God’s Mercy Keeps His Promise and Gathers the Nations

9:2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

9:3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh

9:4who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

9:5of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

9:6But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel.

9:7Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”

9:8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.

9:9For this is a word of promise: “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”

9:10Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

9:11For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

9:12it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”

9:13Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

9:14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!

9:15For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

9:16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

9:17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

9:18So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

9:19You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?”

9:20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

9:21Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

9:22What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

9:23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory—

9:24us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

9:25As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”

9:26“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

9:27Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;

9:28for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

9:29As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”

9:30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

9:31but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.

9:32Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

9:33even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”

10:2For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

10:3For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

10:4For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

10:5For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”

10:6But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);

10:7or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”

10:8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach:

10:9that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10:10For with the heart one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation.

10:11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

10:12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

10:13For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

10:14How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

10:15And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

10:16But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

10:17So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

10:18But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

10:19But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation. I will make you angry with a nation void of understanding.”

10:20Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”

10:21But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

11:2God didn’t reject his people, whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

11:3“Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have broken down your altars. I am left alone, and they seek my life.”

11:4But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

11:5Even so too at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

11:6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

11:7What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

11:8According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”

11:9David says, “Let their table be made a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.

11:10Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Always keep their backs bent.”

11:11I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

11:12Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

11:13For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry,

11:14if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.

11:15For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?

11:16If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.

11:17But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree,

11:18don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.

11:19You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”

11:20True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;

11:21for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

11:22See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

11:23They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

11:24For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

11:25For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,

11:26and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

11:27This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”

11:28Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.

11:29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

11:30For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,

11:31even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.

11:32For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

11:33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

11:34“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

11:35“Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”

11:36For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.