<H3>Chapter # 11  Paragraph # 4  Study # 1<BR />January 27, 2019<BR />Humble, Texas<BR /><a href="https://www.biblical-thinking.org/DOC-Ro3/audio.php?name=Rom190127.mp3">(Download Audio)</a></H3>

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Thesis:&nbsp;&nbsp;  The idea of breaking off of "branches" from a "holy" root requires the careful identification of the "tree" that exists between "root" and "branch".

Introduction:&nbsp;&nbsp;  In our study last week I argued that Paul was, again, claiming that God's dealings with "national" Israel were contrary to expectation in that God's response resulted in great "riches" for the nations.  Earlier he had defined those "riches" in a summary way by calling them "salvation" (<b>11:11</b>) and then expanding that "summary" into "riches for the world" and "riches for the nations".  This "expansion" is rooted in "the fall" of "the nation of The Hardened" and "the diminishing" of that same "nation of The Hardened" and in the <u><b><i>future</u></b></i> "fulness" of "the nation of The Foreknown".
Then, in repetition, he addresses again the "casting away" in terms of its consequent "reconciling of the world" and the "receiving" in terms of its consequent "life from the dead".
Afterwards, he gives a "reason" of sorts:  if the firstfruit [is] holy, the lump is also and if the root [is] holy, the branches are also.  But, he complicates our understanding by, then, immediately introducing the notion of branches being broken off.
This raises a pertinent question -- how can "holy branches" be "broken off" of a tree with a "holy root"?  Thus, our study this evening will be devoted to an answer to this question.

<ul><li>I. The Various Designations of the People Involved. 
	<ul><li>A. First, in <b>11:1</b>, we have the designation of "His people". 
		<ul><li>1. This designation is identified as "Israelites, of the seed of Abraham" in <b>11:1</b>. 
		<li>2. This designation is, then, further characterized as "His people whom He foreknew" in <b>11:2</b>. 
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	<li>B. Second, in <b>11:2</b> he gives us the designation of "Israel". 
		<ul><li>1. In this designation, "Israel" is characterized as a kingdom of apostates by Elijah (<b>11:3</b>). 
		<li>2. But, in this designation, God corrects Elijah by revealing that He has "kept for Himself" a group of 7,000 who have not bowed to Baal. 
		<li>3. This is a declaration that "My people" are not primarily "Israel", but are, rather, "those elected by grace" within the northern kingdom of "Israel" whose "election" is tied to the earlier issue of "foreknowledge". 
		<li>4. Thus we have, as in <b>9:6</b>, a separation between a visible Kingdom of Israel and a smaller group known as a "true Israel" who have all of the characteristics of "the seed of Abraham", "His people whom He foreknew and can not push away", "the smaller Israel within Israel" who are "elected by grace". 
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	<li>C. Third, in <b>11:5</b> he gives us the designation of "a remnant according to the election of grace" who belong to God on the basis of grace and not works. 
	<li>D. Fourth, in <b>11:7</b> he clarifies "Israel" as "The Hardened" who did not obtain and says "the Elect" did obtain. 
	<li>E. But, lurking in the background is <b>Romans 9:23-24</b> where Paul deliberately pressed two other designations into play that have ramifications for our current text. 
		<ul><li>1. One of those designations is "vessels of wrath" whose destiny is destruction. 
		<li>2. Another is "vessels of mercy" that are "afore prepared unto glory". 
			<ul><li>a. This category he specifically identified as "us whom He hath called" 
			<li>b. And then he deliberately identified "the called" as "not of Jews only, but also of Gentiles". 
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		<li>3. The significance of this prior text, which serves as our previous context with impact on our current context, is that immediately upon revealing a group known as "vessels of mercy" consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, he said these "vessels of mercy" are those whom God calls "My people". 
			<ul><li>a. This is significant in that in our current study is dealing with the question of whether God can "push away" "His people". 
			<li>b. This means that, though for the first century reality "His people" are predominantly those Israelites who have believed in His Christ, this is not the actual reality that will transcend history:  God's people is the large category and the national designations that are rooted in history are lesser categories. 
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<li>II. Thus, We Have The Basis For an Identification of The Firstfruit/Lump and The Root/Branches Analogies. 
	<ul><li>A. Abraham was given "Promise" as the method of inheritance, and Isaac was the "firstfruit" of that promise (looking back on <b>Genesis 3</b> and forward to <b>Galatians 3:16</b>) and Jacob/Israel was the beginning of the "Lump" to follow as a mixture of "children of the flesh" and "children of promise". 
		<ul><li>1. As a mixture, the "Lump" cannot be considered "holy" except as that "Lump" is gradually reduced to "only the called from among the Jews" by the purging judgments of God that will bring the Christ's Kingdom to pass. 
		<li>2. Paul does not camp on this analogy. 
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	<li>B. In terms of "root" and "branches", Abraham was the "root", but he produced some "branches" that had to be removed before the tree could be wholly holy. 
		<ul><li>1. The "branches" that are, at first, described as "holy" like the root, are described to be subject to a pruning/grafting process where the "unholy" are "broken off" and others who become "holy" are "grafted in". 
		<li>2. The key aspect of this "holiness" issue is identified as "standing by faith" in <b>11:20</b>. 
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<li>III. Conclusions. 
	<ul><li>A. Paul is not writing about "Israel"; he is writing about "the People of God", both Jews and Gentiles. 
	<li>B. He identifies this "root" in <b>15:12</b> as the "Root" in whom the Gentiles will trust. 
	<li>C. Thus, there was a time in history when the first "root" was "holy":  Abraham the believer, justified by faith; and a time as history flowed along when the tree produced by the root became a mixture of "holy" branches, made so "by faith", and "unholy" branches, made so by determined oppostion to "faith" in favor of "works"; and a future time when the "unholy branches" will all be broken off and other "holy branches" will be grafted in and, then, the Root and the Branches will all be "Holy". 
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