Romans 9

The privileges and tragedy of Israel

1I’m speaking the truth in the Messiah, I’m not lying. I call my conscience as witness, in the holy spirit, 2that I have great sorrow and endless pain in my heart. 3Left to my own self, I am half inclined to pray that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, on behalf of my own family, my own flesh-and-blood relatives. 4They are Israelites: the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises all belong to them. 5The patriarchs are their ancestors; and it is from them, according to the flesh, that the Messiah has come—who is God over all, blessed forever, Amen!

Abraham’s two families

6But it can’t be the case that God’s word has failed! Not all who are from Israel, you see, are in fact Israel. 7Nor is it the case that all the children count as “seed of Abraham.” No: “in Isaac shall your seed be named.” 8That means that it isn’t the flesh-and-blood children who are God’s children; rather, it is the children of the promise who will be calculated as “seed.” 9This was what the promise said, you see: “Around this time I shall return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

10And that’s not all. The same thing happened when Rebecca conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac. 11When they had not yet been born, and had done nothing either good or bad—so that what God had in mind in making his choice might come to pass, 12not because of works but because of the one who calls—it was said to her, “the elder shall serve the younger.” 13As the Bible says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

God’s purpose and justice

14So what are we going to say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! 15He says to Moses, you see, “I will have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy, and I will pity those I will pity.” 16So, then, it doesn’t depend on human willing, or on human effort; it depends on God who shows mercy. 17For the Bible says to Pharaoh: “This is why I have raised you up, to show my power in you, and so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18So, then, he has mercy on the one he wants, and he hardens the one he wants.

19You will say to me, then, “So why does he still blame people? Who can stand against his purpose?” 20Are you, a mere human being, going to answer God back? “Surely the clay won’t say to the potter, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 21Doesn’t the potter have authority over the clay, so that he can make from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 22Supposing God wanted to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, and for that reason put up very patiently with the vessels of anger created for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, the ones he prepared in advance for glory—24including us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

God calls a remnant

25This is what he says in Hosea,

I will call “not my people” “my people”;

and “not beloved” I will call “beloved.”

26And in the place where it was said to them,

“You are not my people,”

there they will be called “sons of the living God.”

27Isaiah cries out, concerning Israel,

Even if the number of Israel’s sons are like the sand by the sea,

only a remnant shall be saved;

28for the Lord will bring judgment on the earth, complete and decisive.

29As Isaiah said in an earlier passage,

If the Lord of hosts had not left us seed,

we would have become like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah.

Israel, the nations and the Messiah

30What then shall we say? That the nations, who were not aspiring towards covenant membership, have obtained covenant membership, but it is a covenant membership based on faith. 31Israel meanwhile, though eager for the law which defined the covenant, did not attain to the law. 32Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as though it was on the basis of works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33as the Bible says,

Look: I am placing in Zion

a stone that will make people stumble,

a rock that will trip people up;

and the one who believes in him

will never be put to shame.

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Romans 9: NTFE

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a. The New Testament for Everyone, Third Edition. Copyright © 2011, 2018, 2019 by Nicholas Thomas Wright, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. All rights reserved. Published by Zondervan, 2023.

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