Good morning, Bereans. We are continuing our study of Romans 11. I have said in our study of chapter 11 that this is a Dispensational stronghold. Dispensationalists see this chapter as supporting their view. Bob Deffinbaugh writes: "Throughout verses 16-24, there is clearly implied a hope for the national restoration of Israel." I wish I understood what he was talking about. I don't see anything in this passage that hints at a national restoration of Israel.
We saw in our last study that the unbelief of Israel was ordained to promote the salvation of the Gentiles, which in turn would promote Jewish jealousy, leading to their salvation. So, Israel's sin was to lead to her salvation just like the sin of Joseph's brothers led to their salvation from the famine. We ended last time with verse 15.
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Romans 11:15 ESV
If the rejection of Israel has been able to occasion the reconciliation of the Gentiles, what will their acceptance do? The acceptance of Israel, all Israel, which would be the remnant of Israel and the remnant of Judah, happens at the resurrection. It marks the end of the Old Covenant and the consummation of the New Covenant.
If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. Romans 11:16 ESV
Paul is drawing illustrations from Scripture. If we were familiar with Numbers chapter 15, we would know precisely what he is talking about when he says, "If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump." He refers to instructions that God gave Israel.
"Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations. Numbers 15:18-21 ESV
Paul uses the practice in Numbers 15,that calls for offering the first of one's dough up to the Lord as representative of the whole to express his confidence that the Lord is not finished with the Jews.
What Paul implies is that if God set apart the Patriarchs as the first piece of the dough or as the root, He is not finished showing mercy to their descendants. The point of this verse is that the whole is sanctified by the part.
The idea of the eschatological ingathering of Israel at the resurrection in verse 15 is born out in the reference to the "firstfruit," in verse 16. Paul uses this same term in 1 Corinthians 15 with distinct reference to the resurrection:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:20 ESV
Paul already talked about firstfruits in chapter 8.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:23 ESV
"Firstfruits"—in 11:16 is the same Greek word as "firstfruits" in 8:23. All of these verses speak of resurrection. Resurrection into the presence of Yahweh was the hope of Israel and that is what Paul is dealing with here.
On Romans 11:16, John Piper writes: "We argued that this is Paul's way of talking about the salvation of Israel in the future. When it says, 'If the root is holy, so are the branches,' it means, If the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the root) are chosen and set apart for God in a special covenant relationship, so are the branches—that is, all of Israel at some future time."
By "some future time" he means some time in our future. Does that mean that Israel will go back to the old covenant with its temple, priesthood, sacrifices? If not all of the root was chosen, it was Isaac, not Ishmael. In other words, it was through Jacob and not Esau. Why does Piper think all the branches will be?
John Piper writes: "God has a future for corporate Israel. Someday the whole lump will be holy, and someday the tree will include an entire generation of Jewish branches."
The big problem here is that this goes against everything we have seen thus far in 9-11. Paul said, "They are not all Israel that are from Israel, they are not all children because they are Abraham's descendants, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants."
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, Romans 9:27 ESV
Please hang on to what Paul says here, "it is the remnant that will be saved." Not every Israelite will be saved, but all of the remnant will be! The Greek here is kataleimma which according to Strong's means "a remainder, that is, (by implication) a few."
Verse 16 serves as a transition between verses 11-15 and 17-24. In verse 16, he talked about the root and branches, and now he uses that analogy.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Romans 11:17-18 ESV
Olive Tree Analogy: The olive tree is used as a symbol of Israel.I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Hosea 14:5-6 ESVWe'll look at what Jeremiah says about the olive tree a little later. For now, let's look at a little Olive Tree Ology. The olive tree has all through history been one of the most characteristic, most valued, and most useful of trees in Israel. Olive trees are famous for their longevity and fruitfulness. They can last for centuries. It is prized for its fruit and wood. The olive tree is an evergreen tree that usually is about 16 feet high. The young tree has a smooth silver-grey bark. As it gets older, the trunk gets stout and knobby. It has numerous branches that form a dense, shady tree. The tree has a very large root system that can get enough water even in dry conditions. Many olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean are said to be hundreds of years old, while an age of 2,000 years is claimed for a number of individual trees.
