| Chapter 9 |
1 |
I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, |
2 |
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. |
3 |
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers` sake, my relatives according to the flesh, |
4 |
who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; |
5 |
whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. |
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. |
7 |
Neither, because they are Abraham`s seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called." |
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 |
For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." |
10 |
Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. |
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, |
12 |
it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." |
13 |
Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." |
14 |
What will we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! |
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." |
16 |
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. |
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 published abroad in all the earth." |
18 |
So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. |
19 |
You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?" |
20 |
But no, man, who are you who replies against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" |
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? |
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, |
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and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, |
24 |
us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? |
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." |
26 |
"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,` There will they be called `sons of the living God.`" |
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; |
28 |
For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." |
29 |
As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And would have been made like Gomorrah." |
30 |
What will we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn`t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; |
31 |
but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn`t arrive at the law of righteousness. |
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; |
33 |
even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And no one who believes in him will be put to shame." |