But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a
wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in
the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward
the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the
root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say,
"Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20 That
is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you
stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he
spare you. 22 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.

The last two messages on Romans 11 have dealt with Paul's
reasons why we should reject the rising of pride and anti-Semitism
in our hearts. Paul is writing to a church in Rome made up mainly
of people who are not Jews. We call them Gentiles. He has taught
them that by believing in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was
crucified and rose from the dead, they become part of God's people.
They are part of the true Israel.

He pictures this with an olive tree in Romans 11:17-22. There is
a rich, all-supplying root, and that represents the covenant that
God made with Abraham. There are branches, some natural—these
represent ethnic Jewish people—and some unnatural or wild
which are grafted in—these represent Gentiles who believe in
Jesus. You see this in verse 17: “You, although a wild olive
shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the
nourishing root of the olive tree.”

So far so good. But the startling thing is that Paul also
teaches that Jewish branches were broken off so that
Gentile branches might be grafted in. I tried to explain last time
why that happened. But that it did is plain from verse 19:
“Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I
might be grafted in.' That is true.” This is the truth that
causes Paul to focus now on the problem of Gentile pride and
anti-Semitism.

So in verse 18 he says, “Do not be arrogant toward the
branches.” And in verse 20b he says, “So do not become
proud, but stand in awe.” The very truth that should make
Gentiles humble and thankful is about to make them proud. So Paul
lingers here—and we are lingering here—to give reasons
why pride and anti-Semitism is ruled out among those who truly
believe in Jesus as their Savior and Lord and Treasure.

He gives at least three reasons why pride and anti-Semitism are
ruled out for believers (there are more than three that I won't
dwell on: such as his calling the Gentiles “ wild
olive branches,” v. 17; and his saying they “ were
grafted in” and did not graft themselves in, v. 17). The
first reason we looked at was in verse 18, “Remember it is
not you who support the root, but the root that supports
you.” The second was in verse 21: “If God did not spare
the natural branches, neither will he spare you.” So don't be
proud.

Your Only Connection to the Tree of Salvation Is Faith, Which
Cannot Boast

And now the third reason why pride and anti-Semitism are ruled
out we will deal with today, namely, the argument that faith is the
only thing that connects you to the tree of salvation; and faith,
because of its nature and origin, cannot boast.

You see this argument in verse 20. But let's start reading in
verse 19: “Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off
so that I might be grafted in.' 20 That is true. [Now here comes
Paul's response:] They were broken off because of their
unbelief , but you stand fast through faith . So do
not become proud, but stand in awe.” Your only connection to
this tree is faith. You got in by faith. You stay in by faith. So
don't become proud but fear! In Paul's mind, saving faith rules out
pride.

This is not the first time we have seen this. Listen to Romans
3:27-28. After saying that God justifies those who have faith in
Jesus, Paul says, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is
excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the
law of faith . 28 For we hold that one is justified by
faith apart from works of the law.” So it is clear that
in Paul's mind there is something about faith that makes a life of
boasting or pride that is puffed up over other people impossible.
Where pride and boasting and anti-Semitism or racism or
ethnocentrism are rising, faith is declining or gone.

So I want to ask three questions to unfold why this is. 1) Where
does saving faith come from—the kind of faith that connects
us to the tree of promise and salvation? 2) What is it? 3) And how
do we maintain it? I will only have time to deal with the first
two, and I want to spend most of our time on the second. So I will
pass over the first one quickly, even though it is controversial,
and I hope I will come back next time to the third.

1. Where Does Faith Come From?

Faith is an act or experience of your soul, and so it doesn't
exist until it exists in your soul. And so it is right to say it
comes from your soul. Faith is your act. No one can do it
for you. But when I ask, Where does it come from? I want to press
the matter back further and ask, why is it that one spiritually
blind and spiritually dead soul sees Christ as true and
compellingly attractive, and comes to him in faith, while another
spiritually blind and spiritually dead soul hears the same message,
reads the same Bible, and does not see or come?

The ultimate biblical answer to that is: God owes us sinners
nothing, but mercifully and freely and omnipotently takes away the
rebellious blindness from some, and they see the glory of Christ
and choose freely to come and believe. So the Bible speaks of faith
as a gift of God. For example, in Ephesians 2:8, “By grace
you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God.”

This is one of the reasons that faith prevents boasting. You
can't boast in a gift. You can't say: I earned this gift, because
then it's not a gift, but a wage (see Romans 6:23). You can't say,
“I produced this faith all on my own.” You can't say,
“I was the decisive cause of this faith.” If you say
you were, you are boasting in a way that is not biblical. Here's
the principle from 1 Corinthians 4:7, “ What do you have that
you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as
if you did not receive it?” Our hands should be on our mouths
whenever we are tempted to boast that we were the ultimate or
decisive cause of our own faith. It was a gift and it rules out
boasting over the broken off branches.

2. What Is Saving Faith?

What is the faith that connects us to the tree of God's promises
and keeps us there? We have seen how the origin of faith
rules out pride. Now how does the nature of faith rule out
pride?

2.1. First I want to stress that saving faith has
objective content.

It is not faith in general—like the power of positive
thinking—that saves us. Faith must know some facts. For
example, consider Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your
mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe [there's faith] in
your heart that God raised him from the dead , you will be
saved.” There is a fact. God raised Jesus from the dead.
Faith believes that this is true. If we don't believe that is true,
we are not saved.

Or consider 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Paul says that Christ is
coming back “to be glorified in his saints, and to be
marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony
to you was believed ” (see Acts 22:15 ). Faith hears a
testimony about Christ from the apostles and believes the facts of
the testimony.

I recommend the book by J. Gresham Machen, "http://discerningreader.com/whatisfaitjg.html">What is
Faith? He says, “The Bible certainly tells us that
faith involves a person as its object . . . God the Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. . . . But . . . it is impossible to have faith
in a person without having knowledge of the person” (1925;
reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), p. 46.

But that is not enough to say about faith to see what saving
faith is, because the devil himself believes the historical facts
about Christ—and more. James 2:19 says, “You believe
that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and
shudder!” And the devil certainly believes that Jesus was
raised from the dead. So the facts are necessary, but they are not
enough. You must believe true facts about Jesus to be saved, but
believing true facts about Jesus does not save you. And it doesn't
destroy pride. It is possible to boast in knowing facts. So the
factual side of faith does not rule out pride and boasting.

2.2.
So the second thing to say about saving faith is
that it doesn't just know facts about but it trusts in
Jesus.

But what does that mean? When you say you trust someone, it's
not clear what you are saying until you explain what you trust the
person to do for you or to be for you.

For example, if you ask me, “Do you trust your
wife?” I would say yes. But it would be more accurate to say,
“Do I trust her to do what? Jump over a building? Sing bass?
Not poison me? Be faithful and sleep with no other man?”
Answer: “No, no, yes, yes.” So what am I saying? I'm
saying that when you claim to trust someone, you need to have in
your mind what you trust them to do or to be. You don't trust a
preacher to prescribe antibiotics. You trust him to teach the Word
of God faithfully.

This is really important because it shows that what we trust a
person for determines what the experience of faith is like. The
experience of trusting a person to love you as your spouse, will be
very different from the experience of trusting the mailman to bring
your mail, or your child to come home on time, or your friend to
give you good counsel. All these acts of trust involve different
emotional experiences.

So the crucial question for defining the essence of faith in
Jesus Christ is: What are you trusting him for? What you are
trusting him for will determine what your experience of faith is.
I'll mention five things that we must trust Jesus for if we would
be saved. This is not an exhaustive list.

2.2.1. We must trust him for justification.

We must trust him that what he is and did is the only basis for
our acceptance with God. You don't even have to know the word
“justification.” And you don't have to be able to
articulate its precise biblical meaning. But you do need to know
that you are a sinner and that God is a just judge and that you can
only be accepted by him because of who Christ was and what he did.
We trust him to be the basis of our acceptance with God; we don't
trust our own works. Galatians 2:16, “ So we also have
believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in
Christ and not by works of the law.” We trust him for
justification.

2.2.2. We trust him for eternal life.

1 Timothy 1:16, “Jesus Christ [displayed] his perfect
patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for
eternal life .” This has a huge impact on what the
experience of faith is like as we take risks for love and face our
own death.

2.2.3. We trust him for everlasting
kindness.

This simply makes clear that eternal life is really good, and
not eternal boredom or misery. The key word “kindness”
is here in our text. Verse 22: “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.” What does it mean to “continue in God's
kindness”? It means: trust him for kindness every day
forever. You stay in God's kindness by believing that it surrounds
you and upholds you all the time—in pain and pleasure. The
basis for this trust is in the next point.

2.2.4 We trust that in Jesus God will give us only what
is good for us.

And this confidence is based squarely on the cross and not on
our merit. Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but
gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously
give us all things?” The argument is plain: the cross of
Christ guarantees that God will give us all things that are good
for us. He will work all our circumstances—painful and
pleasant—together for our good. Saving faith trusts God for
that.

Do you recall what we ask baptismal candidates in the water? We
ask, “Are you now trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the
forgiveness of yours sins and for the fulfillment of all his
promises to you in Christ Jesus, even eternal life?” Saving
faith trusts Jesus for all that God promises to be for us in
him.

2.2.5 Which brings us to the last and most essential,
and so often neglected, reality that we trust Jesus
for.

What is the kindness of God? What is the essence of eternal
life? What does justification bring us to? What is the sum and goal
of all the promises of God? The answer is God himself,
giving himself to us for our everlasting enjoyment.

The ultimate kindness of God, the ultimate meaning of eternal
life, the ultimate goal of justification, the cream of every
promise is the knowing and enjoying the fellowship of God himself
in Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered once for
sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to
God.” Romans 5:10-11, “If while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we
are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than
that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” The end of all salvation is joy in God.

This is the final and ultimate promise of God in Christ.
Therefore, saving faith believes in Christ for this, and means, at
its heart, embracing God as our ultimate happiness through Jesus
Christ. Faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in
Jesus.

Therefore, when this faith is in high exercise, pride and
boasting and anti-Semitism and racism and ethnocentrism are
impossible. Why? Because desperate people do not and cannot boast
in what gives them life-saving joy. When have you ever seen a man
dying of thirst and being offered a canteen of cool, clean water,
say, “Am I not somebody for enjoying this water?”