Explaining Romans 11:19-22

Those verses read:  Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.  Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high minded, but fear:  for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee.  Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off (Romans 11:19-22).

On the surface these verses appear to speak of loss of salvation, but they do not. What is being explained here is that the apostle Paul is talking about is through the Hebrews unbelief, the way of salvation has been opened to the Gentiles (i.e. heathen, pagan, non-Jew, the nations). Those that believe have been grafted into the olive tree which is a symbol of God’s covenant blessings with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-21;17:1-27). 

Those that did not continue in belief were cut off from the olive tree (God’s covenant blessing).

In Acts 13:42-48 we read, And as they went out, they besought that these words might be spoken to them the next sabbath.  Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.  And the next sabbath almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God.  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed.  And Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, That thou shouldest be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).  And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

So here we read a proof text that salvation was never designed for only the Hebrews, but for Gentiles as well. That was always God’s plan; to save people from every tribe, tongue and nation. Gentiles have as much right to obtain eternal life as the Hebrew, but it only benefits those that believe.

The aforementioned was an aside, now back to the matter at hand. To carefully explain the verses in question, we need to understand the subject so I repeat, the verses are dealing with the temporary setting aside of the natural branches (i.e. Jews), and the grafting in of the wild olive branches (i.e. Gentiles).

Notice how Paul warns the Gentile believers in verse 20-21 to not be high minded, but fear, for if God did not spare not the natural branches, he may not spare you either.

Here Paul gives a stern warning to genuine and false believers. The true child of God will fear and heed the warning. They realize that they’ve been grafted into the olive tree due to pure grace on God’s part. This also gives them pause so that they can examine themselves (II Corinthians 13:5). This is the opportunity to make your calling and election sure (II Peter 2:10). The writer knows that although we’re saved, it’s very easy to retard back to old habits and become unproductive in the things of God so these warnings are good checkpoints to keep the believer vibrant and persevering in faith.

The false convert on the other hand will not heed the warnings of the Lord and will be exposed ultimately for the fraud he really is and will be cut off from the blessings of God.

                         Why would God permit a false convert to enjoy his covenant blessings

This gets to the crux of the matter. What’s important to understand that in the Old Testament all the children of Israel were saved nationally and covenantly  when they were purchased and delivered out of slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 32:6), but not all were justified by faith; only those that exhibited the faith of their father Abraham (Romans 4:10-12) were justified spiritually and were saved; that is part of the olive tree. So we see here that the branches that were broken off were unbelieving Israel. They enjoyed in the benefits of the covenant, but were not saved eternally because of unbelief. Their rejection of their Messiah opened the way to the Gentiles. Those Gentiles that believed in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross were grafted in or brought into divine covenant blessings with believing Jews. They exercised the faith of their father 

Abraham who is the father of faith. These are the elect.

In the present and future scripture says all Israel will be saved once the time of Gentiles is complete. The term all has to be qualified. It means God has sovereignly chosen a remnant of the Jews that will be saved. This remnant will believe unto salvation and Israel will then be grafted back into the olive tree; that is receive covenant blessings again. This tells the reader that God has not abandoned his children Israel whom he foreknew (Romans 11:1); they were simply set aside due to unbelief so that the Gentiles could enjoy the benefits of God’s saving grace and his covenant blessing (Acts 13:42-48).

Those non-Jews that receive covenant blessing that aren’t truly saved are nominal Christians. They’ve only accepted the gospel intellectually, but not savingly. They have what the writer of this article calls a “demon faith” (James 2:19), not a saving faith. They fall into the parable of the sower, particularly Matthew 13:20-21 which says that,  And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it;  yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth. This individual is a demon seed planted by the devil amongst the good seed (Read Matthew 13:36-43). God allows them for a time to enjoy the benefits of the saved. The true and false convert are allowed to co-exist until the end of the age (i.e. the harvest). This person is what some call a “Judas branch” (John 15:6). This type of person will be cut off from the olive tree. Why? Because they never truly believed the gospel. They do not bear the fruit of true repentance (Matthew 3:8-10).  This type of person isn’t losing salvation, they never obtained it. Only true believers will remain in the olive tree, because God keeps them believing unto eternal life.