And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.
The broken branches of Israel are not cut off beyond hope, for if they do not continue in unbelief but turn and receive Christ they shall be grafted into their own olive tree again, because God is able to graft them in again. The olive tree is Israel whose root is the faithful remnant, and the true stock into which all are grafted is Christ Jesus Himself. Israel as a nation was broken off through unbelief and rejection of Christ, refusing Him despite His miracles and offers of mercy and separating herself from the True Vine. She was broken off so that believing Gentiles might be grafted into the good olive tree as a new Israel, yet Gentile believers must not despise or boast against the Jews but fear and continue in God's goodness lest they also be cut off. Those grafted in are nourished by the parent stock and bear its fruit in transformed character and life, and Gentile believers bear responsibility to labor with special interest and wisdom for the salvation of the Jews, with hope that many will accept Christ and be engrafted again.
Olive-Tree Imagery
The noble olive tree is Israel, and its root and stock is the faithful remnant who remained true to God and to the God of their fathers after the nation as a whole lost connection with Him through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her. The Jewish branches separated in that unbelief can be reunited with that true stock of Israel and grafted into their own olive tree again if they cease to reject God's purpose and do not remain in unbelief, for God is able to restore them.
The stock into which they are grafted again is Christ Jesus, the true stock. He is also the true vine stock, the foundation and chief cornerstone, and in one application that vine stock is the church of Christ centered in Him, which includes many branches and not ministers only. Many of the seed of Israel may yet be grafted into Him and to Him when they accept Him and do not remain in unbelief, through repentance and receiving Christ as Saviour, through repentance and belief in the gospel and through conversion, with Christ having power to engraft the penitent and invigorate the penitent life with the life of the Eternal One. That grafting comes through direct labor in behalf of the Jewish people and through sharing the truth with them, including work by men of different nationalities for their fellow countrymen, to be given all possible encouragement and help rather than bound about by many forbiddings, with continued interest in both the broken branches and the branches already grafted in and with special efforts in the last days to gather the cut-away branches out of the world and engraft them once more, bringing hope of success in patient labor. Those who accept Christ in this way are cut off from their own people and need a place of refuge and a home where they are cared for, sheltered, taught to work for their own people and helped by offerings, and there is a great work to be done to this end. Those so grafted have peace with God and a sanctified conscience, and Jews and Gentiles dwell together in peace and love and unity because of oneness with Christ, bearing fruit in good works as belief in Christ transforms character, temper, love, disposition, words and works and makes them partakers of the divine nature.
Grafting pictures being joined again to what one was separated from, as when ideas are grafted into one's own stock. The Jewish nation as a fruitless branch was separated from Christ, while the Gentiles were grafted in to share the life that comes from Him and from the vine. A sinner who repents and is united with Christ by faith likewise becomes a living branch sharing His life and strength, receiving spiritual life and a changed nature that enables fruit-bearing. Those grafted into the olive tree are nourished by its parent stock and are to bear fruit like that stock and exactly like the stock, for the branch bears the same fruit as the stock and thereby shares its character. This requires holding the truth in righteousness and revealing in words and actions at all times what the truth is doing for them by partaking of that nourishment, through the Spirit of Christ, so that the watching world will see their good works and glorify the Father, including those who have never had light and have not received the mark of the beast. People who have not yet received the light remain under God's grace while He works with them, and He does not withdraw it until they are convicted of the truth and reject or trample the evidence given to enlighten them.
Though the rejected vine is removed from human reach, its branches remain accessible so that grafts can still be joined to it, and Israelites who leave unbelief can be grafted back into God's people because God has power to restore them.
Israel's Breaking Off
Israel as a nation lost her connection with God and was broken off like branches from a noble olive tree through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her. That breaking off came through disobedience and unbelief, and through impenitence and failure to fulfill what God appointed for her. The root and stock that remained is the faithful remnant who stayed true to the God of their fathers, and the Jewish branches separated through unbelief can be reunited with that true stock if they cease to reject God's purpose. Gentile believers are therefore not to despise the Jews nor boast over them, but to fear and continue in God's goodness, since they too could be broken off.
