Romans 11:15

Romans 11:15 says, For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?  Paul was still speaking of the Jews receiving salvation.  They were the people God had chosen to work through to bring knowledge of Him to the world.  The Israelites, or Jews, were not chosen because of any moral superiority to the rest of the world, but because they were a weak and insignificant group of people.  We never find in the Bible where God chose people because they were morally superior to others of their own merit. What made them morally better was accepting God's call and following His purpose for their lives.  Paul was still calling on the Jews to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord, that they could truly be God's people.  Verse sixteen adds, For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.  Paul was again referring to the Jews.  They were the firstfruit, the ones God had chosen to work through.  I believe that Paul was saying that had they been holy, in the right relationship with God, the world could have been reached, or brought into the right relationship with God, through them.  This was God's plan, but the overwhelming majority of those who called themselves His people rejected it.  They wanted to rulers over the Gentiles, and not servants of God to reach them.  We who profess to be followers of Christ today must be careful that we do not start to feel that we are better than the lost of the world and more worthy of salvation of our own merit.  We are called to serve God humbly that we might reach the lost and dying world, and not to sit in judgment praying for their destruction.  Verse seventeen continues, 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;  Paul was speaking to the Gentiles.  They, and we, were grafted into the family of God through the root, Jesus Christ.  Many of the existing branches, the Jews, were broken off, because they rejected that root. Verse eighteen states, Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.  I believe Paul was warning the Gentiles against beginning to feel superior to the Jews.  Just because the Jews had rejected Christ did not mean that God had stopped calling to them.  Verse nineteen adds, Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.  This I believe is a continuation of Paul's telling the Gentiles and us that due to the Jews rejecting Christ and their role in spreading the gospel, the task went to the Gentiles, which means us.  The Jewish nation today still rejects Christ.  Verse twenty continues, Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:   They were broken off due to disbelief in God's salvation plan, which can only be received through faith.  Since we stand reconciled by faith, we can never be high minded in our relationship to other people.  Verse twenty-one concludes, For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.  Paul issued a warning. If God did not spare the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, then we need never believe that He will save us for any reason but faith in Christ. For this reason, we must never feel superior to other people based on where we were born or what family or social standing we were born into.  God still calls all people.