Paul’s Concern for the Jews

¹ I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. ² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that^* I myself were cursed^* and cut off from Christ^* for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ,^* who is God^* over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.^*

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word^* has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children.^* On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”⁸ So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, ¹² not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”¹³ So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^*

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! 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 does not depend on man’s desire or effort,^* but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” ²⁰ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?^*

²² What if God, intending to show His wrath^* and make His power known,^* bore with great patience^* the vessels of His wrath,^* prepared^* for destruction? ²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory — ²⁴ including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As He says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people,

and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”

²⁶ and,

“It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

they will be called

‘sons of the living God.’”

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea,

only the remnant will be saved.

²⁸ For the Lord will carry out His sentence^* on the earth

thoroughly and decisively.”

²⁹ It is just as Isaiah foretold:

“Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰ What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³² Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³ as it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling

and a rock of offense;^*

and the one who believes in Him

will never be put to shame.”^*