11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Grafting is an extraordinary botanical process in which two or more plants grow together as a single plant. Cut or fallen branches can actually be reattached to any living branch or trunk, come alive and slowly become itself a branch of the new tree. This works with branches of the same plant but also can sometimes work with different kinds as well.
Paul often talks about how salvation through Christ and the Gospel is not something held exclusively to the Jews but also the Gentiles as well. This analogy for grafting is a perfect one because its an extension of Jesus talking about the vine and the branches. We bear fruit and have life when we are branches attached to the vine of Christ. Paul is saying that Jews may have been the natural olive tree, being apart of God's original covenant, but that does not mean that Gentiles can't be grafted on to be a cultivated olive tree that bears fruit as well.
In John 15 where Jesus talks about the vine and the branches, he also mentions that if we do not bear fruit we are cut off. In this passage Paul says this can happen through unbelief, that we need to be careful not to become arrogant as some of the Jews had become. Being a part of the tree for so long, some forgot "it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you".
While today it might not seem that hard to imagine that everyone is included in the Gospel, this principle of being grafted and cut is one that we need to be reminded of. Paul mentions the kindness and severity of God, the kindness that allows us even in our failures and flaws to be grafted back into a right relationship with Christ, no matter how far we may have fallen or how broken we may feel. However Paul also mentions the severity. Paul warned the Jews that felt too comfortable being a part of the tree that they stopped bearing fruit. This is Paul's warning to everyone that falls complacent whether its because they were Jews that had been God's people for so long or any Christian today that takes their faith for granted.
