Romans 9:25–33

God Chose People Who Are Not Jewish

²⁵As God says in Hosea: 

“Those who are not my people 

I will call my people. 

Those who are not loved 

I will call my loved ones. 

²⁶Wherever they were told, 

‘You are not my people,’ 

they will be called children of the living God.” 

²⁷Isaiah also says about Israel: 

“Although the descendants of Israel are 

as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, 

only a few will be saved. 

²⁸The Lord will carry out his sentence on the land, 

completely and decisively.” 

²⁹This is what Isaiah predicted: 

“If the Lord of Armies hadn’t left us some descendants, 

we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.” 

³⁰So what can we say? We can say that non-Jewish people who were not trying to gain God’s approval won his approval, an approval based on faith. ³¹The people of Israel tried to gain God’s approval by obeying the laws in Moses’ Teachings, but they did not reach their goal. ³²Why? They didn’t rely on faith to gain God’s approval, but they relied on their own efforts. They stumbled over the rock that trips people. ³³As Scripture says, 

“I am placing a rock in Zion that people trip over, 

a large rock that people find offensive. 

Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed.”