Israel’s Rejection of Christ
1 Itell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3 ForI could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites,to whompertainthe adoption,the glory,the covenants,the giving of the law,the serviceofGod,andthe promises;
5 of whomarethe fathers and fromwhom, according to the flesh, Christcame,who is over all,theeternally blessed God. Amen.
Israel’s Rejection and God’s Purpose
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. Fortheyarenot all Israel whoareof Israel,
7 noraretheyall children because they are the seed of Abraham; but,“In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
8 That is, those whoarethe children of the flesh, thesearenot the children of God; butthe children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9 For thisisthe word of promise:“At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 And not onlythis,but whenRebecca also had conceived by one man,evenby our father Isaac
11 (forthechildrennot yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but ofHim who calls),
12 it was said to her,“The older shall serve the younger.”
13 As it is written,“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice
14 What shall we say then?Isthereunrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
15 For He says to Moses,“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
16 So thenitisnot of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17 Forthe Scripture says to the Pharaoh,“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.”
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills Hehardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? Forwho has resisted His will?”
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?Will the thing formed say to him who formedit, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Does not thepotter have power over the clay, from the same lump to makeone vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 Whatif God, wanting to showHiswrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsufferingthe vessels of wrathprepared for destruction,
23 and that He might make knownthe riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He hadprepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom Hecalled,not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea:
# “I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “Andit shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘Youarenot My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
# “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
# The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cutitshort in righteousness,
# Because theLordwill make a short work upon the earth.”
29 And as Isaiah said before:
# “Unless theLordof Sabaoth had left us a seed,
# We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Present Condition of Israel
30 What shall we say then?That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness,even the righteousness of faith;
31 but Israel,pursuing the law of righteousness,has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Becausetheydidnotseekitby faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. Forthey stumbled at that stumbling stone.
33 As it is written:
# “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
# Andwhoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”