The cutting off came because the Jews as a nation refused to receive Christ and refused His offers of mercy, so that the Gentiles might be grafted in. Though He worked miracles among them, they did not discern the divinity of His mission, and ascribed His power to cast out devils to the chief of devils. By this unbelief they disconnected themselves from the True Vine and were cut off altogether. The same cutting away is described as impenitence when Christ was revealed in human likeness.
As a fruitless branch the Jewish nation was separated from Christ, while the Gentiles were grafted in to share the life and strength that comes from Him. That separation was a separation from God, with the natural branches of the olive tree cut off and the nation facing the consequences of refusing Christ. Being joined to Christ by faith brings spiritual life and a changed nature that enables a person to bear fruit.
God cuts off unbelieving, rebellious branches from His people and raises up and grafts others in their stead to bear fruit to His glory. Those who are in the faith and become stubborn and rebellious will be purged out, while those who had not heard the Adventist doctrine and rejected it will embrace the truth and take their places. Restoration remains possible because God is able to graft back those cut off for unbelief if they no longer persist in it, yet continued unbelief brings loss. God's people now rising never to fall again must therefore take heed lest they be cut off, and must rise together unitedly, keep close to Jesus, and fast and pray to get victory over the powers of darkness. They are to daily rise and keep the ascendancy above the powers of darkness by living faith that presses petitions to the throne believing the things asked for are received, by glorifying God with singing and shouting for victory, and by bearing fruit and working to His glory, because doubt and unbelief wound Jesus and give the enemy victory.
Restoration If Unbelief Ceases
The broken branches are not beyond hope, for their unbelief is not final. Israel as a nation lost connection with God through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her, becoming like branches broken off from a noble olive tree whose root and stock is the faithful remnant who remained true. If they do not remain still in unbelief but turn, repent, and receive Christ as Saviour, they shall be grafted into their own olive tree again. The stock into which they are grafted is Christ Jesus, the true stock, the true vine stock who is the foundation and chief cornerstone of the church centered in Him, which includes many branches and not ministers only. That return gives hope of success in patient labor for the Jewish people, for many of the seed of Israel will come to the light and be grafted into Christ when they accept Him.
Restoration is possible because God is able to graft them in again. There is power in the gospel message to restore those who leave unbelief, and Christ has power to engraft the penitent who repents and receives Him as Saviour and to invigorate that life with the life of the Eternal One. The Gentiles' reception of the gospel and being grafted into Israel's good olive tree does not prevent Israelites from being grafted back. Jewish people remain able to accept the truth, and many will be converted and proclaim God's unchanging law, for among the Jews the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness. Therefore the light of present truth is to be brought to the Jews everywhere that they may have opportunity to accept it.
Those who have not yet received the light remain under God's grace while He works with them. He does not withdraw it until they are convicted of the truth and reject the evidence given to enlighten them, even trampling that evidence. The Jews still have the privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God. Jews who were cut away from the true vine for impenitence when Christ was revealed in human likeness are again given the privilege of being engrafted into the vine stock, which is the church of Christ, and the same privilege is extended to the Gentiles as well.
That engrafting comes through repentance and belief in the gospel and through conversion. Belief in Christ works in them a transformation of character. Those so grafted are nourished by the parent stock and bear fruit to the glory of God exactly like that stock, bearing fruit in good works. They have peace with God and a sanctified conscience, and Jews and Gentiles dwell together in peace and love and unity because of their oneness with Christ. They are transformed by His Spirit and become partakers of the divine nature in disposition, in words, and in works, with kindness of temper and renewal of love to God through Jesus Christ, revealing at all times in words and actions what the truth is doing for them by the Spirit of Christ, so that the watching world will see their good works and glorify the Father in heaven.
