Do you overlook our spiritual heritage in Christ?
“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” – Romans 11:17-18
All over the world, there are hundreds of millions of Gentile Christians who are supported and nourished every day by nourishing sap drawn from an ancient root system… the Jewish heritage of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of “nourishing sap” in Romans 11:17 and a root system that was developed millennia before any of us was born. This statement is in a marvelous section of scripture in the great Book of Romans, a section in which Paul addresses the agonizing question of why the overwhelming majority of Jews in his day are rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. Paul speaks of the “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” this causes him (Rom. 9:2) because he knows that, if these individual Jews do not repent and find life in Christ while they live, they will spend eternity in hell.
But as compelling as that issue is, Paul knows there is a bigger issue: has God’s word somehow failed when it comes to the Jews (Rom. 9:6)? That issue is larger because it goes to the heart of God’s plan for the salvation of every sinner in every generation. That plan is to speak words of promise to sinners which, if they believe them, they are justified (forgiven) of all their sins. In originally crafting the Jewish people, God spoke a word of promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). In the fullness of time, God greatly improved the promise to the full gospel, written in the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. He then proclaimed that promise to Gentiles all over the world. Those that heard and believed were similarly justified by faith and grafted into a cultivated olive tree—the heritage of Jewish people who earlier had heard and believed. We became sons and daughters of Abraham, following in the footsteps of his faith.
Here in these verses, Paul is addressing those Gentile believers. He wants them to stay humble and to continue to believe in Christ. Part of that humility is to understand the life-giving sap that flows to us from the centuries of Jewish heritage that precede us which culminated in Jesus. Thousands of years of God working among the Jews through the prophets as recorded in the pages of scripture, that is the root system of this cultivated olive tree. And as we read the Old Testament and see both the faithfulness and the faithlessness of the Jewish people, our own souls are nourished and strengthened. Our faith is renewed. Our wandering hearts are chastened. We are refreshed and warned.
This nourishing sap is exactly the same as what Jesus gives us as the vine and are the abiding branches in John 15. He commands us to abide in him and to have his words abiding in us (John 15:7). What is this but “nourishing sap” flowing into our souls by constant spiritual intimacy with Christ?!
“Drink deeply of your heritage and feel the nourishing sap flowing into your soul through your union with Christ.”
So we must understand the spiritual heritage that is ours as sons and daughters of Abraham. We must realize this root system supports our very souls in Christ. It feeds our faith every day while we live in this era of faith. Therefore, drink deeply of your heritage! Read of Ezekiel’s awe in the presence of the vision of God in Ezekiel 1. Read of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s time in the fiery furnace with the preincarnate Christ in Daniel 3. Read of Nehemiah’s perseverance and vision in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. Read of Jeremiah’s bold warning to the arrogant Jews in Jeremiah 7. Drink deeply of your heritage and feel the nourishing sap flowing into your soul through your union with Christ. And walk today in the footsteps of your father Abraham’s faith!
