that kind in mind. Paul himself reiterated tbe truth of the newness of Christianity (see under Romans 11:18), and was himself mightily used of God in the severance from the Jewish institution. Paul, in this verse, was still dealing with the problem of emerging self-righteousness among the Gentiles and their hauteur toward the Jews; and these words of Paul here are a reminder to Gentiles that all of the origins of Christianity are Jewish. In the sense that the church herself is the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, it may be spoken of as descending from Judaism, or more properly, as ascending out of it. The commingled Israels of the Old Testament were the matrix in which God formed the new institution, the entire Judaic heritage having been the enveloping sheath from which came the full corn in the ear. There was a striking weight of typical and prophetic excellence in Judaism looking forward to Christianity; and, in the sense of the essential kinship between type and antitype, the "olive tree" could be called "theirs." And the burden of the apostle's thought here is Jewish excellence, as compared with Gentiles, which he stressed in order to diminish and restrain the rising vainglory of Gentile Christians. For generations, the Jews had lived under God's law, heard his prophets, believed in the coming of the Messiah, and lived in daily hope of his appearance; but no such advantages had pertained to Gentiles. Therefore, IF the Jew should decide to become a Christian, he would certainly be a better one than the average Gentile. Thus, Gentile pride is throttled by Paul's emphasis upon the natural superiority of the Jew, due to long privilege under God's covenant.

How much more ... is Paul's way of saying, "You Gentiles are nothing to brag about, as Christians; IF the Jews were grafted in again, they would show you!" The tragedy of ages is that so few have done it. It is not correct to read this verse apart from the "if" which determines both this and the preceding one.