Jews And Gentiles Together
The Jewish nation was broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in, and Gentile believers receiving the gospel gladly became a new Israel grafted into the old olive tree. Whole Gentile communities received the light with intelligent faith and glorified God for it, as the time came for active and continued work among the Gentiles after Christ on earth had already sought to lead the Jews out of exclusiveness by direct work outside the acknowledged people of Israel, as with the centurion and the Syrophenician woman. The Jews still have the privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God, for there is power in the gospel message to graft them in again with transformation of character when they do not remain in unbelief but receive Christ as Saviour. The reception and grafting of the Gentiles into Israel's good olive tree does not prevent Israelites from being grafted back, and Gentiles who accept Christ are made one with the original branches.
Jewish unbelief and malice did not turn aside God's purpose to gather a people into His church. That purpose was shown when Paul and Barnabas turned from Jews who rejected the word to Gentiles who rejoiced that Christ recognized them as children of God. Closed synagogues were then replaced by open private houses and Gentile public buildings for preaching the word of God.
Gentile believers must not despise the Jews nor boast over or against them, but fear and continue in God's goodness, remembering they too could be broken off. The light of present truth is to be brought to the Jews everywhere that they may have opportunity to accept it. Among them the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law of God with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness, with many coming to the light.
The verse belongs to the mystery of the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, a deep mystery and doctrine requiring deep thought, which few comprehend or try to ascertain. Its full meaning is not yet grasped by finite minds, but understanding grows as God's progressive Word is opened to the understanding, and as fully inspired Scripture it must be received as God's Word, not misinterpreted, misapplied, or weakened as lightly inspired. The teaching culminates in praise of the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His unsearchable judgments, and leads into the call to present the body a living sacrifice, be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and prove the will of God, showing every member of the church his religious duty to increase in faith and righteousness and grow up in Christ according to the measure of faith given him. Believers thus grafted into the olive tree become the Israel of God, so the Sabbath given as a sign between God and Israel throughout their generations forever still binds them and must be observed by them as the memorial of His six-day creation and seventh-day rest.
Mission To The Jews
Gentile believers carry a responsibility to remain interested in the salvation of the Jewish race, for they are children of the heavenly birth, and that interest must continue toward both the broken branches and the branches already grafted in. Because the Jewish nation was broken off that Gentiles might be grafted in, yet Jews who do not remain in unbelief but repent and receive Christ as Saviour can be grafted in again into Christ as the true vine stock, the foundation and chief cornerstone, with power in the gospel message and in Christ to engraft the penitent and invigorate the life with the life of the Eternal One, special interest and special efforts are to be made to proclaim the gospel to them. The church centered in Him includes many branches, not ministers only.
The work for the Jews to bring them to the light must not be ignored but must be carried out with special wisdom and righteousness. God's people need the wisdom of God to do it, and in all wisdom and righteousness they must clear the King's highway, bringing the light of present truth to the Jews everywhere that they may have every opportunity to come to it and accept it.
There is hope of success in patient labor for the Jewish people, for Jewish unbelief is not final and leaving unbelief opens the way for restoration, since God is able to graft them in again into their own olive tree and into the true stock which is Christ Jesus. Many of the seed of Israel will come to the light and be grafted into Christ when they accept Him and do not remain in unbelief, remaining able to accept the truth with many to be converted. Among them the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law of God with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness.
This grafting comes through direct labor in behalf of the Jewish people, and the work of sharing the truth with them can help many of the seed of Israel be grafted in. God brings this about through men of their own nationality together with fellow laborers and through men of different nationalities working for their fellow countrymen. That labor is to be given all possible encouragement and help rather than bound about with many forbiddings. It is to go forward with courage without waiting for some great and wonderful opening but by seizing opportunities as they come, with guardedness against overtaxing strength and against enemies incensed because truth is carried to the Jews, and faithful use of opportunities vindicates the power of truth while giving God's own people a needed example.
Jews who accept Christ are cut off from their own people and need a place of refuge and a home where they are cared for, sheltered, and taught to work for their own people. There is a great, patient work to be done to this end, to be helped with offerings to provide such a refuge home where they can find shelter and learn how to work for their own people. Special efforts are required in the last days to gather the cut-away branches out of the world and engraft them once more.
