Nothing is more practical than the gospel of Jesus Christ. When someone comes to Christ by faith, relying upon the crucified and risen Lord for salvation, the life wrought by the gospel continues to grow, shape, and develop the believer. He is never the same as before he came to Christ. Attitudes take on a gospel-influenced shape. Conversations change. Gone is the coarse talk and bitter complaining, replaced with gospel sweetness. New interests develop. Building relationships founded on the gospel take priority over the past self-centeredness in relationships. Even one’s work life is impacted, as the believer desires to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect” (Titus 2:10).
Yet none of these things seem to happen without peaks and valleys along the way. We are still being sanctified—made more and more like Christ in our talk, attitude, and walk. Sometime we are inconsistent. Sometime we neglect the spiritual disciplines so necessary as the food we eat and the air we breathe. In consequence, pesky sins can begin to get a grip on our lives so that slowly we embrace attitudes not befitting the gospel.
One sin that gave Paul concern with the Romans was arrogance. Pride in position or accomplishment or station in life results in myriad manifestations, with one of the most pernicious focused on attitude toward others: arrogance. It is that feeling of vaunted self-worth, verbalized or non-verbalized boasting, looking with spite at others, thinking oneself better than others, and often revealed by the snide remarks made toward someone else. In this case, Paul realized the danger of Gentile believers showing arrogance toward Jewish believers and unbelievers.
Such arrogance had already gained footing in the Roman Empire. Jews were mostly tolerated though looked down upon for their lower status in the Empire. They were a defeated, subjugated people living under the heel of Roman authority, now ripe for the brunt of jokes and calloused remarks. But the gospel of Jesus Christ will not tolerate such nationalistic, racial, or social arrogance toward others. It matters not what the common attitude toward other people might be. Jesus Christ has delivered us from this and planted in us, the selfless love best displayed at the cross as Jesus died for people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9).
What does this have to do with us? If Gentile believers from the 1st C. Roman church could fall prey to arrogance, do we think that we’re immune to the same? It might not be arrogance toward Jews though it could be. It could be arrogance toward family members or co-workers or people of other races or other cultures or other religious views appearing, in our estimation, less spiritual than we deem ourselves. It can show up in arrogance toward other churches, whose preaching, teaching, worship, evangelism, and ministries we might consider beneath our practice. The same gospel calling for humility in the Roman Christians calls for humility in us. The gospel demands that we guard our hearts from arrogance, realizing its subtle turning away from reliance upon grace alone. At the heart of arrogance is self-dependence and self-approval instead of living moment-by-moment in the grace of God revealed in the gospel. How do we guard our hearts against arrogance that deceitfully belittles the gospel of grace? Let’s consider how Paul explains safeguards against arrogance to the Romans and to us.
We live in an era of historical revisionism. It’s nothing new. Revisionists have sought to shape the present by twisting the facts of the past. For instance, Puritans have been broad-brushed as stuffy killjoys who considered a smile forbidden. J. I. Packer, Leland Ryken, and others have done an admirable job of correcting such historical foibles. Yet it is difficult to convince those duped by revisionist thinking even though the primary sources prove otherwise. Even the Jews of the 1st C. held a revisionist view of their past. Jesus declared to them that the only way to be truly free was to continue in His Word as His disciples, and then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. Yet in that moment they seemed to have totally forgotten their history, responding, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:31-32). Seems as though they had conveniently forgotten their servitude to the Egyptians, the Midianites, the Philistines, and certainly the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans! They should have learned from history but instead, revised it to fit their present way of thinking.
The Gentile believers in Rome were doing the same. They had forgotten how they came to the place of receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ—and the part that past history played in the gospel’s journey to them. So Paul takes them on a journey in the past to eliminate arrogance in the present.
