In Romans 11, Paul reaches for a striking picture to describe the people of God: a cultivated olive tree. Some natural branches, he says, were broken off, and branches from a wild olive — believers from the nations — were grafted in among them, sharing in the rich root of the tree (Romans 11:17).
It's a humbling image, and Paul means it to be. He warns the grafted-in branches not to boast over the natural ones: “it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11:18). We did not replace anyone. We were brought near, by grace, into a story and a covenant family that began long before us.
This shapes how we read the whole Bible. The promises, the covenants, the Scriptures of Israel are not a discarded “old” chapter — they are the very root that holds us up. When we honor the Hebraic roots of the faith, we are not adding something foreign; we are remembering the tree we've been grafted into.
It also fills us with gratitude and humility. We stand by faith, Paul says, so we should not be arrogant but stand in awe (Romans 11:20). The same kindness that grafted us in calls us to love the natural branches and to long for the day when all of God's people are gathered as one.
To be grafted in is pure grace — a wild branch given life from a root it did not grow. May we never take it for granted, and may we bear the fruit worthy of the tree that holds us.