Grafted Life And Fruit
Like a dry and apparently lifeless branch grafted into a living tree, those naturally at enmity with Christ can enter personal union with Him by self-renunciation, faith, obedience, repentance, and receiving Christ as Saviour, choosing Him because He first chose them. If a man so repents and receives Christ, there is power in Christ as the true vine stock to engraft the penitent and invigorate his life with the life of the Eternal One. This joining makes the sinner a living branch, bearing the fruit Christ bore.
God is able to take a person from a wild olive tree and graft him into a good olive tree, giving grace to do what is right and making him a chosen vessel. That change comes through a course of obedience — refusing to repeat a wicked father's sin, refusing to descend to sin and degradation, learning from the errors of others, determining to climb upward, walking in the right way without turning to the right hand or to the left, and pressing on in the upward path — even when born of a wicked father, surrounded by temptation and wickedness, and lacking godly counselors and Christian parental influence. God's personal, individual Israel becomes grafted into the tame olive tree by being brought out step by step from the world upon the platform of Bible truth under His continued leadership, and kept by His continual watchcare and providence over all their ways. So kept, they bear fruit of the genuine tree, which is Christ Jesus, becoming like Him by looking unto Jesus with intelligent faith in God's good and perfect government.
Unbelief cuts branches off and faith keeps them grafted in. Those now rising never to fall again must take heed lest they be cut off and others raised up in their stead, and must daily rise and keep the ascendancy above the powers of darkness by living faith that presses petitions to the throne believing the things asked for are received, by glorifying God with singing and shouting for victory, by staying close to Jesus and fasting and praying, and by bearing fruit and working to the glory of God, because doubt and unbelief wound Jesus and give the enemy victory. Connection with the truth must itself be joined to living faith, for accepting and speaking the truth while still governed by the unrenewed nature bears fruit unto death, whereas faith working through love purifies the soul and changes the character.
To be grafted into the living vine means to put away all that is harsh and coarse and rough in character and to express God's goodness, mercy, compassion, tenderness, and lovingkindness in words, deportment, and character. This is especially required of those sent with the word of life to save the perishing, and the grafted branch must bear the same quality of fruit the vine bears, for only then is it a true representation of the preciousness of the vine. Those thus united become living branches of the True Vine in utter dependence, with Christ as sole ruler of the heart, crucifying self, will, affections, and lusts and warring against temptation without and within. They bear the fruit Christ bore, and union with Christ naturally leads to union with one another, with life drawn directly from the parent vine by daily hourly communion and not borrowed from another branch.
The union once formed is preserved only by continual earnest painstaking effort, watchfulness, prayer, and resolute resistance to sin, with untiring energy, courage, faith, and persevering toil on the part of the helpless sinner. At the same time Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard the bond, and without that two-sided holding fast Satan separates the branch from Christ. A branch grafted into its parent stock bears the same fruit as the stock, sharing its character and fruit. Yet the Word as seed grafted onto a wild olive tree can bear only wild olives, and a wild branch grafted in bears wild grapes.
Wild-olive fruit is bitter and unpalatable, and bearing it brings bitterness upon the bearer himself. A selfish, exacting, overbearing, and unsympathetic course as husband and father — refusing household responsibility, demanding privileges, and bringing suffering on wife and family — is such wild-olive fruit and proves the life is not abiding. In this application wild fruit is errors and human theories taking the place of truth, producing centuries of darkness and ignorance.
All as individuals are to be grafted into one parent stock. A life consecrated to God's service is thereby developed and beautified in its individuality, with no person sinking his individuality in another's. Grafting brings unity in diversity, with complete unity as mind blends with mind yet no two of the same mold, because God does not give all minds the same likeness, just as He has not made two leaves of the same tree precisely alike and gives distinct formation to flowers and fruits. Ministers and believers and all who claim to believe the truth are branches grafted into the same parent stock as one tree, including many branches and not ministers only. They must therefore not stand apart as independent branches or independent groups working away from given light, but work together, gather up the light given on health reform for the last days, place themselves on its right side, advance with it, and give it to others to prepare the way for the Lord to work.
