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Our apostle, in these and the following verses, proceeds in his exhortation to the Gentiles, not to insult over the rejected Jews, but to carry it towards them with great modesty and Christian humility; and he useth several arguments by way of motive to excite and quicken them thereunto.
The two first are drawn from the severity of God in cutting off the Jews, and the goodness and bounty of God in calling of the Gentiles; Behold the goodness and severity of God, &c. Justice and mercy, goodness and severity, are attributes or qualities eminently found in God; and contrary only in their effects upon men. The same God is merciful and severe, with respect to different persons and different qualifications. All mercy is not a virtue, but that which is consistent with other perfections of wisdom and righteousness.
The next argument is taken from the condition upon which the Gentiles hold their present standing in the favour and grace of God; namely, If they continue in his goodness; that is, if they walk worthy of this favour from God, and suitably to such a kind and gracious dispensation; otherwise they, the Gentiles, shall be cut off and cast away, as well as the stubborn and unbelieving Jews. The Lord is with a people only whilst they are with him; if they serve and seek him, he will be found of them; but if they forsake him, he will cast them off for ever.
The next argument to suppress arrogancy and pride in the Gentiles, and to prevent their insulting over the fallen Jews, is taken from the hopes of the Jews' restoration; which the apostle proves to be both possible and probable.
They shall be graffed in, if they abide not in unbelief; for God is able to graff them in again. As if the apostle had said, "The same God that rejected them, is able to restore them, and re-ingraff them; the only obstacle is their unbelief, and this God is also able to remove."
Lastly, He shows the probability as well as the possibility of the Jews' conversion; namely, because God had done that which was more unlikely already, to wit, in graffing the Gentiles, who were wild olives, into the true olive, which was more difficult and unlikely than to graff in the Jews again, which were natural branches.
The argument runs thus: "If the Gentiles, which were a kind of wild scion into a good stock; how much more shall the Jews, which are the natural branches of the good olive, be graffed again into their own olive-tree, to which they formerly did belong! The one is according to the order of nature, but the other is against and contrary to nature."
Learn hence, How improbable and unlikely, how difficult and impossible soever, the conversion and calling of the Jews to the Christian religion may seem to us, it is neither contrary to right reason nor true faith.
The greatest obstacle in the way of the Jews' conversion to Christianity, it is to be feared, lies in the wicked and scandalous lives of those that call themselves Christians.