Romans 11:25

"For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?"

Key Reflection

This passage illustrates God's surprising grace by comparing Gentile believers to wild olive branches grafted onto a cultivated olive tree. It emphasizes that those who were previously estranged (the natural branches) can be restored, and even more so, the original branches (Jewish people) will ultimately return to their covenant relationship with God.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 25. Ignorant of this mystery. The word mystery means, properly, that which is concealed, hidden, or unknown. And it especially refers, in the New Testament, to the truths or doctrines which God had reserved to himself, or had not before communicated. It does not mean, as with us often, that there was anything unintelligible or inscrutable in the nature of the doctrine itself, for it was commonly perfectly plain when it was made known. Thus the doctrine, that the division between the Jews and the Gentiles was to be broken down, is called a mystery, because it had been, to the times of the apostles, concealed, and was then revealed fully for the first time, Ro 16:25; Col 1:26,27. Comp.

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