Gentiles Grafted In
Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Rom 11:18
Boast not against... The Gentiles here are warned not to boast of their being accepted by God in the place of the Jews (Rom. 11:18-19), but to fear lest they also fall and not be spared (Rom. 11:20-22).
There is no place in the church for spiritual pride, still less for anti Semitism. We are the spiritual offspring of Abraham.
Branches: The unbelieving Jews who had been broken off.
The root that supports you means Gentiles are not the source of blessing, but have been grafted into the covenant of salvation that God made with Abraham.
To reinforce his warning Paul declared, You do not support the root, but the root supports you. The root of the tree is the source of life and nourishment to all the branches, and Abraham is “the father of all who believe” (Rom. 4:11-12, Rom. 4:16-17). So Gentile believers are linked to Abraham; in one sense they owe their salvation to him, not vice versa.
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