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. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 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?"
In today's quote Paul warned the Gentiles to observe how with both severity and great goodness God treated His "chosen" Israel.
He warned that unless the Gentiles accepted the righteousness of Christ by the grace of God, they too would be "cut off", just as was Israel.
Paul also said that if the Jews would return to their faith in God and accept Jesus as savior, placing their faith in Him and not in themselves to do good works, they could be re-grafted onto the soul saving tree of life.
He went further to explain that it would be much easier for Israel to be re-grafted onto the tree from which they had been broken off, than it would be for the Gentiles to grafted to a new tree with roots that were alien to them.
This lesson is more proof that Israel was indeed "cut off" from God, so far as having a means by which they could achieve their own salvation through the works of the Law, and were instead, like the Gentiles, given a means by which they could receive salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father.
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)~
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