Romans 9

Paul’s Love for the Jewish People

1-2O Israel, my Jewish family, # 9:1–2 Although implied here, Paul indeed calls them “my people” in v. 3. I feel such great sorrow and heartache for you that never leaves me! God knows these deep feelings within me as I long for you to come to faith in the Anointed One. My conscience will not let me speak anything but the truth. 3-4For my grief is so intense that I wish that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, if it would mean that you, my people, would come to faith in him!

You are Israelites, my fellow citizens, and God’s chosen people. # 9:3–4 Or “to you belong the adoption as sons.” To you belong God’s glorious presence, the covenants, the Torah, the temple with its required sacrifices, and the promises of God. 5We trace our beginnings back to the patriarchs, and through their bloodline is the genealogy of the Messiah, who is God over everything. May he be praised through endless ages! Amen!

6Clearly, God has not failed to fulfill his promises to Israel, for that will never happen! But not everyone who has descended from Israel belongs to Israel. 7Physical descent from Abraham doesn’t guarantee the inheritance, because God has said:

“Through Isaac your descendants will be counted as part of your lineage.” # 9:7 See Gen. 21:12.

8This confirms that it is not merely the natural offspring of Abraham who are considered the children of God; rather, the children born because of God’s promise # 9:8 The Aramaic can be translated “the children of the kingdom.” By implication, it is those who can be traced back to a supernatural birth who are regarded as the children of God. are counted as descendants. 9For God promised Abraham:

“Now is the time! For in nine months your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” # 9:9 See Gen. 18:10, 14.

God’s Freedom of Choice

10Now, this son was our ancestor, Isaac, who, with his wife, Rebekah, conceived twins. 11-12And before her twin sons were born, God spoke to Rebekah and said:

“The oldest will serve the youngest.” # 9:11–12 See Gen. 25:23.

God spoke these words before the sons had done anything good or bad, which proves that God calls people not on the basis of their good or bad works, but according to his divine purpose. 13For in the words of Scripture:

“Jacob I have chosen, but Esau I have rejected.” # 9:13 Or “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.” The love/hate contrast is not merely a matter of God’s emotions, but God’s actions of choosing Jacob and excluding Esau. This Semitic idiom is also found in Jesus’ words of “hating our father, mother . . . even our own life.” It is a “hatred” compared to the love we demonstrate by choosing to follow Jesus. See Mal. 1:2–3; Luke 14:26.

14So, what does all this mean? Are we saying that God is unfair? Of course not! 15He had every right to say to Moses:

“I will be merciful to whomever I choose and I will show compassion to whomever I wish.” # 9:15 See Ex. 33:19.

16Again, this proves that God’s choice doesn’t depend on how badly someone wants it or tries to earn it, # 9:16 Or “not of the one willing nor of the one running.” but it depends on God’s kindness and mercy. 17For just as God said to Pharaoh:

“I raised you up # 9:17 The Aramaic can be translated “For this reason I ruined you.” as ruler of Egypt for this reason, that I might make you an example of how I demonstrate my miracle power. For by the example of how I deal with you, my powerful name will be a message proclaimed throughout the earth!” # 9:17 See Ex. 9:16.

18So again we see that it is entirely up to God to show mercy or to harden # 9:18 Although the Greek implies God hardens hearts, the Aramaic is more of a Hebrew idiom, “God gives permission for them to be hardened.” This implies the hardening the heart is from within the individual. the hearts of whomever he chooses.

19Well then, one might ask, “If God is in complete control, how could he blame us? For who can resist whatever he wants done?”

20But who do you think you are to second-guess God? How could a human being molded out of clay say to the one who molded him, “Why in the world did you make me this way?” # 9:20 By implication Paul is speaking of people who have been made from clay in the hands of the divine Potter. See Isa. 29:16; 45:9. 21Or are you denying the right of the potter to make out of clay whatever he wants? Doesn’t the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay an elegant vase or an ordinary pot?

22And in the same way, although God has every right to unleash his anger and demonstrate his power, yet he is extremely patient with those who deserve wrath—vessels prepared for destruction. 23And doesn’t he also have the right # 9:23 Or “This he did to make known.” Although this sentence presents an anacoluthon and is missing the conditional clause, it is more likely that Paul is contrasting “the vessels prepared for destruction” with “the vessels of mercy.” Thus, “And doesn’t he also have the right?” to release the revelation of the wealth of his glory to his vessels of mercy, whom God prepared beforehand to receive his glory? 24Even for us, whether we are Jews or non-Jews, we are those he has called to experience his glory. 25Remember the prophecy God gave in Hosea:

“To those who were rejected and not my people,

I will say to them: ‘You are mine.’

And to those who were unloved I will say:

‘You are my darling.’ ” # 9:25 See Hos. 2:23.

26And:

“In the place where they were told, ‘You are nobody,’

this will be the very place where they will be renamed

‘Children of the living God.’ ” # 9:26 See Hos. 1:10.

27And the prophet Isaiah cries out to Israel:

Though the children of Israel

are as many as the sands of the seashore,

only a remnant will be saved.

28For the Lord will act

and carry out his word on the earth,

and waste no time to accomplish it! # 9:28 Or “cutting it short,” a Greek word found only here in the New Testament. See Isa. 10:23.

29Just as Isaiah saw it coming and prophesied:

If the Lord God had not left us a remnant, # 9:29 Or “descendants.” See Isa. 1:9.

we would have been destroyed like Sodom

and left desolate like Gomorrah!

