¹Brothers and sisters, with all my heart I long and pray to God for the people of Israel to be saved.

²I know for a fact that they want to serve God. But their desire isn’t well informed.

³They didn’t know how God makes people right with himself, so they tried to get right with God in their own way. They didn’t realize that

⁴Christ has fulfilled everything the law was meant to do, so now there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

⁵Moses writes about how the law could help a person do what God requires: “The person who does these things will live by them.”

⁶But doing what God requires starts with having faith in him. Scripture says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ ” (That means to go up into heaven and bring Christ down.)

⁷“And don’t say, ‘Who will go down into the grave?’ ” (That means to bring Christ up from the dead.)

⁸But what does it say? “The message is near you, it’s in your mouth and in your heart.” (This means the message about faith that we are preaching.)

⁹If you say with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰With your heart you believe and are made right with God, and with your mouth you say what you believe. And so you are saved.

¹¹Scripture says, “The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

¹²There isn’t any difference between Jews and Gentiles; the same Lord is Lord of all, and he richly blesses everyone who calls on him.

¹³Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴But how can they call on someone they haven’t believed in? How can they believe in someone they’ve never heard of? How can they hear about him unless someone preaches to them?

¹⁵And how can anyone preach to them without being sent? It is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶But not all the people of Israel accepted the good news. Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

¹⁷So faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the preaching about Christ.

¹⁸But I ask, “Didn’t the people of Israel hear?” Of course they did. It is written,

“Their voice has gone out into the whole earth,

their words from one end of the world to the other.”

¹⁹Again I ask, “Didn’t Israel understand?” First, Moses says,

“I will use people who aren’t a nation to make you jealous.

I’ll use a nation that has no understanding to make you angry.”

²⁰And in Isaiah, God says boldly,

“I was found by those who weren’t trying to find me.

I made myself known to those who weren’t asking for me.”

²¹But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands

to a stubborn people who don’t obey me.”