But what is the olive tree? It is God’s favor. Read the connection. The Hebrews had been in God’s favor all along till they were broken off because of unbelief. Their fall, mentioned in verse 12, is the same thing as this cutting off. But now, to both Jews and Gentiles alike, God’s favor is manifested in Christ, and may be obtained by faith in him.
No people as a nation will or can accept Christ. Any people as a nation must act as an organized government; those in authority determine what shall be done. But no constituted authorities can decide that the nation shall accept Christ; that is an individual matter. But even if a nation could through its proper authorities accept Christ, the Jews could not do so, for they have no one with authority to speak for the whole people on anything.
It is hard for some to see that God totally and finally rejected and destroyed the Jewish nation, but did not irrevocably reject the Jews. Paul gives himself as an example that God had not irrevocably cast off the Jewish people. That he referred to himself as an example shows that he had in mind the Jews as individuals and not as a nation. His case shows that the door of salvation had not been closed against the individual Jew. And his olive-tree illustration shows that he was speaking of the individual Jew and not of the nation. Both Jews and Gentiles were grafted into the same olive tree, and both by the same process. Paul’s conclusion—“and so all Israel shall be saved”—has been greatly perverted. The future-kingdom folks put the emphasis on all Israel; Paul put the emphasis on so. So is an adverb of manner. He had been showing how the Jews might be saved, and not that the nation would be restored. He had shown that Gentiles were grafted in by faith—saved by faith in Christ. “And so”—in like manner—shall all Israel be saved. Peter had made the same point before the Jerusalem brethren: “But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in like manner as they.” (Acts 15:11.)
How many Jews may yet be converted to Christ, no one knows; but those who are converted to Christ will be in the one body with all converted Gentiles, “where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col. 3:11.)
Pointed Paragraphs:
Much is said about preaching the truth in love, and so it should be preached. But in love of what? The preacher should so love the truth that he will not sacrifice any of it nor pervert it, and he should so love people that he will not withhold from them even an unpleasant truth. He that does either of these things loves neither the truth nor the people. We frequently fool ourselves; we think we do thus and so to spare the feelings of others, when it is our own feelings that prompt us. “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”
ENDS OF THE AGES
What does Paul mean in the expression, “Upon whom the ends of the ages are come”?—
The dispensations are referred to as ages. There have been the Patriarchal age and the Mosaic age, and also we now have the Christian age. The ends, or aims, of both the Patriarchal age and the Mosaic age looked forward to the Christian age. Christianity is the end of the ages—it is the last. Yet the future-kingdom advocates would have us believe that Paul was mistaken; that Christianity is not the end of the ages, but there will be at least two more ages. But Paul, being inspired, was right, and Christianity is the end of the ages. And that settles the future-kingdom claims. This is the ends of the ages.