Continue in His Kindness

“For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 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.” -Romans 11:21–22

As Paul has already noted in verse 20, fear, not pride, is the proper response to God’s gracious act of engrafting (us) Gentiles into the tree. He warns that if God would not spare the natural branches once they became an instrument of unbelief, do not think for a second God would spare the church if it too became such an instrument.

Paul then follows up with a final warning by highlighting God’s kindness toward belief and his severity toward apostasy. God is immutable. He never changes. Paul is not saying God is in flux here. Rather, God is the constant and where we choose to line up with God will determine whether we experience his kindness or his wrath.

Though all analogies for God eventually breakdown and should not be held in higher esteem than their usefulness merits, one is particularly helpful here. If God were to be compared to a river whose powerful waters flow in a single direction, our small rowboat will experience the benevolence of the mighty river when rightly oriented to the direction of its flow but experience violence if we try to row against its turbulent current. The river remains constant; the condition depends on our orientation to it.

Therefore, let us remain fearful of God’s severity and continue to rest in his kindness that we never know the terrors of being cut off from the source of all goodness, truth, and beauty.