Israel’s Unbelief

30So then, what does all this mean? Here’s the irony: The non-Jewish people, who weren’t even pursuing righteousness, were the ones who seized it—a perfect righteousness that is transferred by faith. 31Yet Israel, even though pursuing a legal righteousness, # 9:31 Or “a righteousness based on the law.” did not attain to it. 32And why was that? Because they did not pursue the path of faith but insisted on pursuing righteousness by works, # 9:32 Or “works of the law.” as if it could be seized another way. They were offended by the means of obtaining it and stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written:

“Be careful! I am setting in Zion a stone

that will cause people to stumble,

a rock # 9:33 There is a play on words here that is lost in translation. The Aramaic word for “rock” (keefa) is also the word for “teaching” or “faith.” Aramaic speakers today still say that to stand in faith means to stand on a rock. To speak of the message of faith for salvation (versus works) is hidden in the word rock. of offense that will make them fall,

but believers in him will not experience shame.” # 9:33 See Isa. 8:14; 28:16. The Hebrew of Isa. 28:16 is “Let the one who believes not expect it soon.” That is, even if a promise delays, we will not be disheartened but will remain steadfast in faith.

Currently Selected:

Romans 9: TPT

Highlight

Copy

Compare

Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in

Learn More About The Passion Translation

Romans 9

God and the Jewish People

1I am in Christ and I am telling you the truth. I am not lying. And my conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, agrees that what I say now is true. 2I have great sorrow and always feel much sadness 3for my own people. They are my brothers and sisters, my earthly family. I wish I could help them. I would even have a curse on me and cut myself off from Christ if that would help them. 4They are the people of Israel, God’s chosen children. They have the glory of God and the agreements he made between himself and his people. God gave them the Law of Moses, the Temple worship, and his promises. 5They are the descendants of our great fathers, and they are the earthly family of the Messiah, who is God over all things. Praise him forever!#9:5 Messiah, who is … forever! Or “Messiah. May God, who rules over all things, be praised forever!” Amen.

6I don’t mean that God failed to keep his promise to the Jewish people. But only some of the people of Israel are really God’s people.#9:6 God’s people Literally, “Israel,” the people God chose to bring his blessings to the world. 7And only some of Abraham’s descendants are true children of Abraham. This is what God said to Abraham: “Your true descendants will be those who come through Isaac.”#Quote from Gen. 21:12. 8This means that not all of Abraham’s descendants are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise he made to Abraham. 9Here is what God said in that promise: “About this time next year I will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”#Quote from Gen. 18:10, 14.

10And that is not all. Rebecca also had sons, and they had the same father. He is our father Isaac. 11-12But before the two sons were born, God told Rebecca, “The older son will serve the younger.”#Quote from Gen. 25:23. This was before the boys had done anything good or bad. God said this before they were born so that the boy he wanted would be chosen because of God’s own plan. He was chosen because he was the one God wanted to call, not because of anything the boys did. 13As the Scriptures say, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”#Quote from Mal. 1:2-3.

14So what does this mean? That God is not fair? We cannot say that. 15God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I want to show mercy to. I will show pity to anyone I choose.”#Quote from Ex. 33:19. 16So God will choose anyone he decides to show mercy to, and his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. 17In the Scriptures God says to Pharaoh: “I made you king so that you could do this for me. I wanted to show my power through you. I wanted my name to be announced throughout the world.”#Quote from Ex. 9:16. 18So God shows mercy to those he wants to show mercy to and makes stubborn those he wants to make stubborn.

19So one of you will ask me, “If God controls what we do, why does he blame us for our sins?” 20Don’t ask that. You are only human and have no right to question God. A clay jar does not question the one who made it. It does not say, “Why did you make me like this?” 21The one who makes the jar can make anything he wants. He uses the same clay to make different things. He might make one thing for special purposes and another for daily use.

22It is the same way with what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to let people see his power. But he patiently endured those he was angry with—people who were ready to be destroyed. 23He waited with patience so that he could make known the riches of his glory to the people he has chosen to receive his mercy. God has already prepared them to share his glory. 24We are those people, the ones God chose not only from the Jews but also from those who are not Jews. 25As the Scriptures say in the book of Hosea,

“The people who are not mine—

I will say they are my people.

And the people I did not love—

I will say they are the people I love.” Hosea 2:23

26And,

“Where God said in the past,

‘You are not my people’—

there they will be called children of the living God.” Hosea 1:10

27And Isaiah cries out about Israel:

“There are so many people of Israel,

they are like the grains of sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will be saved.

28Yes, the Lord will quickly finish judging the people on the earth.” Isaiah 10:22-23

29It is just as Isaiah said:

“The Lord All-Powerful

allowed some of our people to live.

If he had not done that,

we would now be like Sodom,

and we would be like Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:9

30So what does all this mean? It means that people who are not Jews were made right with God because of their faith, even though they were not trying to make themselves right. 31And the people of Israel, who tried to make themselves right with God by following the law, did not succeed. 32They failed because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did. They did not trust in God to make them right. They fell over the stone that makes people fall. 33The Scriptures talk about that stone:

“Look, I put in Zion a stone that will make people stumble.

It is a rock that will make people fall.

But anyone who trusts in him

will never be disappointed.” Isaiah 8:14; 28:16

Currently Selected:

Highlight

Copy

Compare

Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in

Learn More About Holy Bible: Easy-to-Read Version