The olive is an important article of diet in Israel. Some are gathered green and pickled in brine, after slight bruising. Others, the "black" olives, are gathered quite ripe and are either packed in salt or in brine. In both cases, the salt modifies the bitter taste. They are eaten with bread. More important commercially is the oil. This is sometimes extracted in a primitive way by crushing a few berries by hand in the hollow of a stone.
In Bible times, and even today, it was very common to graft olive trees. A branch from a good olive tree was taken and grafted onto a wild olive tree. When the grafting process on an olive tree is started, the olive tree is cut down to almost nothing. There is basically only root stock left. The wild olive tree did not produce very good fruit. But the good cultivated olive tree did produce very good fruit. Wild olive trees would grow up and take up space with its root system. To keep from having to cut down a tree and plant a new seedling, a branch from the good tree would be grafted onto the wild tree. This good branch would then produce fruit while getting nourishment from the wild tree root system. Several branches would be grafted onto a wild tree.
If you take a nectarine branch and graft it into a peach tree, what does the branch grow from then on—peaches or nectarines? It still grows nectarines. The fruit is determined by the branch, not by the tree. The peach tree will grow nectarines on a nectarine branch, and plums on a plum branch, and so on.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, Romans 11:17 ESV"The nourishing root of the olive tree"— Who or what is the "root"? The root of the olive tree is most widely understood by biblical scholars to represent the patriarchs (primarily Abraham) and the covenant promises and blessings made by God to Israel, though other views connect it directly to Yeshua.
N.T. Wright states: "The Messiah (most probably) is the 'root' through whom the tree now gets its life." I have a problem with this because if Messiah is the root, then Gentile believers are disassociated from Israel and their Hebrew roots.
I would say that the root is Abraham and the promises Yahweh made to him. Notice what Isaiah says.
"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. Isaiah 51:1-2 ESVThe rock figuratively represents Abraham and Sarah as the solid foundation stones of the Israelite nation. It all goes back to Abraham. Notice what Paul says later in Romans.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." Romans 15:8-9 ESVWhy bring up those "fathers" from the past? For one simple reason: God gave them Gospel promises and linked the promises to them.
Tom Holland writes: "Paul saw its root to represent the promises made to Abraham and its branches to represent his spiritual offspring—believing Jews and Gentiles who are justified and made holy by the same faith as their 'father.'"
So, the root of the olive tree is Abraham and the promises Yahweh made to him.
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3 ESVDo you see any "ifs" in God's word to Abraham? This is not an agreement; it is a promise. Let's look at the Old Covenant.
"And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high upon all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 ESV"If you obey…then you will be blessed."
"But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Deuteronomy 28:15 ESV"If you do not obey…you will be cursed."
You will read in vain in Genesis 12-15 to find anywhere where God says "If you will do…then I will do…" In other words, there were no conditions. To understand that this was a one-sided covenant, turn to Genesis 15:
And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:5-6 ESVThe question here is, does the phrase, "So shall your offspring be," refer only to the quantitative (i.e., you'll be as numerous as the stars) or does it refer qualitatively (i.e., you will be like stars)? I think it is both. This is theosis, "the deification of man." We are to be like the divine host, part of Yahweh's celestial family. Notice what Daniel says.
And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3 ESVWho are those who shine brightly like the stars? This is astral language to speak of believers. The ancients viewed the stars as deities.
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:7 ESVHere "stars" and "sons of God" are synonymous. Daniel is saying that believers in the resurrection will be like the sons of God; we will be like stars. This is what Yahweh promised Abram in Genesis 15.
A number of early Jewish interpreters of Genesis 15:5 understood the patriarchal promise of being multiplied as the stars of heaven, not merely quantitatively, but also qualitatively. Abram's seed would become star-like, assuming the life of the gods or angels.
The common belief of the Second Temple Period was that in the resurrection, we would be like the gods. And they believed that the gods had bodies. There is actually a considerable amount of literature in terms of ancient texts where writers talk about what the gods are made of, because they appear in bodily form. Yahweh goes on to say.
