Tuesday: The Natural Branch
Read Romans 11:11-15. What great hope does Paul present in this passage?
In this passage, we find two parallel expressions: (1) “their [the Israelites’] fulness” (Rom. 11:12) and (2) “the receiving of them [the Israelites]” (Rom. 11:15). Paul envisioned the diminishing and the casting away to be only temporary and to be followed by fullness and reception.
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This is Paul’s second answer to the question raised at the beginning of this chapter, “Hath God cast away his people?” What appears to be a casting away, he says, is only a temporary situation.
Read Romans 11:16-24. What is Paul saying to us here?
Paul likens the faithful remnant in Israel to a noble olive tree, some of whose branches have been broken off (the unbelieving ones) – an illustration he uses to prove that “God hath not cast away his people” (Rom. 11:2). The root and trunk are still there.
Into this tree the believing Gentiles have been grafted. But they are drawing their sap and vitality from the root and trunk, which represent believing Israel.
What happened to those who rejected Jesus could happen also to the believing Gentiles. The Bible teaches no doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” Just as salvation is freely offered, it freely can be rejected. Although we have to be careful of thinking that every time we fall we are out of salvation, or that we aren’t saved unless we are perfect, we need to avoid the opposite ditch as well – the idea that once God’s grace covers us, there is nothing we can do, no choices we can make, that will take the provision of salvation away from us. In the end, only those who “continue in his goodness” (Rom. 11:22) will be saved.
No believer should boast of his or her own goodness or feel any superiority over his or her fellow human beings. Our salvation was not earned; it was a gift. Before the Cross, before the standard of God’s holiness, we all are equal: sinners in need of divine grace, sinners in need of a holiness that can be ours only through grace. We have nothing of ourselves to boast about; our boasting should be only in Jesus and what He has done for us by coming into this world in human flesh, suffering our woes, dying for our sins, offering us a model for how we are to live, and promising us the power to live that life. In it all, we are completely dependent upon Him, for without Him we would have no hope beyond what this world itself offers.
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Jesus has made our salvation complete except for our choice to receive what He has done for us and promises to do for us if we give Him our will. With Him in charge of our will we can be like Him in character. Our incidental choices will be righteous and sinless if He is given charge of our will, and we are pardoned for past sin if we accept it (not future sin, unless we receive it then).
We must be ever vigilant and prayerful lest we fall back into our own selfish motivation. Old habit patterns of thinking and feeling can be very deceitful and seem right to us, so we need to be constantly prayerful and trusting in God to give us the right motivation of His Love in every situation.
1 Corinthians 10:12 (msg)
Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
I am who I am by the grace of God.
As believers, we easily forget that, it was by God's grace that we are were we are today and therefore we need not boast or look down on those on the other side. We are required constantly to pray for those who have not seen the light that God through us will reveal Himself to them.
If today by God's grace we have been grafted and now are sons and daughters of God, they also by God's grace will be grafted to become His children.
Our trust really has to be based on Jesus! We are nothing! We should only boast about knowing Him... Nothing else! May God bless you all this day! And may we worship together one day, all in One, watching the Lamb coming from the clouds! That's the perfect end for a Sabbath School class...
John 15:5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing...
It's very important to remember that GOD is the ROOT and human being can become part of the branches, not a title(Jews) Some think that people are actually being grafted into Judaism and that is a false truth..But we are grafted into GOD and GOD gift of GRACE
If it is true that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, what advice can anyone give with regard to how we can avoid being understood to mean that we are saved by our choices?
An illustration: A swimmer in trouble in the pounding surf on one of our beaches cannot save himself, but when help arrives in the form of a surf lifesaver on a surf-ski can make the decision to put his life in the hands of the life-saver. Does he save himself? Can he save himself? We are not saved by our choices, but it is our choice whether we allow ourselves to be saved.
For by the grace of God here I go. "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38-39 KJV
The way I look at it, Christ Jesus gives us all the confidence in the world, in a humble fashion. Back in our study of Galations we remember that Paul had just finished rather heavy instruction to the people with an emphasis on Peter. After the sermon He got down and mingled with them all, treating them all as friends, with humility.