Solicitude for Israel
1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed,separatedfrom Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and thetempleservice and the promises,
5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
6 Butit isnot as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who aredescendedfrom Israel;
7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “throughIsaac yourdescendants will be named.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this timeIwill come,andSarah shall have a son.”
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceivedtwinsby one man, our father Isaac;
11 for thoughthe twinswere not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according toHischoice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The older will servethe younger.”
13 Just as it is written, “JacobIloved, butEsauIhated.”
14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
15 For He says to Moses, “Iwill have mercy on whomIhave mercy,andIwill have compassion on whomIhave compassion.”
16 So then itdoesnotdependon the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For thisvery purposeIraised you up,to demonstrateMy power in you,and thatMy name might be proclaimedthroughout thewhole earth.”
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
23 AndHe did soto make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
24 evenus, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
25 As He says also in Hosea,
“Iwill call those who were notMy people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.'”
26 “And it shall be that in the place whereit was said to them, ‘you are notMy people,’
There they shall be called sons ofthelivingGod.”
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons ofIsrael belike the sand of the sea,it isthe remnant that will be saved;
28 for theLord will executeHis word on theearth,thoroughly andquickly.”
29 And just as Isaiah foretold,
“UnlesstheLord ofSabaoth had left to us aposterity,
We would have become likeSodom,and would haveresembledGomorrah.”
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive atthatlaw.
32 Why? Becausethey didnotpursue itby faith, but as thoughit wereby works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33 just as it is written,
“Behold, Ilay inZiona stone ofstumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes inHimwill not bedisappointed.”
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ROM/9-cdfb6b94bcb4e8640b2753293910c6a5.mp3?version_id=100—