9
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from them came the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who descend from Israel are Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s offspring. Rather, “Through Isaac your offspring will be named.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” 10 And not only that, but Rebekah also conceived by one man, our father Isaac. 11 For before they were born or had done anything good or evil, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand, 12 not from works but from the one who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then, it depends not on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God, who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, so that I might show my power in you and so that my name might be proclaimed throughout the earth.” 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
19 You will say to me, then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 But what if God, wanting to show his wrath and make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom he also called, not only from among Jews but also from among Gentiles?
25 As he also says in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not my people ‘my people,’ and her who was not loved ‘beloved.’ ”
26 “And in the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God.”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
“Though the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth completely and without delay.”
29 And as Isaiah said beforehand,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith, 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not reach that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock that makes people stumble, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”