Paul uses the metaphor of the root to express the historical foundation. He warns of arrogance and then reminds the Gentile believers, “but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” Who is Paul referring to as “the root”? It seems obvious that he means much more than simply the Jewish people since so many of them were in the same spiritual need as the Gentiles. Instead, he goes back to the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is quite evident in 15:8-12, “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers [Patriarchs], and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy…” Why bring up those “old guys” from the past? For one simple reason: God gave them gospel promises and linked the promises to them. It’s not that Abraham or Isaac saves anyone. These men needed the gospel just as much as us. Yet while we see bits and pieces of the gospel emerging from Genesis 3 onward, it is when we get to the life of Abraham that the promise of God comes to life: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly…As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations…For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations” (17:1-5). The promises were reiterated to Isaac and to Jacob (26:24; 35:9-12).
Here’s the point. The Gentiles had nothing to fall back on, nothing to boast about concerning seeking after God. They could only point to their idolatrous past. Yet in the mercy of God, the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob included these former idolaters who heard and believed the gospel. The gospel did not originate with the Gentiles. It came from the heart of God who gave it to the Patriarchs, who became the vessels through which the Messiah would one day come as the embodiment of the gospel.
So how can any of us be arrogant toward others as though we came up with the idea of the gospel? Had God not given it to the Patriarchs and passed it down through others, we would not know Him. Think on the roots of God’s promises and be humbled!
Some of those called ‘the people of God’ failed to trust the Lord. Moses reminded the Lord after Israel collectively worshiped the golden calf in the wilderness: these are “Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand” (Exodus 32:11). Yet the writer of Hebrews reminds us that many of that number, in spite of seeing the mighty hand of God delivering them, were not believers. “And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:16-18). He goes on to warn of the same danger possible among those who considered themselves the people of God due to their association with the church and with Christians. “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” (4:1-2).
Paul’s argument and that of Hebrews 3-4 bear much similarity. “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.” Did he mean by the breaking off of the branches that they lost their salvation? No, but they forfeited the great gospel privilege they had among the people of God by their unbelief. The tree is used metaphorically, not for ethnic Jews but for all of the people of God, though at that point, most were Jewish in heritage. Those “branches…broken off” refers to the Jews who were called the people of God but due to their unbelief they had no part in the true people of God. Remember the previous explanation, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (9:6). In other words, while they had all the privileges of the good news preached to them (Heb. 4:1), they squandered them due to unbelief and rebellion against God. They presumed upon God and upon their heritage. They thought that being ethnically Jewish—a descendant of the Patriarchs—was enough. But their unbelief severed them from the true people of God.
Here is an important warning. As those who benefit from the regular preaching of the gospel and association with the church as the people of God, if you fail to trust in Christ alone for salvation, you too will be a branch broken off. “They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.” It is only as we rely upon Jesus Christ in His death in our stead and His resurrection to give us life that we can stand before God.
Since we do not have a room full of horticulturalists let’s try to see how Paul uses this illustration. He refers to the cultivated olive tree that produced beautiful fruit and the wild olive tree that produced tiny, worthless knots. I’ve seen both during travels in Central Asia and Europe. The wild olive tree resembles the cultivated tree but when you see its fruit you quickly realize that it is worthless. Yet the farmers would cut a branch from a wild olive tree and graft it into the cultivated tree, and with the invigoration of the cultivated tree, it would grow to produce good fruit.
“But if some of the branches were broken off [those living among the people of God yet unbelieving], and you, being a wild olive [so having no gospel heritage], were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.” Here’s the simple point that Paul reiterates. You did not graft yourself into the tree—that is into the family of God. Just as the Lord chose Isaac instead of Ishmael and Jacob instead of Esau (9:7-13), He chose you to graft you “contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree” (11:24). The Apostle has not left the humbling doctrine of election that he has opened since the 8th chapter. He’s simply weaving it into the story once again for the purpose of overwhelming us with the grace shown to us, so that in consequence, we will not be arrogant as though we had anything to do with our salvation.
