Romans 9–11

Israel’s Rejection of Christ

9I ^atell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, ^2bthat I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. ³For ^cI could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my ¹countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴who are Israelites, ^dto whom pertain the adoption, ^ethe glory, ^fthe covenants, ^gthe giving of the law, ^hthe service of God, and ⁱthe promises; ^5jof whom are the fathers and from ^kwhom, according to the flesh, Christ came, ^lwho is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Purpose

^6mBut it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For ⁿthey are not all Israel who are of Israel, ^7onor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ^p“In Isaac your seed shall be called.” ⁸That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but ^qthe children of the promise are counted as the seed. ⁹For this is the word of promise: ^r“At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰And not only this, but when ^sRebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac ¹¹(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of ^tHim who calls), ¹²it was said to her, ^u“The older shall serve the younger.” ¹³As it is written, ^v“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice

¹⁴What shall we say then? ^wIs there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! ¹⁵For He says to Moses, ^x“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” ¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For ^ythe Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ^z“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.” ¹⁸Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He ^ahardens.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For ^bwho has resisted His will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? ^cWill the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹Does not the ^dpotter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make ^eone vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

²²What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering ^fthe vessels of wrath ^gprepared for destruction, ²³and that He might make known ^hthe riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had ⁱprepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴even us whom He ^jcalled, ^knot of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

²⁵As He says also in Hosea:

^l“I will call them My people, who were not My people,

And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

²⁶“And ^mit shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

²⁷Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

ⁿ“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,

^oThe remnant will be saved.

²⁸For ²He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,

^pBecause the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

²⁹And as Isaiah said before:

^q“Unless the Lord of ³Sabaoth had left us a seed,

^rWe would have become like Sodom,

And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

Present Condition of Israel

³⁰What shall we say then? ^sThat Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, ^teven the righteousness of faith; ³¹but Israel, ^upursuing the law of righteousness, ^vhas not attained to the law ⁴of righteousness. ³²Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, ⁵by the works of the law. For ^wthey stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³As it is written:

^x“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,

And ^ywhoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Israel Needs the Gospel

10Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for ¹Israel is that they may be saved. ²For I bear them witness ^athat they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³For they being ignorant of ^bGod’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own ^crighteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. ⁴For ^dChrist is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

⁵For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ^e“The man who does those things shall live by them.” ⁶But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ^f“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) ⁷or, ^g“ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say? ^h“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹that ⁱif you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹For the Scripture says, ^j“Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” ¹²For ^kthere is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for ^lthe same Lord over all ^mis rich to all who call upon Him. ¹³For ⁿ“whoever calls ^oon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Israel Rejects the Gospel

¹⁴How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear ^pwithout a preacher? ¹⁵And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

^q“How beautiful are the feet of those who ²preach the gospel of peace,

Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

¹⁶But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ^r“Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

¹⁸But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:

^s“Their sound has gone out to all the earth,

^tAnd their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:

^u“I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,

I will move you to anger by a ^vfoolish nation.”

²⁰But Isaiah is very bold and says:

^w“I was found by those who did not seek Me;

I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”

²¹But to Israel he says:

^x“All day long I have stretched out My hands

To a disobedient and contrary people.”

Israel’s Rejection Not Total

11I say then, ^ahas God cast away His people? ^bCertainly not! For ^cI also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not cast away His people whom ^dHe foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ^3e“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? ⁴But what does the divine response say to him? ^f“I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ^5gEven so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶And ^hif by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. ¹But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

⁷What then? ⁱIsrael has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were ^jblinded. ⁸Just as it is written:

^k“God has given them a spirit of stupor,

^lEyes that they should not see

And ears that they should not hear,

To this very day.”

⁹And David says:

^m“Let their table become a snare and a trap,

A stumbling block and a recompense to them.

¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,

And bow down their back always.”

Israel’s Rejection Not Final

¹¹I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But ⁿthrough their ²fall, to provoke them to ^ojealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. ¹²Now if their ³fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

¹³For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as ^pI am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and ^qsave some of them. ¹⁵For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be ^rbut life from the dead?

¹⁶For if ^sthe firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷And if ^tsome of the branches were broken off, ^uand you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and ⁴fatness of the olive tree, ^18vdo not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰Well said. Because of ^wunbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. ²²Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, ⁵goodness, ^xif you continue in His goodness. Otherwise ^yyou also will be cut off. ²³And they also, ^zif they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

²⁵For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be ^awise in your own ⁶opinion, that ^bblindness in part has happened to Israel ^cuntil the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be ⁷saved, as it is written:

^d“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,

And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

²⁷For ^ethis is My covenant with…