A major challenge to proper and effective Biblical hermeneutics, the correct interpretation, of Scripture deals with the various aspects of time and culture that distinguish the setting of the passage from the reader. New Testament letters were written in the first century in various locations of the “Fertile Crescent,” the Mediterranean region. Thus we are reading letters that originated approximately two thousand years ago. Do you think the ordinary citizen of that era lived as you and I live today? The Roman empire governed the area, and Greek philosophy continued to control education and intellectual thought. Do you think technology, language, and all of the other factors in some way impacted the way people thought and wrote?

     Our challenge in studying the Bible is not to ignore these differences and pretend that the text of the Bible was written last week with only you and me in mind. We must investigate both the text of Scripture and the culture and language of the time so as to understand the passage we study in its original setting so far as possible. Once we begin to understand what the original writer meant and how his message would have likely been understood, interpreted, and applied by his original readers we are only then ready to begin a wise and correct application of the passage to our own world and lives.

     So what did Paul have in mind when he compared the growth and fruitfulness of the gospel to an olive tree? And what was his purpose in his discussion of branches being cut off and other branches being grafted into the tree? And why would he defy common agricultural practice of his day and develop his analogy around tame branches being cut out of the tree while wild branches were grafted into the tree? We need not study long in this chapter to understand that human pride was a major factor in his lesson. Not only did he describe the cutting off of the tame branches as a past tense event, caused by their prideful unbelief, but he equally warns contemporary Gentile believers—and us—of the danger we face if we allow our pride to control our minds and attitudes as we attempt to walk the walk of faith. These questions open the passage up to extensive practical applications to our twenty-first century world. It is possible that sinful pride may well be more rampant in our time than at any time in the history of Christianity. If so, there was never a time when this lesson was more needful for sincere believers than in our own time and culture.

Be not highminded but fear…

warns us no less than it warned the Romans when they first read Paul’s words to them. Take the time as you read this chapter to visit Philippians 2:1-11. Notice especially the depth of Paul’s expectation—and exhortation—that we look to the Lord Jesus Christ as our example. When during His Incarnation do we find Him even once demanding preferential treatment? We rather find Him filling the role of servant than of Master. He even made the point, “…I am among you as one that serveth….”

     Think ahead. Imagine the day of your own funeral. No, you will not “be there” in terms of your conscious presence, but the people who do attend that event will spend some time reflecting on you and on your impact on their lives. Will they reflect on a person who served and honored them above self? Will they think of one who consistently placed others and their needs above his/her own? Will they honor one who, in their minds, actually regarding their ideas as better than his/her own? We need to begin today to live the memories that we would like for people to think on the day of our funeral! Let the transformation begin!

God bless,
Joe Holder

Olive Branches: Practical Implications

"Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. (Romans 11:19-21) "

     Practical implications of Paul’s olive tree analogy appear prominently in these verses. Paul deals with errant attitudes relative to both man’s conduct and God’s. First let’s deal with the errant view of God’s role in the cutting off of the Jews from gospel blessings.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

This attitude reveals a certain fatalistic determinism in it. It implies that God had a mysterious purpose that prompted Him arbitrarily to cut off the Jews simply to justify the inclusion of Gentiles. Advocates of extreme predestination, the view of predestination that imputes to God the various implications of human sin, typically dismiss such passages as referring to a divine decree that originates in the alleged “secret will of God.” I always wonder; if the divine will that caused these events is “secret,” how do advocates of this view know about it?

     In the case of our present lesson advocates of a similar errant view of an excessive and errant view of predestination focus their belief on a mistaken notion that God arbitrarily chose to cut off Jews simply so that He could justify extending gospel blessings to Gentiles. Is God so weak that He cannot bless Jews and Gentiles alike as they embrace Christ and the truth of the gospel? Clearly Paul and other New Testament apostles held to no such finite view of God. They preached and labored among churches that were made up of both Jews and Gentiles!

     The practical implications of this attitude reveal an inexcusable arrogance in the minds of those who proposed such a preposterous view. Paul spent much of the earlier portions of Romans rebuking Jewish arrogance. Now he turns equal rejection against Gentile arrogance.

     Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. According to Paul, it was not a secret divine decree but the personal unbelief of rejected Jews that caused their removal from the blessings of God. “…because of unbelief…” specifically identifies the condition on which God rejected the Jews in question.

     Earlier Paul affirmed a common basis for grace in the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin…. (Romans 3:9)

     Now in terms of gospel blessings Paul affirms the same truth. God no longer shows preference toward anyone based on their race or culture. Our temporal blessings—as well as our temporal judgments—from God grow out of the walk of faith, not out of an arbitrary and secret divine decree. If we accept the term “decree” as referring to a principle by which God governs His moral universe, the specific decree related to this passage is a conditional decree. God “decreed” that those of His regenerate children who believe the gospel and embrace His Son in faith shall receive the blessings of which Paul writes. He equally “decreed” that those of His regenerate children who do not believe the gospel when they hear it shall experience the rejection, the “cutting off” from the olive tree, of which Paul writes in this chapter.