As we get our history right, realizing that the gospel did not originate with us nor did we take initiative in the gospel, we quickly see that we have no reason to be arrogant toward others. Understanding the gospel humbles us.
Underlying this paragraph is not only warning against arrogance but the antidote: perseverance in the faith. Again, this is not a new theme. Paul set forth the most magnificent declaration of perseverance in chapter 8 but now comes back to it in a practical way. The person who is spiritually arrogant, if he remains in that condition, gives evidence that he has not truly believed the gospel. Consequently, he faces the danger of being “cut off” from among the people of God. Not losing his salvation, but failing to go on in the gospel as a true believer.
This is so vital for us to see. Many in our day consider themselves Christian because they are in a church or have Christian parents or have been baptized or walked an aisle to make a profession or partake of the Lord’s Supper. The reality is that one can do all these things and still be an unbeliever under God’s judgment. He can attend church every Sunday, give liberally, and even volunteer to serve yet remain lost in sin. What Paul does is to warn us on two levels. He warns believers of drifting into sin patterns that do not reflect the humbling power of the gospel. But on another level, he warns those who persist in these sin patterns that the gospel has not taken root in their lives. They play the part of a Christian but do not know the saving life of Christ dwelling in them. Let’s consider four dangers that he warns of.
He begins by stating what might be put forth with a swagger. “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in’.” Consequently, that person may have running through his mind: ‘I am obviously better than others; God saw some good in me; I am of more value to God than those He broke off.’ Paul partially agrees. “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.” Yes, it is true that you believed the gospel and were grafted into the true family of God. You stand by your faith—and faith alone. However, “Do not be conceited, but fear.” Do not be high-minded, do not get lofty thoughts about yourself for as sure as you do you will fall.
Here is the danger facing every generation of believers. Because of the richness of God’s grace shown in claiming us from the deadness of sin and giving us new life in Christ, we can get the idea that something in us motivated God to act in our favor. The popular notion that God looked down the corridors of time to see who would love Him and follow Him, and then elected us, plays into this very issue of conceit. Dare we think that those living in spiritual deadness could somehow motivate the eternal God who is altogether sufficient in Himself? Dare we think that we got what we deserved when He saved us? Let us look at Christ crucified each day, and in that look, let us see the darkness of our hearts and unbelief until the Lord claimed us as His own. We do not love Him apart from His redeeming love meeting us with the power to raise the dead!
“Do not be arrogant toward the branches,” Paul writes. He later reminded them that as Gentiles they shared in the spiritual heritage of the Jews, so arrogance toward them disregards the spiritual debt owed the Jewish people (15:26-27). Arrogance is actually the idea of boasting in oneself. It is that proud, self-inflating opinion of one’s conduct, personal righteousness, and value to the kingdom of God. Though it is certainly inappropriate anytime, the Apostle is particularly pointing to the continued spirit of arrogance, the attitude that persists in looking down one’s nose toward others, making curt comments about others while speaking of oneself in such glowing ways, as to attract attention to the spectacular accomplishments and abilities of his own life! Arrogance makes its mark by inflating self while trying to deflate others.
‘Oh, I would never do that,’ we might retort. Yet let us not be hasty in thinking too highly of ourselves. Do you find a certain pleasure in putting down others? Do you maneuver conversations to spin yourself into the center, giving the impression that you are a rung higher on the ladder? Do you think that your way is THE RIGHT WAY by which all other actions, words, service, and acts of spirituality must be measured? Are you quick to inwardly criticize others while smugly thinking yourself to be God’s gift to whatever endeavor is considered?
