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"God is able to graft them in again."

Text: Romans 11:23

THE GREAT POWER OF GOD

Did the Gentile believers think that God would never relate to the Jews ever again, since they were “broken off”? Paul urged the Gentile believers to think again!

“And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief,
will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”

Romans 11:23

Unbelief cost the Jews dearly! Their rank unbelief in the message of the Gospel of Christ caused them to be “broken off”! However, this was not the end of the story! If the Jews were to shed their unbelief, they could be grafted back in. Nothing was outside the great power of God.

THE IMAGERY OF GRAFTING PURSUED FURTHER

Paul had been using the imagery of grafting to illustrate a great truth. He pursued the imagery of grafting further!

“For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature,
and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted
into their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in
your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel
until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

Romans 11:24-25

1. The natural branches… (can) be grafted in their own olive tree.

a) This was not the opinion of most Gentile believers.

b) Gentile believers felt that God was now focusing His attention on them and not the Jews. This was an erroneous conclusion.

2. The concept of “the fullness of the Gentiles”.

a) This was not a doctrine that too many were familiar with.

b) Nevertheless this was a word that was revealed.

c) This was a revelation (“mystery”) that Paul had received from the Lord.

i) The focus on the Gentiles is only temporary.

ii) There will come a time when “the fullness of the Gentiles” has been reached. God will then turn His attention back to Israel!