“22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you — if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these — the natural branches — be grafted into their own olive tree?”.
In the previous two devotionals, Paul illustrated for us using an olive tree the most beautiful depiction of what it is like for the Gentiles who have been grafted into the covenant family of God. What a great and merciful God who has brought salvation not only to His own people, but to the Gentile nations as well.
Following this illustration, Paul warns the Gentiles against being haughty or boastful. It is not because of anything good in the Gentiles, nor anything bad in Israel, that caused God’s elect Gentiles to be grafted into the covenant. No, quite the contrary. It is because of what Jesus the Messiah has accomplished on the cross, the shedding of His blood, and the sacrifice of His sinless life that makes this grafting process possible.
In today’s verses, Paul will continue to warn the Gentiles against being overly confident in their own good works. In doing so, Paul describes an attribute of God that is not very often talked about: God’s severity. God is One who is both unimaginably kind and compassionate toward those who have faith in Jesus to save them, yet is unapologetically severe toward those who remain in their sin. We will do well to remember that God does not tolerate sin. It cannot be in His presence. If we do not repent of our sins, confess Jesus is Lord, and believe in His resurrection, we will be cut off.
“Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes,…” — John 15:2a
“If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” — John 15:6
God’s covenant promise with Noah, whose symbol is a rainbow, is a great example of God holding both His attributes of kindness and severity simultaneously. On one hand, God displayed His great compassion and kindness toward Noah and his family, sparing them from the disaster of a world-wide, otherwise humanity-ending flood. He cared for them, provided for them, and made a covenant with them that He would never bring this level of destruction upon the Earth again. On the other hand, God’s severity toward sin and sinners was on full display as He crushed those who did not submit to Him.
The point here is simple, yet of utmost importance. You must repent! You must confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in His resurrection. There is no other way to salvation. There is no other way to be declared clean from your sin. There is no other way to be set free from your transgression of God’s perfect law. In His perfect timing, God will judge. He will not overlook sin. He will treat sin, and those committing sin, with the severity they deserve.
Verses 23-24 offer us a glimpse at what God will do with unbelieving Israel in the future. God is able and fully intends to graft Israel back into the tree when they repent of their sin, confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised Him from the dead. We’ll talk about that more in the devotionals to come.