“And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.”
And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. — The hope is categorical: unbelieving Israel is not permanently severed. If they cease persisting in unbelief (apistia, the opposite of the Gentile condition in v. 20), God's power (dunatos) is sufficient to graft them back. The reversal is symmetrical: unbelief broke off, faith would restore.
Church Fathers on Romans 11:23
“And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in.” For it was not God that cut them off, but they have broken themselves off and fallen, and he did well to say have broken themselves off. For He has never yet so cast them off, though they have sinned so much and so often. You see what a great thing a man's free choice is, how great the efficacy of the mind is. For none of these things is immutable, neither your good nor his evil. You see too how he raises…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!