Be not highminded but fear:

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Why did God refuse to spare the “natural branches”? On what basis does Paul affirm that the Romans, Jew or Gentile alike, presently “stand”? It is faith, not a secret and mysterious decree, by which Paul affirms that the Roman Christians, Jew and Gentile alike, stand. Further, based on our earlier examination of Paul’s definition of “Jew” and his revelation of the “righteousness of faith” that he affirms is resident in these Jews and Gentiles, speaking the same message to both alike (Romans 10:6-12 as just one such example from Scripture), we may also conclude that unbelief in these particular Jews was the basis for the divine judgment that fell upon them. Contemporary Christianity with its obsessive focus on the superficial and the external, refuses to accept the Biblical concept that a regenerate person can do anything other than believe. Often you will hear advocates of this view of Christianity (It judges a person’s eternal state on the basis of what another human can observe from external conduct) warn their hearers, “If you have any doubt at all, you need to go back to the beginning and do the first work all over again. It is likely that you are not really saved at all if you have any unbelief.” Sadly similar emphasis on the external increasingly invades the thinking of those who profess to believe the doctrines of grace. They stop short of telling the individual that he/she must redo the steps they took to gain their salvation, but they morph the same errant view with assertions such as “If I can’t see evidence of your belief, I can’t give you any assurance that you were ever saved at all.” In this attitude that focuses on external and observable indicators only, these folks utterly fail to grasp that neither Scripture nor God gives them the divine insight into men’s souls that would legitimately qualify them to judge another person’s eternal state or destiny. They equally fail to understand the teaching of Scripture that affirms the role of the Holy Spirit, not another human being, even a preacher, in giving assurance of salvation to people. Thus they usurp the Biblical role of the Holy Spirit in this pretentious claim of unholy judgment.

     Advocates of either errant view are strained to understand the complexity of belief that appears in Scripture. Consider this simple verse.

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:24)

     Help me understand this verse. Was the man saved or unsaved? Was he regenerated or not? If you say he was not regenerated, born again, you must reconcile your conclusion with the simple—and divinely inspired—narration of his response to Jesus, “Lord, I believe….” John affirms that the believer is in fact already born of God (1 John 5:1). If you claim that this man was regenerated, you must deal with the fact that a regenerated person actually did not believe! The man confessed, “…help thou mine unbelief.”

     Much of the contemporary confusion and error grows out of the failure to distinguish faith from belief. Scripture identifies faith as the divinely bestowed attribute or ability to believe. Belief is the act of exercising that faith and taking God at His word, especially acting on the belief that God is true and faithful to His word. While faith either is present or not present in an individual, belief falls somewhere along a continuum, a gradient scale that includes both belief and unbelief to some extent or another. This hurting father confessed his place on the continuum, and begged Jesus to help him move toward a stronger belief than he presently possessed.

     We may well avoid a racial or cultural bias in the exercise of our Christianity that appears in Paul’s Roman letter. However, we should confront the fact that each of us struggles daily with our own limitations and our own form of unbelief. We shall never arrive at the point of spiritual maturity that requires no more growth, no more confrontation of our own unbelief and, accordingly no more need for greater belief in God and the truthfulness of His promises.

     If we interpret Paul’s teaching in this chapter harmoniously with his teaching in the closing verses of the eighth chapter (no possible separation from the love of God in Christ), we must conclude that the cutting off of these unbelieving Jews refers to something different from—and less than—eternal separation. They were clearly connected to something unique and blessed, but their own sinful unbelief “cut them off” from the temporal blessings of that blessed former state. Paul asserts that unbelief in a regenerate elect person not only exists, but that it can cause one who is in fact born again to become cold and unfruitful in his/her discipleship. (Peter affirms the same truth in Second Peter 1:8-9) The cause of blessings or judgments, of our experiencing either divine goodness or divine severity, according to Paul (Romans 11:22), is not to be found in a mystical divine decree, but in our reacting to faith’s testimony to and in us. If we believe and obey the “…hearing of faith,” we shall be blessed. If we disbelieve and disobey faith’s testimony, we shall face divine judgment and a temporal “cutting off” of ourselves from God’s temporal, not eternal, blessings.

Be not highminded but fear…

Paul rejects the arrogance of the Gentile claim in our study passage that effectively claimed, “God cut them off just so He could graft us into the olive tree of gospel blessings.” He is no less fierce against Gentile pride than he was earlier against Jewish pride. Perhaps our generation, as much as any generation since the first century, needs to confront this warning against the high mindedness that grows out of errant views of God and inflated views of self. It was not a divine decree that broke off the Jews in the eleventh chapter of Romans; it was their own unbelief. Given Paul’s contextual description of them, it is likely that they were in fact regenerate people, but they allowed their sinful pride to stand in the way of acknowledging the Galilean as their Messiah, as God Incarnate. Many lessons appear in the gospels that reveal this sinful pride. Paul simply reminds us of the sad harvest—or no harvest at all—that inevitably comes when we actively sow pride in the field of our lives. When we face the disappointing harvest of our own sins, we cannot point the finger at God and blame Him for “orchestrating” our harvest. We must blame ourselves alone. Each day we face both a planting season and a harvest season. What seeds will we plant? What harvest will we face from seeds that we sowed in times past? The joys of a good harvest grow out of the seeds that we chose to plant along our past pathways. The agony of a bleak harvest equally grows out of our past plantings. God graciously gives greater increase to our plantings of good seed than we have any right to expect, but He will not contradict His own law of sowing and reaping. Nor can we in any way blame arbitrary divine decrees for our harvest. What seeds did you plant today?

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Elder Joseph R Holder
Gospel Gleanings

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