Romans 9–11

Chapter 9

God’s Selection of Israel

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. ²My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief ³for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. ⁴They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. ⁵Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

⁶Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! ⁷Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. ⁸This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. ⁹For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. ¹¹But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; ¹²he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” ¹³In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

¹⁴Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! ¹⁵For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,

and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

¹⁶So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

¹⁷For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” ¹⁸So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

¹⁹Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

²⁰No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? ²²In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. ²³He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. ²⁴And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

²⁵Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,

“Those who were not my people,

I will now call my people.

And I will love those

whom I did not love before.”

²⁶And,

“Then, at the place where they were told,

‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called

‘children of the living God.’ ”

²⁷And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,

“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,

only a remnant will be saved.

²⁸For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth

quickly and with finality.”

²⁹And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

had not spared a few of our children,

we would have been wiped out like Sodom,

destroyed like Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. ³¹But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. ³²Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. ³³God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,

a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who trusts in him

will never be disgraced.”

Chapter 10

Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. ²I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. ³For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. ⁴For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Salvation Is for Everyone

⁵For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. ⁶But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). ⁷And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” ⁸In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand;

it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: ⁹If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. ¹¹As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” ¹²Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. ¹³For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

¹⁶But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. ¹⁸But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have:

“The message has gone throughout the earth,

and the words to all the world.”

¹⁹But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said,

“I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation.

I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.”

²⁰And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying,

“I was found by people who were not looking for me.

I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.”

²¹But regarding Israel, God said,

“All day long I opened my arms to them,

but they were disobedient and rebellious.”

Chapter 11

God’s Mercy on Israel

I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

²No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said, ³“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

⁴And do you remember God’s reply? He said, “No, I have 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal!”

⁵It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace—his undeserved kindness in choosing them. ⁶And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

⁷So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened. ⁸As the Scriptures say,

“God has put them into a deep sleep.

To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see,

and closed their ears so they do not hear.”

⁹Likewise, David said,

“Let their bountiful table become a snare,

a trap that makes them think all is well.

Let their blessings cause them to stumble,

and let them get what they deserve.

¹⁰Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see,

and let their backs be bent forever.”

¹¹Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. ¹²Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.

¹³I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, ¹⁴for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. ¹⁵For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! ¹⁶And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough…