Romans 11:18
Where would we be
without the Jews?

This verse is found in the letter from the apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome. Chapters 9 through 11 deal with the question, ‘what about the Jews?’ now that salvation has come to the gentiles.  Has God forgotten about the Jews? Are the Jews no longer His own special people?

Paul is using the root and branch analogy. In verse 16, he explains that if the root is holy, then so are the branches. In verse 17, Paul mentions that some of the branches were broken off (unbelieving Jews), and that wild branches were grafted in (believing non-Jews) and hence became beneficiaries of the root. So the root represents God’s special relationship with the Jews, which started with Abraham and continued all through the Old Testament.

Some gentile Christians may have the tendency to feel more special now then the Jews. Paul is warning against such boasting. The Greek word for boasting is ‘katakauchaomai’, which is a combination of ‘kata’ (down from) and ‘kauchaomai’. This last word means to boast or to glory and it comes probably from the root word that means neck (which keeps the head up high). So katakauchaomai is an intensified form of boasting.

We should not feel any sort of pride against Jews. Instead, we should remember that salvation came about through the Jews. God revealed Himself to and through the Jews. The patriarchs were Jews, Moses was a Jew, the prophets were Jews and Jews preserved the Old Testament for us.

Jesus was a Jew. The disciples and apostles were Jews. The first Christians were Jews and it were Jews who first spread the good news about Jesus through the rest of the world. The reason that gentiles received this good news is so that unbelieving Jews might get jealous (verse 11), and in the future, the Jews will again turn en masse to God (verse 26-27). The Jews are still God’s special people and we Christians better not boast against them. Where would we be without them?