Romans 9:25–33

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.”