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
1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh 4who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5of whom are the fathers, and from 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. 7Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”#Genesis 21:12 8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. 9For this is a word of promise: “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”#Genesis 18:10,14 10Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11For 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,#9:11 NU puts the phrase “not of works, but of him who calls” at the beginning of verse 12 instead of the end of verse 11. 12it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”#Genesis 25:23 13Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”#Malachi 1:2-3
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15For 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 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17For 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 18So 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?” 20But 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 21Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honour, and another for dishonour? 22What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— 24us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25As 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
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
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.”#Isaiah 10:22-23
29 As Isaiah has said before,
“Unless the Lord of Armies#9:29 Greek: Sabaoth (or 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
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; 31but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. 32Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33even as it is written,
“Behold,#9:33 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection. I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offence;
and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”#Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
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