Already implied here is the warning allegory of the olive tree in 11:17–24. The same dissociative logic applies there as well: the present appearence of “dead branches” (some of Israel) and of the nations being “grafted in” vs. the future reality: the power to graft on the dead branches, who being native to a cultivated tree will again become vital and fruitbearing; this is God’s power to bring life from the dead. The nations, however, being grafted from wild plantings, can be removed from the tree