Those Who Fall Can Rise Again

Israel had stumbled and fallen, but this did not make it impossible for them to rise again. In answer to the question, “Have they stumbled that they should fall?” the apostle replied: “Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. ...ULe 137.2

“For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”ULe 137.3

It was God’s decision to reveal His grace among the Gentiles as well as among the Israelites. “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” he inquired. “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”ULe 137.4

Despite Israel’s failure as a nation, there were faithful men and women who had gladly received the message of John the Baptist and so had been led to study again the prophecies about the Messiah. The early Christian church was composed of these faithful Jews. Paul referred to this “remnant”: “If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy” (Romans 11:16, NRSV).ULe 137.5

Paul compared the Gentiles to branches from a wild olive tree, grafted into the parent stock. “If some of the branches were broken off,” he wrote, “and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. ...ULe 137.6

“Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.”ULe 137.7