THE CHRISTIAN FAITH – ONE WORD AT A TIME!GRAFTED — Romans 11:13-15, 17-24, 28-32

13I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my min-istry 14in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kind-ness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

28As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

The Bible is fond of using picture language to communicate with its readers. The image of Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd beautifully expresses his relationship to us. The idea of heaven as an eternal wedding reception conveys the pure joy and freedom from care we will experience in his presence. And the depic-tion of Satan as a roaring lion lets us know just how dangerous and ferocious he is.

Certainly the use of earthly pictures helps us to better understand spiritual truths. We have such an image in our sermon text for this morning. Here we see the picture of a tree, an olive tree. We’re all know what a tree looks like! There is usually a sturdy trunk supporting the various branches, leaves, and fruit of the tree. The trunk, in turn, is supported by an unseen root system below ground.

The spiritual truth we learn from the picture is this: The tree is the holy Christian church, the collection of all believers, the gathering of souls who have a place in heaven. The church has its roots in the unde-served love of God, especially as revealed in his Word and Sacraments. It is this love of God that nour-ishes and enlarges the church.

The oldest branches, the ones from which the newer branches grow, are the Jews. It was the Jews who were originally set apart to be God’s people. To them the Lord revealed his plan of salvation in the Tem-ple worship ceremonies. To them he promised a Savior that would be born as one of their race. To them came the first command to be a beacon of God’s love to a sin-darkened mankind.

Through the centuries – nearly 1500 years – the Lord lovingly tended to the tree, shaping it, strengthening it, restoring it when blighted. But a change was now taking place. Despite his best efforts, the Jews no longer wanted to be branches in his tree. Despite sending his Son, as promised, they refused to accept him as their Lord and Savior. They rejected their place among his people.

In keeping with the picture of the olive tree, Paul tells us that these branches were then broken off! After insisting they wanted no part of God’s kingdom, the Lord finally cut them out and threw them on the burn pile. They wouldn’t admit it, but this was the very worst that could happen to them. Their rejection left them dead in their trespasses and sins.

But it turned out to be the very best for the rest of the world, people known as Gentiles! If the Jews would have no part of God, then God would turn his attention to everybody else. In fact, the Apostle Paul’s special calling was to bring salvation to non-Jews. It was from them that the Lord would grow the tree of believers. Branch by branch, he would graft Gentiles into his church!

We were like wild olive shoots. For so long, we had grown without any connection to God or life in heaven. We Gentiles had little of the Lord’s loving care or nourishment. But now we would be brought into the church and connected to all the blessings once experienced by the Jews. This, then, is our one word summary of the Christian faith this morning: We are GRAFTED, grafted into the church by the Lord’s doing!

That’s a most important thing for us to remember as people grafted into the church of Jesus Christ. We are spliced into the tree of salvation by the Lord’s doing. Just as an earthly gardener is responsible for the shape and number of branches on his trees, so our Lord, alone, is responsible for our presence among his people. We had nothing to do with it.

The danger of denying that was something which concerned Paul as he wrote to the congregation of Christians in Rome. That church was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. Upon hearing that Jewish branches had been broken off and Gentile branches had been grafted in, Paul worried that a misguided pride might fill the Gentiles! After all, they could reason that there must be something special about them if God broke off others to give them their place!

To anyone feeling this way comes the warning Do not boast over those branches. As logical as it may seem, there was nothing better about the Gentiles grafted into the places once held by Jews. We have no reason to brag. In fact, such a feeling is dangerous. It overlooks 2 important facts that dare not be forgot-ten!

First of all, You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You and I are relative new-comers into the church. Others have come before us and they have provided a foundation upon which we base the church and build our faith! We may look at the Jews with deeply-felt pit today, but we must acknowl-edge that we owe a great deal to them!

We are by nature people just like all other people. We think that the things we do must save us, or at least contribute to our salvation. The Jews and the Temple prove that is not the case. They made all the sacri-fices required by God each and every day for centuries. Millions of animals were sacrificed to atone for man’s sin. But it was not enough! No one earns their own salvation – we learn that from the Jews!

We are people who are saved by God’s grace. Ask yourself: What was so special about the Jews that God chose them above all other people? Were they better in any way? No! Were they especially loyal to him? No! So, why pick the Jews? Now ask the same question of yourself! Why did God choose me? The answer is the same. We are both chosen by an unexplainable love of God – we learn that from the Jews!

We are people who need constant assurance that Jesus really is God’s plan for our salvation. In the ac-count of the Jews we hear prophecy after prophecy detailing when and how the Savior will be born. His-tory shows that all of those promises have been kept. They may have rejected that comfort for foolish and selfish reasons. But we learn from the Jews that the Promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ!

Clearly the Jews should be seen as our roots. They support our faith. We are blessed by their past pres-ence in the church. We dare not say that we are any better than they are in any way. The second thing we dare not overlook is that our place in God’s household is not a birthright, something that belongs to us no matter what. We must not make that mistake. The Jews did … and it cost them dearly.

If anybody could ever have made such a claim, it would have been the Jews. The Lord made a solemn covenant with Abraham and his descendants that they would be his people. As Paul tells us in verse 28 they are loved on account of the patriarchs. But the covenant was based on faith and nothing else. An-cestry and heritage had nothing to do with it.

When the Jews lost their faith and rejected the covenant, they cancelled off their relationship with God. As a result they were broken off because of unbelief. God’s love for them is sincere. But even God cannot be the Savior of people who don’t want him. Unbelief terminates all deals. Failure to believe puts an end to the Lord’s covenant.

We who are the grafted branches must remember this: Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. We cannot afford the attitude that be-cause we are lifelong Christians, or belong to an orthodox church, or live essentially good lives, that the Lord owes us eternal life no matter what.

No, if we slip into unbelief we, like the Jews, will lose our place in the holy Christian church. We must consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. We must con-tinue to live in him. We’ve got to do what we can to build and strengthen our faith. We must live lives of love!

As people mercifully grafted into the tree of life, we dare not abuse that mercy – we must respond to it! If we don’t, we will be broken off! We should thank God for grafting us in and live in wonder of a love that led him to do so! That’s what being GRAFTED calls for!

That leaves us with one issue – an issue we may not want to confront, but an issue that Paul will not let us escape. That is What are we to make of the Jews? Truly as far as the gospel is concerned, they are en-emies on your account. Their belief about God and salvation today is just as wrong, just as opposed to the gospel as it was in Paul’s day. They have no claim to salvation. They are damned in their unbelief.

Does that give us license to revile and abandon them? That thought should never enter our minds. God still loves them, as he does every member of mankind. Although they are spiritually dead in their sins, they can still have eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus. Although they are broken branches, the Mas-ter Gardener can easily graft them back into the tree of life when they come to faith.

They too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. We cannot think that all is right with them because we share so much or owe them a great deal. We must pray for their conversion. We need to witness to the truth of God love to them in Christ Jesus with the confidence and expectation that the Holy Spirit can and will work saving faith in the hearts of some. That’s what being GRAFTED calls for and that is what you are! Amen.