Romans 9:25–33

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.”