"I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, Genesis 15:7-18 ESV"The Lord made a covenant with Abram." Genesis 15:18 is literally: "Yahweh cut a covenant." Here we see that God cut a covenant with Abram. He cut it in a way that was familiar to the people of the ancient Near East, but very unfamiliar to us. They would take a heifer and a ram and a goat, they would split the animal in half and lay the halves opposite one another on an incline, so that the blood would flow down and puddle in the bottom of a little valley. Then the stronger of the two that were entering into the covenant would go first and would walk through the blood. The blood would splash up on his ankles and legs, and it was symbolic: "If I fail in any way to keep the covenant, this is what you may do to me." That was the symbolism.
After that one would walk through the blood, the weaker of the two would then walk through the blood with the same symbolism: "If I fail to keep the covenant, this is what you may do to me."
As Abram is either asleep or perhaps still groggy from the deep sleep he had been under, he sees Yahweh do an amazing thing—pass through the animal parts all by Himself, while Abram watches on the sidelines.
Yahweh is represented by the smoking oven and the burning torch. Fire and smoke frequently signify the holy presence of God throughout scripture. So, Yahweh passed through the animal parts by Himself as Abram watched. Yahweh showed this was a unilateral covenant. Abram never "signed" the covenant because Yahweh "signed" it for both of them. Therefore, the certainty of the covenant Yahweh makes with Abram is based on who Yahweh is, not on who Abram is or what Abram does. This covenant cannot fail because Yahweh cannot fail. Abram cannot break a covenant he has never signed!
So, I see the "root" as Abraham and the unilateral covenant that Yahweh made with him.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, Romans 11:17 ESV"The nourishing root of the olive tree"—Who or what is the "olive tree"? Some commentators say that the olive tree is the equivalent of ethnic Israel. But we see that many of ethnic Israel have been broken off because of unbelief, and believing Gentiles have been grafted into the olive tree. So, I think it is better to see the olive tree as the people of Yahweh, made up of both Jews and Gentiles.
So, the root is the covenant promises made to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). And the tree represents the true believers in every age who embrace those covenant promises.
"But if some of the branches were broken off"—Paul had Jeremiah's description in mind by which he warned the houses of Israel and Judah.
The LORD once called you 'a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.' But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal." Jeremiah 11:16-17 ESVNotice in our text that the Jews are not cut off entirely—a remnant is being saved. "Some of the branches were broken off"—"some" here is an understatement since the majority of Jews had failed to believe. Those of ethnic Israel who did not believe that Yeshua was the Messiah were broken off. And that remnant is receiving the promises of Abraham. The Gentiles are grafted in among them.
"And you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others"—people say Paul didn't understand the way that grafting takes place because it's only possible to graft a cultivated scion onto a wild stock, not wild scion onto a cultivated stock.
Instead of grafting a good branch onto a bad tree, God took a bad branch and grafted it onto a good tree. God has done that which is highly unnatural. This was opposite of the way the first-century people grafted olive trees. God had a good tree with a good root system.
Following Paul's analogy here, if Gentiles, a wild olive branch, were grafted into a rich cultivated olive tree, the fruit that would continue to grow would be the wild olives, bitter and shriveled and that which we already were producing. But God does a miracle with us. He changes us so that the fruit that comes forth is the fruit of the Spirit, and we begin to produce the rich, wonderful, fat fruit of the good olive tree in our lives.
Notice that the Gentiles did not graft themselves into the tree—that is, into the family of God. Just as the Lord chose Isaac instead of Ishmael and Jacob instead of Esau (9:7-13), He chose you to graft you "contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree" (11:24). The apostle has not left the very humbling doctrine of election, of Sovereign Election.
There is a belief in the Hebrew Roots/Messianic movements that when one believes on Yeshua, he becomes grafted into the "tree of Israel," actually becoming Israel, obligating those believers to observe Israel's Mosaic Covenant Law. This is false. The Law is fulfilled in Christ. We keep all of the Law's requirements in Yeshua.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4 ESV"And now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree"—Gentile believers now "share" with the Jews in the rich root. The word "share" here is from the Greek word sugkoinonos, which means "sharers or fellow shippers together with them in the rich root of the olive tree." With them" is a reference to believing Jews. We become partakers of the rich root of the olive tree.
