Romans 9
9
God’s Selection of Israel
1With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.#9:3 Greek my brothers. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.#9:4 Greek chosen for sonship. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.#9:5 Or May God, the one who rules over everything, be praised forever. Amen.
6Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,”#9:7 Gen 21:12. though Abraham had other children, too. 8This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”#9:9 Gen 18:10, 14.
10This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.#9:10 Greek she conceived children through this one man. 11But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”#9:12 Gen 25:23. 13In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”#9:13 Mal 1:2-3.
14Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”#9:15 Exod 33:19.
16So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”#9:17 Exod 9:16 (Greek version). 18So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
20No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
25Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.”#9:25 Hos 2:23.
26And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”#9:26 Greek sons of the living God. Hos 1:10.
27And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
28For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.”#9:27-28 Isa 10:22-23 (Greek version).
29And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:
“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
had not spared a few of our children,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
destroyed like Gomorrah.”#9:29 Isa 1:9 (Greek version).
Israel’s Unbelief
30What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law#9:32 Greek by works. instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem#9:33a Greek in Zion. that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”#9:33b Isa 8:14; 28:16 (Greek version).
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Romans 9
9
Israel’s Rejection
1 I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit—2that my grief is great and there is constant distress in my heart. 3For I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my fellow countrymen according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, 5to whom belong the patriarchs, and from whom is the Christ according to human descent, who is God over all, blessed forever#Literally “for eternity”! Amen.
6But it is not as if the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, 7nor are they all children because they are descendants of Abraham, but “In Isaac will your descendants be named.”#A quotation from Gen 21:12 8That is, it is not the children by human descent#Literally “of the flesh” who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9For the statement of the promise is this: “At this time I will return and Sarah will have#Literally “there will be to Sarah” a son.”#A quotation from Gen 18:10, 14 10And not only this, but also when#*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“having conception” = “conceived”) which is understood as temporal Rebecca conceived children by one man,#Or perhaps “by one act of sexual intercourse” Isaac our father—11for although they#*Here “although” is supplied as a component of the participle (“been born”) which is understood as concessive had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain, 12not by works but by the one who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”#A quotation from Gen 25:23 13just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”#A quotation from Mal 1:2–3
God’s Sovereign Choice to Show Mercy
14What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there?#*The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here May it never be! 15For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”#A quotation from Exod 33:19 16Consequently therefore, it does not depend on the#Literally “not of the” one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. 17For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”#A quotation from Exod 9:16 18Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.
19Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted#Or “who resists” his will? 20On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this”?#A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9 21Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for honorable use#Literally “honor” and one that is for ordinary use#Literally “dishonor”? 22And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And he did so#*The words “he did so” are not in the Greek text, but are an understood repetition from the previous clause in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory, 24us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25As he also says in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’
and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’#A quotation from Hos 2:23
26And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”#A quotation from Hos 1:10
27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
“Even if the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea,
the remnant will be saved,
28for the Lord will execute his sentence thoroughly and decisively#Literally “for the Lord will act, closing the account and cutting short” upon the earth.”#A paraphrased quotation from Isa 10:22–23
29And just as Isaiah foretold,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom
and would have resembled Gomorrah.”#A quotation from Isa 1:9
30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—even the righteousness that is by faith. 31But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. 32Why that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if by works. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble#Literally “stone of stumbling”, 33just as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble#Literally “a stone of stumbling”,
and a rock that causes them to fall#Literally “a rock of offense”,
and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”#A quotation from Isa 28:16; 8:14
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