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1I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me with the Holy Spirit —[#Rm 1:9; 2Co 11:10; Gl 1:20; 1Tm 2:7; #Or testifying with me by the Holy Spirit]
2that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart.
3For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood.[#Ex 32:32; #1Co 12:3; 16:22; Gl 1:8,9; #Lit were anathema]
4They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.[#Rm 8:6; #Ex 4:22; Rm 8:15; #Ex 40:34; 1Kg 8:11; Ezk 1:28; Heb 9:5; #Gn 17:2; Dt 29:14; Lk 1:72; Ac 3:25; Eph 2:12; #Dt 4:13-14; Ps 147:19; #Dt 7:6; 14:1; Heb 9:1,6; #Ac 2:39; 13:32; Eph 2:12]
5The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.[#Ac 3:13; Rm 11:28; #Lit them, according to the flesh; #Mt 1:1-16; Rm 1:3; #Jn 1:1; Col 2:9; #Col 1:16-19; #Or the Messiah, the One who is over all, the God who is blessed forever, or Messiah. God, who is over all, be blessed forever; #Rm 1:25]
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.[#Nm 23:19; #Jn 1:47; Rm 2:28-29; Gl 6:16]
7Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.[#Lit seed; #Jn 8:33,39; Gl 4:23; #Lit called; #Gn 21:12; Heb 11:18; #Gn 21:12]
8That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.[#Lit children of the flesh; #Rm 8:14; #Rm 4:13,16; Gl 3:29; 4:28; Heb 11:11]
9For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.[#Gn 18:10,14; #Gn 18:10,14]
10And not only that, but also Rebekah received a promise when she became pregnant by one man, our ancestor Isaac.[#Rm 5:3; #Or Rebekah conceived by the one act of sexual intercourse; #Gn 25:21]
11For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand —[#Rm 4:17; 8:28]
12not from works but from the One who calls — she was told: The older will serve the younger.[#Gn 25:23; #Gn 25:23]
13As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.[#Mal 1:2-3; #Mal 1:2-3]
14What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not![#Rm 3:5; #2Ch 19:7; Rm 2:11; #Lk 20:16]
15For He tells Moses:
I will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy,
and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.
16So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.[#Or on the one running; lit on the one willing; #Gl 2:2; #Eph 2:8]
17For the Scripture tells Pharaoh:
I raised you up for this reason
so that I may display My power in you
and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
18So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.[#Ex 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:20,27; 11:10; 14:4,7; Dt 2:30; Jos 11:20; Jn 12:40; Rm 11:7,25]
19You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will? ”[#Rm 11:19; 1Co 15:25; Jms 2:18; #Rm 3:7; #2Ch 20:6; Jb 9:12; Dn 4:35]
20But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this? ”[#Jb 33:13; #Is 29:16; 45:9; 64:8; Jr 18:6; 2Tm 2:20]
21Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?[#Is 64:8; Jr 18:6]
22And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction?[#Rm 2:4; #Pr 16:4; 1Pt 2:8]
23And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory —[#Rm 2:4; Eph 3:16; #Ac 9:15; #Rm 8:29]
24on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?[#Rm 8:28; #Rm 3:29]
25As He also says in Hosea:
I will call Not My People, My People,
and she who is Unloved, Beloved.
26And it will be in the place where they were told,
you are not My people,
there they will be called sons of the living God.
27But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
Though the number of Israel’s sons
is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;
28for the Lord will execute His sentence
completely and decisively on the earth.
29And just as Isaiah predicted:
If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
30What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness — namely the righteousness that comes from faith.[#Rm 9:14; #Rm 1:17; 3:21; 10:6; Gl 2:16; 3:24; Php 3:9; Heb 11:7]
31But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.[#Is 51:1; Rm 10:2,20; 11:7; #Other mss read the law for righteousness; #Gl 5:4]
32Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.[#Other mss add of the law; #1Pt 2:6,8]
33As it is written:
Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,
yet the one who believes on Him
will not be put to shame.