“for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
~ Romans 11:29
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you able to explain clearly ideas and/or concepts that other kids cannot explain? Are you able to articulate truth in ways that truth can be understood? Do you think apologetically? A guy or gal who thinks apologetically is able to defend truth in logical and/or analytical ways. The Romans Book is Paul’s apologetic defense for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Paul wrote his Romans Book to the Jews who were living in Rome. Paul referred to himself as being the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul had internalized that the death of God – as God the Son, on a cross had completely changed the salvation paradigm that God had passed on 1500 or so years earlier through Moses to His specially chosen guy and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. God’s initial salvation paradigm or the maintaining of a right relationship with God in order to be saved was driven by spiritual laws and worship regulations that God gave through Moses 1500 or so years earlier to His specially chosen guys and gals. The moment that God – as God the Son – Jesus Christ, gave up His life on a cross a brand new salvation paradigm was instituted that is grace based versus works based. The same faith that was the driver for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to live by to worship only God through walking the walk of making the right animal sacrifices at the right time is the very same faith that is now the driver for God’s special elected guys, gals and kids – Gentile guys, gals and kids, to have to worship only Him through walking the walk of making their lives living sacrifices for God to use for His kingdom that is here on planet Earth. Paul explains in Romans 11 that because of the failures of God’s specially chosen guys and gals to obey His expectations for them to be absolutely zealous about only worshipping Him that He opened up His arms to the disenfranchised Gentile guys, gals and kids to become Christ-followers.
Paul used grafting to illustrate God’s new salvation paradigm. Grafting is to insert the end of a vine or branch from one kind of vine or tree into a vine or branch of a second vine or tree that is already rooted. The root of this vine or tree represents God – as God the Father. God – as God the Son, is represented by the main vine or branch of the vine or tree. The vines or branches that are growing from the main branch of the vine or tree represents God’s specially chosen guys and gals. The moment that God – as God the Son – Jesus Christ, took on bodily suffering while being hung on and nailed to a cross and while His blood flowed from his badly scourged and punctured body, God stopped accepting animal sacrifices that He had mandated to be made to Him as the means to be saved and He began accepting individual life sacrifices through personal decisions of faith in what He – as God the Son, did on a cross as the way to be saved. The moment that God – as God the Son, died on the cross, all the vines or branches that had been growing from Him – which were the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids, were broken off from Him. Once God – as God the Son, defeated the bonds of death – which happened when He arose from the dead, the only way that a guy, gal or kid is able to grow from the One True Vine or Branch and to be nourished by the One True Root is for the guy, gal or kid to be grafted into the One True Vine or Branch. The only way that a guy, gal or kid can now be grafted into the One True Vine or Branch is to make a decision of faith believing in what God – as God the Son, did when He suffered and died on a cross. A decision of faith is to recognize the need for forgiveness from God from an inherited sin nature and to recognize the need of accepting the unconditional mercy that God – as God the Father, to forgive.
Paul wanted to make sure that the Roman Gentile guys and gals understood that the Jews – which is another name for God’s specially chosen guys and gals, had not lost out when God – as God the Son – Jesus Christ suffered and died on a cross. Even though the Jews – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, lost their spiritual growth potential when they unceremoniously murdered their Savior, many guys, gals and kids would and will be led to be grafted into the Body of Christ because of having been specially elected by God before He created planet Earth. Being grafted into a branch of a vine or tree allows for the grafted vine or branch to draw the nutrients that it needs to survive from the host vine or branch and from the root of the vine or tree. When your grandpaa was a student at South Dakota State University to earn the liberal arts credits that he needed to graduate from Moody Bible Institute with a B.A., your grandpaa took a horticultural class. Something that your grandpaa was taught was how to graft a branch into a branch of another tree. Your grandpaa had to first cut a slit into a host branch of a tree. Your grandpaa then had to cut the end of a broken branch at a sharp angle so that it would slip tightly into the notch in the branch of the tree in which the branch was going to be grafted. Your grandpaa does not remember how the branch was tightly kept in the notch so that it would not slip out; the branch may have been tied tightly to the host branch. Just as soon as a grafted branch is slipped into the notch of a host branch, nutrients from the root through the host branch will begin to ooze into the grafted branch. That is how God unconditionally feeds His specially elected kids – like you, so that they will immediately begin to grow in Him. Verse 29 says, “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” Your grandpaa thinks that the five verses at the end of this chapter – which he thinks of as Paul’s summation of his apologetic defending God’s grace/mercy belief paradigm, and the first two verses in the next chapter – which asks him to do something, as being the most important verses in the Bible. Your grandpaa has memorized these verses.
Romans 11 (525)