Romans 9–11

God and the Jewish People

9I am in Christ, and I am telling you the truth; I do not lie. My conscience is ruled by the Holy Spirit, and it tells me I am not lying. ²I have great sorrow and always feel much sadness. ³I wish I could help my Jewish brothers and sisters, my people. I would even wish that I were cursed and cut off from Christ if that would help them. ⁴They are the people of Israel, God’s chosen children. They have seen the glory of God, and they have the agreements that God made between himself and his people. God gave them the law of Moses and the right way of worship and his promises. ⁵They are the descendants of our great ancestors, and they are the earthly family into which Christ was born, who is God over all. Praise him forever! ⁿ Amen.

⁶It is not that God failed to keep his promise to them. But only some of the people of Israel are truly God’s people, ^{n 7}and only some of Abraham’s ⁿ descendants are true children of Abraham. But God said to Abraham: “The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac.” ^{n 8}This means that not all of Abraham’s descendants are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise God made to Abraham. ⁹God’s promise to Abraham was this: “At the right time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” ^{n 10}And that is not all. Rebekah’s sons had the same father, our father Isaac. ^11–12But before the two boys were born, God told Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.” ⁿ This was before the boys had done anything good or bad. God said this so that the one chosen would be chosen because of God’s own plan. He was chosen because he was the one God wanted to call, not because of anything he did. ¹³As the Scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.” ⁿ

¹⁴So what should we say about this? Is God unfair? In no way. ¹⁵God said to Moses, “I will show kindness to anyone to whom I want to show kindness, and I will show mercy to anyone to whom I want to show mercy.” ^{n 16}So God will choose the one to whom he decides to show mercy; his choice does not depend on what people want or try to do. ¹⁷The Scripture says to the king of Egypt: “I made you king for this reason: to show my power in you so that my name will be talked about in all the earth.” ^{n 18}So God shows mercy where he wants to show mercy, and he makes stubborn the people he wants to make stubborn.

¹⁹So one of you will ask me: “Then why does God blame us for our sins? Who can fight his will?” ²⁰You are only human, and human beings have no right to question God. An object should not ask the person who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹The potter can make anything he wants to make. He can use the same clay to make one thing for special use and another thing for daily use.

²²It is the same way with God. He wanted to show his anger and to let people see his power. But he patiently stayed with those people he was angry with—people who were made ready to be destroyed. ²³He waited with patience so that he could make known his rich glory to the people who receive his mercy. He has prepared these people to have his glory, ²⁴and we are those people whom God called. He called us not from the Jews only but also from those who are not Jews. ²⁵As the Scripture says in Hosea:

“I will say, ‘You are my people’

to those I had called ‘not my people.’

And I will show my love

to those people I did not love.”

²⁶“They were called,

‘You are not my people,’

but later they will be called

‘children of the living God.’ ”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out about Israel:

“The people of Israel are many,

like the grains of sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will be saved,

²⁸because the Lord will quickly and completely punish the people on the earth.”

²⁹It is as Isaiah said:

“The Lord All-Powerful

allowed a few of our descendants to live.

Otherwise we would have been completely destroyed

like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.” ⁿ

³⁰So what does all this mean? Those who are not Jews were not trying to make themselves right with God, but they were made right with God because of their faith. ³¹The people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed, ³²because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did instead of trusting in God to make them right. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble. ³³As it is written in the Scripture:

“I will put in Jerusalem a stone that causes people to stumble,

a rock that makes them fall.

Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.”

10Brothers and sisters, the thing I want most is for all the Jews to be saved. That is my prayer to God. ²I can say this about them: They really try to follow God, but they do not know the right way. ³Because they did not know the way that God makes people right with him, they tried to make themselves right in their own way. So they did not accept God’s way of making people right. ⁴Christ ended the law so that everyone who believes in him may be right with God.

⁵Moses writes about being made right by following the law. He says, “A person who obeys these things will live because of them.” ^{n 6}But this is what the Scripture says about being made right through faith: “Don’t say to yourself, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ ” (That means, “Who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down to earth?”) ⁷“And do not say, ‘Who will go down into the world below?’ ” (That means, “Who will go down and bring Christ up from the dead?”) ⁸This is what the Scripture says: “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.” ⁿ That is the teaching of faith that we are telling. ⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we declare with our mouths that we believe, and so we are saved. ¹¹As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed.” ^{n 12}That Scripture says “anyone” because there is no difference between those who are Jews and those who are not. The same Lord is the Lord of all and gives many blessings to all who trust in him, ¹³as the Scripture says, “Anyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.” ⁿ

¹⁴But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them; ¹⁵and before someone can go and tell them, that person must be sent. It is written, “How beautiful is the person who comes to bring good news.” ^{n 16}But not all the Jews accepted the good news. Isaiah said, “Lord, who believed what we told them?” ^{n 17}So faith comes from hearing the Good News, and people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.

¹⁸But I ask: Didn’t people hear the Good News? Yes, they heard—as the Scripture says:

“Their message went out through all the world;

their words go everywhere on earth.”

¹⁹Again I ask: Didn’t the people of Israel understand? Yes, they did understand. First, Moses says:

“I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous.

I will use a nation that does not understand to make you angry.”

²⁰Then Isaiah is bold enough to say:

“I was found by those who were not asking me for help.

I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.”

²¹But about Israel God says,

“All day long I stood ready to accept

people who disobey and are stubborn.”

God Shows Mercy to All People

11So I ask: Did God throw out his people? No! I myself am an Israelite from the family of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God chose the Israelites to be his people before they were born, and he has not thrown his people out. Surely you know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he prayed to God against the people of Israel. ³“Lord,” he said, “they have killed your prophets, and they have destroyed your altars. I am the only prophet left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.” ^{n 4}But what answer did God give Elijah? He said, “But I have left seven thousand people in Israel who have never bowed down before Baal.” ^{n 5}It is the same now. There are a few people that God has chosen by his grace. ⁶And if he chose them by grace, it is not for the things they have done. If they could be made God’s people by what they did, God’s gift of grace would not really be a gift.

⁷So this is what has happened: Although the Israelites tried to be right with God, they did not succeed, but the ones God chose did become right with him. The others were made stubborn and refused to listen to God. ⁸As it is written in the Scriptures:

“God gave the people a dull mind so they could not understand.”

“He closed their eyes so they could not see

and their ears so they could not hear.

This continues until today.”

⁹And David says:

“Let their own feasts trap them and cause their ruin;

let their feasts cause them to stumble and be paid back.

¹⁰Let their eyes be closed so they cannot see

and their backs be forever weak from troubles.”

¹¹So I ask: When the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them? No! But their failure brought salvation to those who are not Jews, in order to make the Jews jealous. ¹²The Jews’ failure brought rich blessings for the world, and the Jews’ loss brought rich blessings for the non-Jewish people. So surely the world will receive much richer blessings when enough Jews become the kind of people God wants.

¹³Now I am speaking to you who are not Jews. I am an apostle to those who are not Jews, and since I have that work, I will make the most of it. ¹⁴I hope I can make my own people jealous and, in that way, help some of them to be saved. ¹⁵When God turned away from the Jews, he became friends with other people in the world. So when God accepts the Jews, surely that will bring them life after death.

¹⁶If the…