RomansChapter 9

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¹I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience agrees, guided by the Holy Spirit. ²My heart is full of deep sadness and pain that never stops. ³I could even wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ. I would do it for the sake of my own people, my own flesh and blood. ⁴They are the people of Israel. God adopted them as his children. They have his glory and his covenants. They were given the law. They have the temple worship and the promises. ⁵The great fathers of our nation belong to them. And Christ came from their family line as a man. He is God over all, worthy of praise forever! Amen. ⁶It is not that God's word has failed. Not everyone born into Israel is truly Israel. ⁷And not all of Abraham's descendants are his true children. Instead, God said, "Your children will be counted through Isaac." ⁸So the children born in the natural way are not God's children. It is the children of the promise who are counted as Abraham's children. ⁹This is what God promised: "At the set time I will come back. And Sarah will have a son." ¹⁰And that's not all. Rebecca's children had one father, our father Isaac. ¹¹The twins had not been born yet. They had not done anything good or bad. This was so that God's plan of choosing would stand. ¹²It did not depend on what they did. It depended on God, who calls. So Rebecca was told, "The older will serve the younger." ¹³As it is written, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau." ¹⁴So what should we say? Is God unfair? No way! ¹⁵He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." ¹⁶So it does not depend on what people want or how hard they try. It depends on God's mercy. ¹⁷The Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I raised you up for this very reason. I wanted to show my power in you. I wanted my name to be made known in all the earth." ¹⁸So God has mercy on anyone he wants to. And he hardens anyone he wants to harden. ¹⁹One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still blame us? Who can fight against what he wants?" ²⁰But who are you, a mere human, to talk back to God? Can a thing that was made say to the one who made it, "Why did you make me like this?" ²¹Doesn't the potter have the right to use the same lump of clay as he wants? He can make one pot for special use. He can make another for everyday use. ²²God wanted to show his anger and make his power known. What if he was very patient with the people who were objects of his anger? They were made ready to be destroyed. ²³What if he did this to show his great glory to the people who are objects of his mercy? He made them ready ahead of time for glory. ²⁴That includes us. He called us, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles. ²⁵As God says in Hosea, "I will call those who were not my people 'My People.' I will call her who was not loved 'My Loved One.'" ²⁶And, "In the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'children of the living God.'" ²⁷Isaiah cries out about Israel, "The people of Israel may be as many as the sand by the sea. But only a few who are left will be saved. ²⁸The Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth. He will do it fully and quickly." ²⁹It is just as Isaiah said before, "The Lord of Hosts left us some children. If he had not, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah." ³⁰So what should we say? The Gentiles were not trying to be right with God. But they were made right with him by faith. ³¹But Israel tried to be right with God by keeping a law. Yet they did not reach that goal. ³²Why not? Because they did not try by faith. They tried as if they could do it by what they did. They tripped over the stone that makes people trip. ³³As it is written, "Look! I am placing a stone in Zion that makes people trip. It is a rock that makes them fall. But the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."