The broken branches of Israel are not cut off beyond hope, for if they do not continue in unbelief but turn and receive Christ they shall be grafted into their own olive tree again, because God is able to graft them in again. The olive tree is Israel whose root is the faithful remnant, and the true stock into which all are grafted is Christ Jesus Himself. Israel as a nation was broken off through unbelief and rejection of Christ, refusing Him despite His miracles and offers of mercy and separating herself from the True Vine. She was broken off so that believing Gentiles might be grafted into the good olive tree as a new Israel, yet Gentile believers must not despise or boast against the Jews but fear and continue in God's goodness lest they also be cut off. Those grafted in are nourished by the parent stock and bear its fruit in transformed character and life, and Gentile believers bear responsibility to labor with special interest and wisdom for the salvation of the Jews, with hope that many will accept Christ and be engrafted again.
Olive-Tree Imagery
The noble olive tree is Israel, and its root and stock is the faithful remnant who remained true to God and to the God of their fathers after the nation as a whole lost connection with Him through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her. The Jewish branches separated in that unbelief can be reunited with that true stock of Israel and grafted into their own olive tree again if they cease to reject God's purpose and do not remain in unbelief, for God is able to restore them.
The stock into which they are grafted again is Christ Jesus, the true stock. He is also the true vine stock, the foundation and chief cornerstone, and in one application that vine stock is the church of Christ centered in Him, which includes many branches and not ministers only. Many of the seed of Israel may yet be grafted into Him and to Him when they accept Him and do not remain in unbelief, through repentance and receiving Christ as Saviour, through repentance and belief in the gospel and through conversion, with Christ having power to engraft the penitent and invigorate the penitent life with the life of the Eternal One. That grafting comes through direct labor in behalf of the Jewish people and through sharing the truth with them, including work by men of different nationalities for their fellow countrymen, to be given all possible encouragement and help rather than bound about by many forbiddings, with continued interest in both the broken branches and the branches already grafted in and with special efforts in the last days to gather the cut-away branches out of the world and engraft them once more, bringing hope of success in patient labor. Those who accept Christ in this way are cut off from their own people and need a place of refuge and a home where they are cared for, sheltered, taught to work for their own people and helped by offerings, and there is a great work to be done to this end. Those so grafted have peace with God and a sanctified conscience, and Jews and Gentiles dwell together in peace and love and unity because of oneness with Christ, bearing fruit in good works as belief in Christ transforms character, temper, love, disposition, words and works and makes them partakers of the divine nature.
Grafting pictures being joined again to what one was separated from, as when ideas are grafted into one's own stock. The Jewish nation as a fruitless branch was separated from Christ, while the Gentiles were grafted in to share the life that comes from Him and from the vine. A sinner who repents and is united with Christ by faith likewise becomes a living branch sharing His life and strength, receiving spiritual life and a changed nature that enables fruit-bearing. Those grafted into the olive tree are nourished by its parent stock and are to bear fruit like that stock and exactly like the stock, for the branch bears the same fruit as the stock and thereby shares its character. This requires holding the truth in righteousness and revealing in words and actions at all times what the truth is doing for them by partaking of that nourishment, through the Spirit of Christ, so that the watching world will see their good works and glorify the Father, including those who have never had light and have not received the mark of the beast. People who have not yet received the light remain under God's grace while He works with them, and He does not withdraw it until they are convicted of the truth and reject or trample the evidence given to enlighten them.
Though the rejected vine is removed from human reach, its branches remain accessible so that grafts can still be joined to it, and Israelites who leave unbelief can be grafted back into God's people because God has power to restore them.
Israel's Breaking Off
Israel as a nation lost her connection with God and was broken off like branches from a noble olive tree through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her. That breaking off came through disobedience and unbelief, and through impenitence and failure to fulfill what God appointed for her. The root and stock that remained is the faithful remnant who stayed true to the God of their fathers, and the Jewish branches separated through unbelief can be reunited with that true stock if they cease to reject God's purpose. Gentile believers are therefore not to despise the Jews nor boast over them, but to fear and continue in God's goodness, since they too could be broken off.
