13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as aI am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy thosewhoare my flesh and asave some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance beabut life from the dead?
16 For if athe firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if asome of the branches were broken off, band you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and1 fatness of the olive tree,
18ado not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, rememberthat you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
20 Well said. Because of aunbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you,1 goodness, aif you continue in His goodness. Otherwise byou also will be cut off.
23 And they also, aif they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be awise in your own opinion, that bblindness in part has happened to Israel cuntil the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
God Himself has kept Israel from seeing and hearing (understanding and applying) His truth, giving Israel a spirit of slumber to make possible the salvation of the Gentiles. He has determined to call and choose only a limited number from Israel in this age, allowing the rest to remain blinded. With the rest of humanity, they will rise in the second resurrection and have the opportunity for salvation.
