Israel’s Rejection of Christ

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

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

10 And 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), 12 it was said to her, u“The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, v“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice

14 What shall we say then? wIs there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For 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.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For 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.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He ahardens.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For bwho has resisted His will?” 20 But 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?” 21 Does not the dpotter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make eone vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

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

25 As 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.”

27 Isaiah 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.

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

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

29 And 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

30 What shall we say then? sThat Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, teven the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, upursuing the law of righteousness, vhas not attained to the law 4of righteousness. 32 Why? 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. 33 As 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.”