| 9:1 |
I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, |
| 9:2 |
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. |
| 9:3 |
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh, |
| 9:4 |
who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; |
| 9:5 |
of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. |
| 9:6 |
But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. |
| 9:7 |
Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called." { Genesis 21:12 } |
| 9:8 |
That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed. |
| 9:9 |
For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." { Genesis 18:10,14 } |
| 9:10 |
Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. |
| 9:11 |
For 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, |
| 9:12 |
it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." { Genesis 25:23 } |
| 9:13 |
Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." { Malachi 1:2-3 } |
| 9:14 |
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! |
| 9:15 |
For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." { Exodus 33:19 } |
| 9:16 |
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. |
| 9:17 |
For 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." { Exodus 9:16 } |
| 9:18 |
So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. |
| 9:19 |
You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?" |
| 9:20 |
But 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?" { Isaiah 29:16; 45:9 } |
| 9:21 |
Or 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? |
| 9:22 |
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, |
| 9:23 |
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, |
| 9:24 |
us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? |
| 9:25 |
As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved." { Hosea 2:23 } |
| 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.'" { Hosea 1:10 } |
| 9:27 |
Isaiah 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; |
| 9:28 |
for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." { Isaiah 10:22-23 } |
| 9:29 |
As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Armies { Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze'va'ot) } had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah." { Isaiah 1:9 } |
| 9:30 |
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; |
| 9:31 |
but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. |
| 9:32 |
Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; |
| 9:33 |
even 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." { Isaiah 8:14; 28:16 } |
