Recently, I came across the daily Bible reading provided by Biblegateway.com. I used it for my daily Bible reading in 2022 (at least, until I faltered somewhere during the middle of the year), and even though I’ve been favoring the YouVersion Bible app for my daily Bible meditation this year, I still receive daily emails from the former. On this day Romans 11-13 showed up in my reading schedule, but it was Romans 11 and Paul talking about the believers in the church in Rome as branches, and specifically that branches that don’t abide in Christ and are unfruitful will be broken off, and in the Israelites’ case, they were. This is on the heels of other convictions that God has been doing in my life.
On January 1st of this year, I attended a small
gathering with some friends to ring in the New Year with praise/worship, Scripture
meditation, and prayer. One of the key passages for reflection was what Jesus
shared with His disciples on the Vine and the Branches in John 15 (one that I’ve
been familiar with for years), one that came to mind again upon reflecting on
Romans 11:
15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
I shared much of my reflections on the above in this post, and these thoughts came again when I read Paul’s statement to the church in Rome on the same topic:
11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 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?
25 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. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
A few things:
- Verses 19 through 22 from the 11th chapter really stood out to me: You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. What stood out very strongly is I should never get so high on myself if I benefit because of someone else’s disobedience. It’s not because of how “good” I am (or think myself to be) that I received someone else’s blessings. “Do not be haughty, but fear.” The point is, if I fall like those disobedient ones did, I will suffer the same fate as well – being broken off like an unproductive branch. In the end, it’s about God choosing whom He will bless. Who will be faithful to Him? Who will obey? Who will surrender and make a lifestyle and lifelong habit of God being in total charge of their lives and not them themselves?
- In Paul’s letters, like the rest of the Bible, every section and every point builds on the previous. I am quite familiar with the exhortation in Romans 12:1-2: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The point is, in light of the reality that Paul shared that God will break off unproductive branches, all the more he exhorts that we not only obey God but present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. For this same reason – disobedience means being cast out and thrown into the fire – we are to not let ourselves be conformed to this world. In this, part of what obedience looks like is letting God transform us by renewing our minds, through His word.
- What also stood out, in light of all this, is indeed His great mercy. In Romans 11:28-32 it is written: Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. In this case, the “they” referred here by Paul are the Israelites. Nonetheless, God is merciful. Those who were disobedient but have since repented, receive His mercy. Even that last sentence, the idea that God would commit a people to disobedience, sounds shocking, but even more so is His purpose – mercy. I can’t really unpack much more as this passage (aside from Romans 12:1-2) is new to me, so I will now stop and let the text speak for itself.
If I’m honest with you all, this year has been a difficult one
spiritually. On January 1st I believe God gave me a theme for the
year, and it could be summed up in one phrase: “to Your Spirit I yield.” Well,
I haven’t really done that. Maybe here and there in spurts, but largely I’ve
rebelled.
One positive is that the Lord interrupted me on Sunday,
March 12th and sternly reminded me that I had forgotten Him for well
over a year at that time and asked me directly what was keeping me from
repenting. Our conversation continued, and I did begin to repent. That week was
the week I signed up on YouVersion to have daily devotional times with Him. Gradually
things got better, and He even revealed to me some deep questions I was
carrying at the time. But then things slipped as circumstances around me once
again became challenging. The rest of 2023 has since been an increasingly
bumpier road, and I exit this year on as bumpy ground as I ever have had.
I don’t really have an ending to this post. 2024 awaits with
new adventures. At this point, I just hope that by the end of next year I’m
right with God again, and preferably well before that point.
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