Engrafting
Paul pictures God’s people as an olive tree. Some branches were broken off, and a wild olive branch, a Gentile believer, was “graffed in among them”. His warning is gentle but firm: “Boast not against the branches.” The grafted branch does not carry the root; the root carries it. Paul sets God’s kindness beside his strictness and says the broken-off branches can be grafted in again, for God is able. Christians read the passage in different ways, especially about what it says of Israel. All of it lies in Romans 11:17-24, a short and vivid picture of belonging.
8 verses
Romans
And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
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?