11 I say, then, Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be! but by their fall the salvation 'is' to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy; 12 and if the fall of them 'is' the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them? 13 For to you I speak—to the nations—inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify; 14 if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall save some of them, 15 for if the casting away of them 'is' a reconciliation of the world, what the reception—if not life out of the dead? 16 and if the first-fruit 'is' holy, the lump also; and if the root 'is' holy, the branches also. 17 And if certain of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become— 18 do not boast against the branches; and if thou dost boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee! 19 Thou wilt say, then, 'The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in;' right! 20 by unbelief they were broken off, and thou hast stood by faith; be not high-minded, but be fearing; 21 for if God the natural branches did not spare—lest perhaps He also shall not spare thee.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 11:11-21
Commentary on Romans 11:11-21
(Read Romans 11:11-21)
The gospel is the greatest riches of every place where it is. As therefore the righteous rejection of the unbelieving Jews, was the occasion of so large a multitude of the Gentiles being reconciled to God, and at peace with him; the future receiving of the Jews into the church would be such a change, as would resemble a general resurrection of the dead in sin to a life of righteousness. Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off. The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God. Multitudes were made heirs of Abraham's faith, holiness and blessedness. It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive. The wild olive was often ingrafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and this not only brought forth fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish. The Gentiles, of free grace, had been grafted in to share advantages. They ought therefore to beware of self-confidence, and every kind of pride or ambition; lest, having only a dead faith, and an empty profession, they should turn from God, and forfeit their privileges. If we stand at all, it is by faith; we are guilty and helpless in ourselves, and are to be humble, watchful, afraid of self-deception, or of being overcome by temptation. Not only are we at first justified by faith, but kept to the end in that justified state by faith only; yet, by a faith which is not alone, but which worketh by love to God and man.