These things can be confusing. Paul gave us a lot of information on this subject, and in it he uses the term “adoption”.  But not just for us gentiles, but for Israel as well.  So we must consider the concept of adoption, and why both gentiles and Israel are included in that description according to Paul.  

He tells us in Romans 9:3, that his fellow kinsman the Jews belong to this adoption.  He speaks of these:

(Romans 9:4)  who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] service and the promises,

Paul then concludes that this all came through Israel, in order to support that the adoption as sons belongs to these the Jews:

(Romans 9:5)  whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (NASB1995)

Jesus’ redemption mission provides for this adoption; the making of sons of God from ordinary men. He provides a way out from under the curse of the law, and offers to us His adoption.  As an aside, we have to deal with the concept surrounding predestination as we come to grips with these questions.  

Ephesians 1:5  He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, (NASB1995)

Does Paul mean here that we don’t need to believe if we are predestined as some see with Israel, or is it that we are predestined because we do believe?

God chooses us to be adopted as sons not based on our works, but upon His calling us to His Son and our subsequent belief in His Sons redemptive work for our own eternal life with Him. His foreknowledge allows Him to know our individual end before we are even begun with the birthing process as it is offered us through the gospel.  God predestined beforehand those enduring unto the end of their life “in Him”, and He predestined them to be adopted as sons. You wind up life in Christ and you are predestined to sonship in eternity. 

Christ is the vehicle through whom we are adopted as sons. Before Christ all were under the law. And because of that we were cursed. 

Paul tells us:

Romans 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (KJV)

Paul here makes the case for why God did not choose all of Israel to be His sons. That choice would be based on what we see in Paul’s description of the Olive tree itself in Chapter 11.

What is that tree?  It must be the tree in which at the end would contain His adopted sons, who will make up God’s family.  But it is more than that because it also contained some, who would not endure (these are labeled unbelievers), men, who don’t fool God, because they are observed and they are cut off.  We are grafted into this His tree, and that based only upon our belief.  The cutting off implies that one can change his belief.  There is the idea of testing being presented in James.  And, we also have Paul’s warning:

Romans 11:20-21, Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;  for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. (NASB1995)

The natural branches, who were not spared were found guilty of unbelief and only then were they cut off.  Those Natural branches were obviously Israelites.  So the tree still contains believing Israelites, who are its natural branches, and thus represent a remnant of Israel.  These remained then, only because of their belief.  Paul then says the unbelievers from Israel were cut off to allow room for our adoption. 

How then can we not see this one tree to be representative of God’s entire adopted family? In Jeremiah 51:18 God reveals that part of His creation became “vanity” because of idolatry.  But He continues through Jeremiah, that Jacob (Israel) is not like these:

Jeremiah 51:19  The Portion of Jacob [the true God of Israel] is not like these [handmade gods]; For He is the Maker of all [and] the One who formed [and] fashioned all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance–The LORD of hosts is His name. (AMP)

So, Paul began his dealings with the adoption subject, by telling us in Chapter 9 of this his Romans letter, that it was to Israel that adoption belonged; but he ends in chapter 11, by telling us that God chooses only believers in Christ as His sons and daughters.  He grafts them in alongside remaining natural branches. They were also grafted in and are they, who have not fallen to unbelief.  These all are included in His family tree by adoption.  But sandwiched in between what he tells us of Jews and Gentiles, both of whom are sons of God, there He interjects for us why this is:

Romans 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (NASB1995)

So the answer to the questions in our title, we might say:  is not really complicated.  

If the Olive Tree contains Israel’s remnant; then we would need to be part and parcel with Israel (the natural branches).  If the Olive Tree will contain in the end, all of the sons of God and therefore His people; then both Israel’s saved and the Church’s saved do become part of that adopted citizenship.  These are children of the coming First Resurrection.

The tree is prophetically and ultimately sustained by the root which is Jesus.  He Himself called upon us to endure to the end for a reason.  Belief will sustain us. Unbelief will remove us from this tree.  Unbelief is the unpardonable sin. God prunes the branches of His tree in order that they will bare Him good fruit.  He removes the branches that due to unbelief are no longer useful because of unbelief. 

The tree, then is equivalent to God’s sons, Christ’s bride, His Church, and Israel’s promise to bare seed equal to the sand of the sea, and the stars of the heavens. It represents One New Man even as Paul teaches us in Ephesians. The new Jerusalem represents the same. It is the Brethren of Christ. The redeemed from the World. None of this is possible apart from Jesus the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God. Praises be unto His name. 

Why is this important? My next post will hopefully look at the reasons for its importance.