The cutting off came because the Jews as a nation refused to receive Christ and refused His offers of mercy, so that the Gentiles might be grafted in. Though He worked miracles among them, they did not discern the divinity of His mission, and ascribed His power to cast out devils to the chief of devils. By this unbelief they disconnected themselves from the True Vine and were cut off altogether. The same cutting away is described as impenitence when Christ was revealed in human likeness.
As a fruitless branch the Jewish nation was separated from Christ, while the Gentiles were grafted in to share the life and strength that comes from Him. That separation was a separation from God, with the natural branches of the olive tree cut off and the nation facing the consequences of refusing Christ. Being joined to Christ by faith brings spiritual life and a changed nature that enables a person to bear fruit.
God cuts off unbelieving, rebellious branches from His people and raises up and grafts others in their stead to bear fruit to His glory. Those who are in the faith and become stubborn and rebellious will be purged out, while those who had not heard the Adventist doctrine and rejected it will embrace the truth and take their places. Restoration remains possible because God is able to graft back those cut off for unbelief if they no longer persist in it, yet continued unbelief brings loss. God's people now rising never to fall again must therefore take heed lest they be cut off, and must rise together unitedly, keep close to Jesus, and fast and pray to get victory over the powers of darkness. They are to daily rise and keep the ascendancy above the powers of darkness by living faith that presses petitions to the throne believing the things asked for are received, by glorifying God with singing and shouting for victory, and by bearing fruit and working to His glory, because doubt and unbelief wound Jesus and give the enemy victory.
Restoration If Unbelief Ceases
The broken branches are not beyond hope, for their unbelief is not final. Israel as a nation lost connection with God through unbelief and rejection of Heaven's purpose for her, becoming like branches broken off from a noble olive tree whose root and stock is the faithful remnant who remained true. If they do not remain still in unbelief but turn, repent, and receive Christ as Saviour, they shall be grafted into their own olive tree again. The stock into which they are grafted is Christ Jesus, the true stock, the true vine stock who is the foundation and chief cornerstone of the church centered in Him, which includes many branches and not ministers only. That return gives hope of success in patient labor for the Jewish people, for many of the seed of Israel will come to the light and be grafted into Christ when they accept Him.
Restoration is possible because God is able to graft them in again. There is power in the gospel message to restore those who leave unbelief, and Christ has power to engraft the penitent who repents and receives Him as Saviour and to invigorate that life with the life of the Eternal One. The Gentiles' reception of the gospel and being grafted into Israel's good olive tree does not prevent Israelites from being grafted back. Jewish people remain able to accept the truth, and many will be converted and proclaim God's unchanging law, for among the Jews the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness. Therefore the light of present truth is to be brought to the Jews everywhere that they may have opportunity to accept it.
Those who have not yet received the light remain under God's grace while He works with them. He does not withdraw it until they are convicted of the truth and reject the evidence given to enlighten them, even trampling that evidence. The Jews still have the privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God. Jews who were cut away from the true vine for impenitence when Christ was revealed in human likeness are again given the privilege of being engrafted into the vine stock, which is the church of Christ, and the same privilege is extended to the Gentiles as well.
That engrafting comes through repentance and belief in the gospel and through conversion. Belief in Christ works in them a transformation of character. Those so grafted are nourished by the parent stock and bear fruit to the glory of God exactly like that stock, bearing fruit in good works. They have peace with God and a sanctified conscience, and Jews and Gentiles dwell together in peace and love and unity because of their oneness with Christ. They are transformed by His Spirit and become partakers of the divine nature in disposition, in words, and in works, with kindness of temper and renewal of love to God through Jesus Christ, revealing at all times in words and actions what the truth is doing for them by the Spirit of Christ, so that the watching world will see their good works and glorify the Father in heaven.