My brethren, only in the grace of God do we have any room for boasting—and that boast points to the crucified Savior. “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
Why were so many of the Jews cut off from the tree of God’s family? “They were broken off for their unbelief.” Have you thought about the scene in ancient Israel? These were the people who witnessed the ten plagues in Egypt and who crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. They watched as the same dry ground they had crossed suddenly gushed with water, drowning their pursuers. These same people ate of the manna provided every six days and drank water from the rock. They witnessed the ground opening in the midst of their camp to swallow up Dathan and Abiram as they contended against the Lord. Yet in spite of these things, they persisted in unbelief. They had every gospel privilege imaginable yet did not believe. Did they simply put off faith? Were they lazy in giving attention to faith? The same danger runs through our midst as some among us enjoy gospel privileges yet have not turned from their sin and trusted Christ. It is a danger that ends in eternal judgment.
Presumption implies that we have certain expectations though without the attached responsibilities. We expect God to act in a certain way, to provide for us, as we desire. But why should He? What claim do we have upon the Sovereign to accommodate us? Notice Paul’s warning in verse 22. “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” Here is presumption at its height. We do what we want to do, live the way we want to live, obey when it is convenient for us, occasionally squeeze God into our schedules, and basically treat Him as a butler who stands ready to wait upon our every whim, consequently, we live dangerously. He will not be trifled with! Though God had shown kindness to Gentiles that does not mean that His kindness will always be extended. “If you continue in His kindness” calls for abiding in Christ, availing of gospel privileges and the means of grace He has bestowed upon us. To neglect Him and His way presumes upon the Lord. He is under no obligation to show us His kindness. If He cut off those who lived with great privilege yet in unbelief, then we dare not think that giving Him an occasional nod will suffice. He is Lord and must be reverenced as Lord.
Let us do some heart searching and see if any attitudes of arrogance, conceit, unbelief, or presumption have crept into our thoughts. Let us be on the lookout for these things in our own lives rather than in others.
An Americanized version of Christianity puts us in grave danger. What do I mean by that? It is the view that makes the gospel all about me rather than about the glory of God. The ancient Jews had done the same. Everything turns on my happiness instead of His honor and joy in us. In such a version, we subtly take the position of lord; Christianity becomes a consumer religion so that worship, teaching, and everything that has to do with church life must satisfy my desires or I have no time for it. Such a danger is that we miss the gospel altogether while parading as an exemplary Christian. Paul gives us two important safeguards to hedge our lives against this kind of failing Christianity.
He calls for us to “continue in His kindness.” The kindness refers to God’s grace at work in the gospel. He contrasts “severity” or judgment with “kindness” or grace toward sinners. We are to continue in it, persist in it, persevere in it. But what if we do not persevere? “You also will be cut off.” The evidence of a true believer is perseverance in the faith; or let me put it like this: true faith in Christ continues in God’s kindness. Would God cut off people like us? Some did not take Paul’s warning seriously. Once the cradle of Christianity was ancient Asia Minor or modern Turkey; but they did not continue in God’s kindness. Once strong Christians like Tertullian, Augustine and Athanasius stood boldly for the gospel in Northern Africa but now, it is a spiritual wasteland. Once Christians in Rome laid down their lives for the gospel but now only a handful follow Christ in that city (cf. J.M. Boice, Romans, vol. 3, 1352-54). Not only are we personally affected, but also succeeding generations are impacted by our perseverance. May God find us faithful!
“Do not be conceited, but fear.” Does this mean a cowering fear that wonders if God is ready to swat us like flies if we step out of line? Certainly not, since “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). Rather “fear” is not inconsistent with living in “God’s kindness.” Fear means that we do not presume upon the grace of God. We marvel at the richness of grace. We are awed that He would show such kindness to unworthy people. We shudder at the thought of unfaithfulness toward Him and the gospel. We do not lose sight of His holiness, power, and authority. We keep in mind that He is just as much God when He judges (“severity”) as when He saves (“kindness”). So if we fear Him we turn from arrogance toward others. We cannot live in high-minded conceit since He is Lord and we are not. Fear keeps us from trusting in ourselves and leans us ever toward relying on the grace of God in Christ. May that be the place that we are always found!
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