Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
(ESV)
—Romans 11:13-24
by: Victoria Richards.
The good news of salvation has been extended to us Gentiles because of God’s grace and mercy. By accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, we have been grafted into His family. We are saved by faith alone, not by works. The key is to remain faithful and keep on believing. As we continue in the faith, let us pray that the eyes of the Jews be opened so that they too will accept Jesus as Messiah and embrace the gift of eternal life. As Romans 11 verse 23 reads “And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
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