Jews And Gentiles Together
The Jewish nation was broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in, and Gentile believers receiving the gospel gladly became a new Israel grafted into the old olive tree. Whole Gentile communities received the light with intelligent faith and glorified God for it, as the time came for active and continued work among the Gentiles after Christ on earth had already sought to lead the Jews out of exclusiveness by direct work outside the acknowledged people of Israel, as with the centurion and the Syrophenician woman. The Jews still have the privilege to become partakers with the Gentiles of the salvation of God, for there is power in the gospel message to graft them in again with transformation of character when they do not remain in unbelief but receive Christ as Saviour. The reception and grafting of the Gentiles into Israel's good olive tree does not prevent Israelites from being grafted back, and Gentiles who accept Christ are made one with the original branches.
Jewish unbelief and malice did not turn aside God's purpose to gather a people into His church. That purpose was shown when Paul and Barnabas turned from Jews who rejected the word to Gentiles who rejoiced that Christ recognized them as children of God. Closed synagogues were then replaced by open private houses and Gentile public buildings for preaching the word of God.
Gentile believers must not despise the Jews nor boast over or against them, but fear and continue in God's goodness, remembering they too could be broken off. The light of present truth is to be brought to the Jews everywhere that they may have opportunity to accept it. Among them the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law of God with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness, with many coming to the light.
The verse belongs to the mystery of the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, a deep mystery and doctrine requiring deep thought, which few comprehend or try to ascertain. Its full meaning is not yet grasped by finite minds, but understanding grows as God's progressive Word is opened to the understanding, and as fully inspired Scripture it must be received as God's Word, not misinterpreted, misapplied, or weakened as lightly inspired. The teaching culminates in praise of the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His unsearchable judgments, and leads into the call to present the body a living sacrifice, be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and prove the will of God, showing every member of the church his religious duty to increase in faith and righteousness and grow up in Christ according to the measure of faith given him. Believers thus grafted into the olive tree become the Israel of God, so the Sabbath given as a sign between God and Israel throughout their generations forever still binds them and must be observed by them as the memorial of His six-day creation and seventh-day rest.
Mission To The Jews
Gentile believers carry a responsibility to remain interested in the salvation of the Jewish race, for they are children of the heavenly birth, and that interest must continue toward both the broken branches and the branches already grafted in. Because the Jewish nation was broken off that Gentiles might be grafted in, yet Jews who do not remain in unbelief but repent and receive Christ as Saviour can be grafted in again into Christ as the true vine stock, the foundation and chief cornerstone, with power in the gospel message and in Christ to engraft the penitent and invigorate the life with the life of the Eternal One, special interest and special efforts are to be made to proclaim the gospel to them. The church centered in Him includes many branches, not ministers only.
The work for the Jews to bring them to the light must not be ignored but must be carried out with special wisdom and righteousness. God's people need the wisdom of God to do it, and in all wisdom and righteousness they must clear the King's highway, bringing the light of present truth to the Jews everywhere that they may have every opportunity to come to it and accept it.
There is hope of success in patient labor for the Jewish people, for Jewish unbelief is not final and leaving unbelief opens the way for restoration, since God is able to graft them in again into their own olive tree and into the true stock which is Christ Jesus. Many of the seed of Israel will come to the light and be grafted into Christ when they accept Him and do not remain in unbelief, remaining able to accept the truth with many to be converted. Among them the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth and the immutability of the law of God with wonderful power, and the Lord will do wonderful things in righteousness.
This grafting comes through direct labor in behalf of the Jewish people, and the work of sharing the truth with them can help many of the seed of Israel be grafted in. God brings this about through men of their own nationality together with fellow laborers and through men of different nationalities working for their fellow countrymen. That labor is to be given all possible encouragement and help rather than bound about with many forbiddings. It is to go forward with courage without waiting for some great and wonderful opening but by seizing opportunities as they come, with guardedness against overtaxing strength and against enemies incensed because truth is carried to the Jews, and faithful use of opportunities vindicates the power of truth while giving God's own people a needed example.
Jews who accept Christ are cut off from their own people and need a place of refuge and a home where they are cared for, sheltered, and taught to work for their own people. There is a great, patient work to be done to this end, to be helped with offerings to provide such a refuge home where they can find shelter and learn how to work for their own people. Special efforts are required in the last days to gather the cut-away branches out of the world and engraft them once more.
