Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 4 Study # 6
March 3, 2019
Humble, Texas
(116)
1769 Translation:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, [
take heed] lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in [
his] goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [
branches], be graffed into their own olive tree?
1901 ASV Translation:
21 for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee.
22 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.
23 And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural [
branches], be grafted into their own olive tree?
- I. The Real and Terrible Danger.
- A. The roots of the danger: the notion that "I" support the root rather than the root supporting me.
- B. The persistence in the dangerous reality: the notion that "branches were broken off that I might be grafted in".
- C. The historical reality: God did not spare the natural branches and He will not spare those who persist in "highmindedness".
- 1. With the insertion of "fear" into the mix, Paul dares to challenge his "objector" with the danger of divine rejection.
- a. This is not God thrusting away those whom He has foreknown (11:1-2).
- b. This is God being absolutely consistent in His dealings with people.
- 1) According to the text, there is one factor in the human/Divine relational reality that God will not tolerate.
- a) The "natural" branches were "broken off" because of the absence of "faith" (apistia). This is completely consistent with all of the biblical text: without "faith" it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
- b) Those who do not please God do not enter into His "rest" (Hebrews 3:18-19 compared with Hebrews 10:38 and 1 Corinthians 10:5).
- 2) According to the text, both "boasting against the natural branches" and "being highminded" are basic characteristics of "unbelief" that deny the presence of the kind of "faith" that pleases God.
- a) This issue of "kind" is at least indicated by the context of Hebrews 10:23 and 38.
- b) It is without dispute that there are many "kinds" of "faith" revealed in the Bible.
- i. There is the "delusional self-confidence" that parades itself as "faith in God" "kind" (Matthew 10:1 compared with Matthew 17:20) that is typically only stripped of its power of "delusion" by the presence of "boastfulness" and "highmindedness", or its abject failure to result in what was promised. This is, at root, not "faith" in God and His promises, but "faith" in deceptive lies that have arisen from within the "self-deceived" or from without by false teachers.
- ii. There is the "so little faith" that it ceases to exist when confronted by "impossibilities" or other significant "difficulties" (Matthew 14:23-31 compared with Luke 8:13).
- iii. There is the "fearful", "as a grain of mustard seed", "kind" (Matthew 17:20) that is sufficiently "believing" to prompt its possessor(s) to act on its premise(s) but doesn't have the ability to put one emotionally at ease (Luke 8:42-48).
- iv. There is the "great faith" "kind" that is "emotionally settled without fear" that prompts its possessor(s) to act according to its premise(s) (Luke 7:1-10).
- v. Thus, there is a gamut of "faith" that runs from "delusional" to "great" with many "stopping places" along the way.
- 2. With this insertion of fear, Paul is not denying the "you stand by faith" reality of the unnatural branch's presence in the tree.
- a. I believe that this indicates a genuine "believing" on the part of the boastful branch, but it is not a "justifying" faith (on the path leading to justification there are points of departure that result in "apostasy").
- 1) God responds to all who "believe" His words with whatever is promised.
- 2) But He also rescinds the promised result if the "faith" ceases to exist [Note well the declaration of Matthew 18:23-35 where "rescinding" the "forgiveness" because it did not produce the proper impact is declared as an act of God].
- b. What Paul is not doing is saying that "faith" can be exercised at one point in time unto justification and then cease to exist (this is the point of Jesus' intercessory prayer for Peter that his "faith" fail not; only the "foreknown" are justified and the "justified" are God's "elect": Romans 8:29-30).
- 3. This issue of "sparing" or "not sparing" is, apparently, restricted.
- a. The term translated "spare" is a word that means "to keep someone from some potential disaster". The "disaster" in our text is "a branch being broken out of the tree".
- b. At what particular point does God refrain from "sparing"?
- 1) Clearly, if "unbelief", as an attitude in a specific setting, regarding a specific matter of faith, is the issue without regard to the specific nature of the setting, then who shall be spared? All of us falter in "faith" at one point or another; sometimes in multiple ways in any give single day.
- 2) Just as clearly, Jesus' prayer for Peter that his "faith fail not" signals a kind of reality in which a person may fail many times on many occasions without what is called "a failure of faith" if that "failure" is the culmination of a growing disbelief over a period of significant time, or if that "failure" is the consequence of a confrontation of a magnitude that results in an immediate and conclusive "failure". In Peter's case, his boastfulness was not "improving"; he was not becoming less "boastful". This was an entrenched sinful characteristic in him that was relatively impervious to the rationality of "the faith" as a block of doctrine centered upon "Grace" as it addresses "highmindedness".
- 3) Thus, it appears that Paul was dealing with a "final" decision of "rejection of the truth of grace" brought on by some form of confrontation of the pride involved. Thus, the general conclusion of many "theologians" is that Paul was dealing with "apostasy" as a firm rejection of "Grace" in and from Jesus Christ. It is one thing to falter in faith at a point of pressure with the result of some form of sinful behavior; it is a thing of far greater magnitude to "reject Christ as the instrument of Grace from God". Once the attitude settles in, "faith" has "failed". Paul has identified this "failure" as the attitude that "I support the Root; the Root does not support me", or "I was/am of a superior morality so as to be qualified for being grafted into the tree of God's people".
- 4. The "warning" stands.
- a. Paul's "warning" to the Galatians on the verge of a rejection of "Grace" is unambiguous: Galatians 1:8-9.
- b. Paul's declaration that those who were perverting "Grace" were "false brethren" does not mean that they were not "believing" that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ; but it does mean that their "faith" had not brought them far enough to enter into "Grace" as the methodology of "justification". Thus, they were "accursed" for promoting "justification" by works. Luke, Paul's cohort in the faith, said of these who Paul called "false brethren" in Galatians 2:4, said that they "believed" in Acts 15:5, but it was also Luke who wrote of those who "believed for a while" in Luke 8:13.