Romans 9
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
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Romans 9
9
Israel’s Rejection of Christ
1I #2 Cor. 1:23tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2#Rom. 10:1that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3For #Ex. 32:32I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites, #Ex. 4:22; (Rom. 8:15)to whom pertain the adoption, #1 Sam. 4:21the glory, #Gen. 17:2; Deut. 29:14; Luke 1:72; Acts 3:25the covenants, #Deut. 4:13; Ps. 147:19the giving of the law, #Heb. 9:1, 6the service of God, and #(Acts 2:39; 13:32; Eph. 2:12)the promises; 5#Deut. 10:15of whom are the fathers and from #(Luke 1:34, 35; 3:23)whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, #Jer. 23:6who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Israel’s Rejection and God’s Purpose
6#Num. 23:19But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For #(John 8:39; Gal. 6:16)they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7#(John 8:33, 39; Gal. 4:23)nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, #Gen. 21:12; Heb. 11:18“In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but #Gal. 4:28the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9For this is the word of promise: #Gen. 18:10, 14; Heb. 11:11“At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
10And not only this, but when #Gen. 25:21Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of #(Rom. 4:17; 8:28)Him who calls), 12it was said to her, #Gen. 25:23“The older shall serve the younger.” 13As it is written, #Mal. 1:2, 3“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice
14What shall we say then? #Deut. 32:4Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15For He says to Moses, #Ex. 33:19“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17For #Gal. 3:8the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, #Ex. 9:16“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He #Ex. 4:21; Deut. 2:30; Josh. 11:20; John 12:40; Rom. 11:7, 25hardens.
19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For #2 Chr. 20:6; Job 9:12; Dan. 4:35who has resisted His will?” 20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? #Is. 29:16; Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:22; 2 Tim. 2:20Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Does not the #Prov. 16:4potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make #2 Tim. 2:20one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering #(1 Thess. 5:9)the vessels of wrath #Prov. 16:4; (1 Pet. 2:8)prepared for destruction, 23and that He might make known #(Col. 1:27)the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had #(Rom. 8:28–30)prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us whom He #(Rom. 8:28)called, #Is. 42:6, 7; 49:6; Luke 2:32; Rom. 3:29not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25As He says also in Hosea:
#Hos. 2:23; 1 Pet. 2:10“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26“And#Hos. 1:10 it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
#Is. 10:22, 23“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
#Rom. 11:5The remnant will be saved.
28For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
#Is. 10:23; 28:22Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
29And as Isaiah said before:
#Is. 1:9“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
#Deut. 29:23; Is. 13:19; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; Amos 4:11We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Present Condition of Israel
30What shall we say then? #Rom. 4:11That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, #Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 10:6; (Gal. 2:16; 3:24; Phil. 3:9); Heb. 11:7even the righteousness of faith; 31but Israel, #(Rom. 10:2–4)pursuing the law of righteousness, #(Gal. 5:4)has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For #(Luke 2:34; 1 Cor. 1:23)they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33As it is written:
#(Ps. 118:22); Is. 8:14; 28:16; (Matt. 21:42; 1 Pet. 2:6–8)“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And #Rom. 5:5; 10:11whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.