New Testament · Romans

Romans 9

Paul’s Concern for the Jews

1I am speaking the truth^a in Messiah — I am not lying, my conscience^b bearing witness with me in the holy^c spirit^d — 2that I have great grief and unceasing anguish in my heart^e. 3For I myself could wish to be accursed from Messiah for the sake of my brothers — my kinsmen according to the flesh^f — 4who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption^g as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law^h and the temple service and the promises, 5to whom belong the fathers, and from whom is Messiah according to the flesh — He who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

The Purpose of God according to Election

(Genesis 25:19–28; Malachi 1:1–5)

6But it is not as though the wordⁱ of God has failed, for not all who are from Israel are Israel, 7nor because they are seed of Abraham are they all children; but "In Isaac your seed shall be called." 8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as seed. 9For this is a word of promise: "At this appointed time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."^j

10And not only that, but also Rebecca, when she had conceived by one man — our father Isaac — 11for the children not yet having been born and having done nothing good or evil — so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from the One who calls — 12it was said to her: "The greater shall serve the lesser," 13just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

14What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15For He says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

16So then it is not of the one who wills nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17For the scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I raised you up — that I might display My power^l in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth."^k 18So then, He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.

19You will say to me then: "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20On the contrary — O person, who are you to talk back to God? Will the thing formed say to the one who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" 21Or does the potter not have authority^m over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

22But if God, willing to display His wrathⁿ and to make His might^o known, endured with much patience^p vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23and in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory — 24even us whom He called, not only from the Jews but also from the nations — 25as He also says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not My people 'My people,' and her who was not beloved 'Beloved.'"

26"And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called sons of the living God."

27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved;

28for He is completing the word and cutting it short in righteousness^q, because a word cut short the Lord will carry out upon the earth."

29And just as Isaiah said beforehand: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and would have been made like Gomorrah."

Israel’s Unbelief

30What then shall we say? That the nations, who were not pursuing righteousness, attained righteousness — the righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not reach the law of righteousness. 32Why? Because it was not by faith but as by works of the law — they stumbled against the stone of stumbling, 33just as it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of stumbling block, and everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame."^r