Grafted Life And Fruit
Like a dry and apparently lifeless branch grafted into a living tree, those naturally at enmity with Christ can enter personal union with Him by self-renunciation, faith, obedience, repentance, and receiving Christ as Saviour, choosing Him because He first chose them. If a man so repents and receives Christ, there is power in Christ as the true vine stock to engraft the penitent and invigorate his life with the life of the Eternal One. This joining makes the sinner a living branch, bearing the fruit Christ bore.
God is able to take a person from a wild olive tree and graft him into a good olive tree, giving grace to do what is right and making him a chosen vessel. That change comes through a course of obedience — refusing to repeat a wicked father's sin, refusing to descend to sin and degradation, learning from the errors of others, determining to climb upward, walking in the right way without turning to the right hand or to the left, and pressing on in the upward path — even when born of a wicked father, surrounded by temptation and wickedness, and lacking godly counselors and Christian parental influence. God's personal, individual Israel becomes grafted into the tame olive tree by being brought out step by step from the world upon the platform of Bible truth under His continued leadership, and kept by His continual watchcare and providence over all their ways. So kept, they bear fruit of the genuine tree, which is Christ Jesus, becoming like Him by looking unto Jesus with intelligent faith in God's good and perfect government.
Unbelief cuts branches off and faith keeps them grafted in. Those now rising never to fall again must take heed lest they be cut off and others raised up in their stead, and must daily rise and keep the ascendancy above the powers of darkness by living faith that presses petitions to the throne believing the things asked for are received, by glorifying God with singing and shouting for victory, by staying close to Jesus and fasting and praying, and by bearing fruit and working to the glory of God, because doubt and unbelief wound Jesus and give the enemy victory. Connection with the truth must itself be joined to living faith, for accepting and speaking the truth while still governed by the unrenewed nature bears fruit unto death, whereas faith working through love purifies the soul and changes the character.
To be grafted into the living vine means to put away all that is harsh and coarse and rough in character and to express God's goodness, mercy, compassion, tenderness, and lovingkindness in words, deportment, and character. This is especially required of those sent with the word of life to save the perishing, and the grafted branch must bear the same quality of fruit the vine bears, for only then is it a true representation of the preciousness of the vine. Those thus united become living branches of the True Vine in utter dependence, with Christ as sole ruler of the heart, crucifying self, will, affections, and lusts and warring against temptation without and within. They bear the fruit Christ bore, and union with Christ naturally leads to union with one another, with life drawn directly from the parent vine by daily hourly communion and not borrowed from another branch.
The union once formed is preserved only by continual earnest painstaking effort, watchfulness, prayer, and resolute resistance to sin, with untiring energy, courage, faith, and persevering toil on the part of the helpless sinner. At the same time Christ exercises His power to preserve and guard the bond, and without that two-sided holding fast Satan separates the branch from Christ. A branch grafted into its parent stock bears the same fruit as the stock, sharing its character and fruit. Yet the Word as seed grafted onto a wild olive tree can bear only wild olives, and a wild branch grafted in bears wild grapes.
Wild-olive fruit is bitter and unpalatable, and bearing it brings bitterness upon the bearer himself. A selfish, exacting, overbearing, and unsympathetic course as husband and father — refusing household responsibility, demanding privileges, and bringing suffering on wife and family — is such wild-olive fruit and proves the life is not abiding. In this application wild fruit is errors and human theories taking the place of truth, producing centuries of darkness and ignorance.
All as individuals are to be grafted into one parent stock. A life consecrated to God's service is thereby developed and beautified in its individuality, with no person sinking his individuality in another's. Grafting brings unity in diversity, with complete unity as mind blends with mind yet no two of the same mold, because God does not give all minds the same likeness, just as He has not made two leaves of the same tree precisely alike and gives distinct formation to flowers and fruits. Ministers and believers and all who claim to believe the truth are branches grafted into the same parent stock as one tree, including many branches and not ministers only. They must therefore not stand apart as independent branches or independent groups working away from given light, but work together, gather up the light given on health reform for the last days, place themselves on its right side, advance with it, and give it to others to prepare the way for the Lord to work.