This is not "replacement theology" because we did not replace Israel. We became partakers with the remnant of the Abrahamic Covenant. God did not replace the Hebrew tree with a Gentile tree. He grafted us into the Hebrew tree. This is properly referred to as fulfillment theology because the Church is the fulfillment of all the promises Yahweh made to Israel. The root now supports two types of branches—cultivated and wild—and together they are "one" tree.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Yeshua. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:28-29 ESVS.L. Johnson, who is a Dispensationalist, writes: "It is clear, from Paul's language that he conceives of the Gentiles as participating in Israel's blessings."
The Greek word here for "nourishing" is piotes. Cranfield, Murry, and Schreiner see it as appositional here; designating the electing grace of God. Yahweh had chosen them to share in the elective promises that were given to the "root."
Therefore, Gentiles "became partakers with them of the nourishing root of the olive tree." Then in verse 18 Paul says:
do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Romans 11:18 ESV"The root supports you"—the grafted shoot is sharing the same rising sap as the remaining original branches. The Gentiles are totally dependent on the covenant which God entered into with Abraham and the promises made to him. Faith in Christ is the link with the promises made to Abraham. Faith unites us to the nourishing root of the olive tree—the promises of God.
The Jewish root supports you, not the other way around. Being a Christian means becoming a true Jew. Being a Christian means finding your ancestry in Abraham and his offspring.
Christian theologians view Pentecost as the birth of the Church. There is not much argument here. So, think this through with me. The first sermon to be preached in the infant church was delivered by Peter, a Jew, to a large crowd of Israelites in the Jewish temple in the city of Jerusalem on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost. The sermon was about a Jewish Messiah. In this sermon, twelve out of the twenty-three verses are direct quotations from the Jewish Scriptures. Peter's message is rooted in the prophecy of the Tanakh—prophecies given to Israel. Peter speaks of God's coming judgment on Israel and calls on the "men of Israel" to repent.
What does this tell us about the Church? Its roots are Hebrew. In the Bible, the olive tree is a picture of God's people. Israel is God's olive tree. Isaiah says this:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. Isaiah 11:1-2 ESVThis is a Messianic prophecy. Yeshua is the shoot out of Jesse's stump. So, this predicts that the Messiah would come out of the lineage of David.
Believers, you and I, have been grafted into God's olive tree. God didn't get upset with Israel and go out and plant a new tree as Dispensationalism teaches. He grafted us into Israel, through Yeshua who is Israel. We cannot exist without our Jewish roots. You cannot exist independently of Yeshua, nor can you exist independently of your Jewish roots. Because Yeshua is not a tree—He is a shoot out of a tree, and the tree is Israel. Believers, our roots are Jewish. If we are to understand Christianity, we must understand our Hebrew roots. To do so, we must learn the first three-fourths of the Bible. The Church is the True Israel of God. We inherit all the promises God made to True Israel. Gentiles are dependent on the promises made by Yahweh to the Jews.
do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Romans 11:18 ESVThis is the main point of this section. it is a warning to Gentiles about the dangers of pride. "Do not be arrogant"—arrogance is that feeling of vaunted self-worth, verbalized or non-verbalized boasting, looking with spite at others, thinking oneself better than others. At the heart of arrogance is self-dependence (the root supports you) and self-approval instead of living in the grace of God revealed in the Gospel.
This type of arrogance had already gained a foothold in the Roman Empire. Jews were mostly tolerated, but they were looked down upon for their lower status in the Empire. They had been expelled from the Empire and were just now coming back. They were a defeated, subjugated people living under the heel of Roman authority.
At the heart of his concern is that the Gentile believers were beginning to look at their Jewish brothers and sisters with disdain because many rejected and crucified the Messiah.
Paul had warned the Jews against arrogance back in 3:27-30. Now he gives the Gentiles the same warning.
Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." Romans 11:19 ESVHe expects them to say something like: "God has put almost all of the Jews out of the covenant community and we have replaced them. We were chosen and grafted into the tree in their place. We are the privileged people, and they, the removed branches, have been abandoned."
That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. Romans 11:20 ESVThis is what Paul said in Romans 9.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, Romans 9:32 ESVWhy were the branches broken off? For their unbelief. They did not believe that Yeshua was the Messiah. Why was it that the branches on the tree were there? Faith. You stand by your faith. The thing that separates the saved from the damned is belief of the truth. Their response should not be conceit, but fear. Fear here is phobeo (Don't be conceited but be in awe of what Yahweh has done for you).
For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Romans 11:21 ESVThroughout 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 (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. But that idea would go against what Paul has been saying since chapter 5.
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. Romans 11:22 ESVWe like to focus on Yahweh's attributes that we like, such as love and kindness, but Yahweh is also a God of wrath and severity. We must see the whole picture. Those who fall experience the severity of Yahweh; those who believe receive His kindness.
"Otherwise you too will be cut off—are believers being threatened with the loss of salvation? Where are believers? We are in Christ. We are as righteous as Christ. We share all that Christ is and has, so how could we ever be lost?
John Piper writes: "The Bible threatens Christians in general that if they make shipwreck of their faith they will be lost. The reason this is not inconsistent is that these threats are one of the means God uses to keep His people faithful to the end." What did he just say? So, the threat is not really valid. This is very confusing.
What we must understand here is that when Paul speaks about being cut off after having been grafted in, he is not talking about the individuals primarily. He's talking about national relationships, and so he's talking about the cutting off of Gentile salvation and not necessarily about an individual who has believed in Christ. This warning is not addressed to individuals regarding the loss of their salvation, but to Christian communities whose behavior may cause them to come under discipline with the subsequent removal of their witness. Notice what Yeshua says to the church at Ephesus:
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Revelation 2:5 ESVYeshua warned the churches, not individual believers, that He would come and "remove the lampstand" (a sign of His presence and blessing) if they did not repent. Every single one of those seven churches of Revelation ceased to exist. Once the Muslims conquered Turkey, Christianity virtually disappeared.
Along the same lines, we can think of the church in North Africa that produced Origen, Augustine, and Tertullian—some of the greatest thinkers in the early church. But it, too, lost its vitality and was eventually overtaken by Islam. Today North Africa remains solidly in the Islamic fold. From being a birthplace of great theologians, North Africa has become one of the hardest areas for Christian witness.
The church in Rome to which Paul was writing thrived despite decades of persecution by the Roman Empire. But under Constantine, Christianity became accepted, the Holy Roman Empire was born, and the church, no longer persecuted, became protected and favored. But as is often the case, once the persecution ended, so did the spiritual vitality of the Christian witness. This culminated centuries later in the corruption of many church leaders who sold salvation through the system of indulgences which provoked Martin Luther to post his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.
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. Romans 11:23 ESVThe "they" here is the unbelieving Jews. If they turn from their unbelief and trust in Yeshua, Yahweh is able to graft them in again. This is the answer to the question that was asked in verse 11, "Did they stumble 'that' they should fall?" Have they stumbled that they should fall and that be all? May it never be! Jews can still be saved if they trust in Yeshua.
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. Romans 11:24 ESVIf God did the difficult thing, namely, grafting wild branches (believing Gentiles) into the root (Abrahamic covenant), which is totally unnatural, 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 (unbelieving Jews who will come to faith in Christ), which is natural, to their promises (as members of Yahweh's people).
This is not speaking of a national restoration of physical Israel. They are being grafted into the same tree as the Gentiles were. It is talking about ethnic Jews coming to believe that Yeshua is Yahweh, the God of Israel, and thus becoming part of the Church of Yeshua Ha'Moshiach.
Believers, we see again in this text that it is faith, and faith alone, that brings us into Yahweh's family. It is not about our works, it is not about our sacrifices or anything we do; it is about trusting in what He did for us that saves us.