New Living Translation

New International Version

God’s Selection of Israel

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

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Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit —

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My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

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I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

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for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.a I would be willing to be forever cursed — cut off from Christ! — if that would save them.

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For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race,

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They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.b 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.

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the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

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Abraham, 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.c

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Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!a Amen.

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Well 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!

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God’s Sovereign Choice

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

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Being 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,”d though Abraham had other children, too.

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Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”b

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This 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.

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In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.

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For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”e

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For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”c

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This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.f

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Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.

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But 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;

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Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad — in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:

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he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”g

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not by works but by him who calls — she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”d

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In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”h

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Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”e

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Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!

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What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!

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For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”i

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For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”f

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

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It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

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For 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.”j

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For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”g

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So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

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Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

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

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One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”

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No, 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?”

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But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”h

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When 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?

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Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

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In 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.

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What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction?

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He 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.

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What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory —

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And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

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even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

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Concerning 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.”k

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As he says in Hosea:
“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”i

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And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”l

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and,
“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”j

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And 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.

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Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.

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For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.”m

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For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”k

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And 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.”n

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It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”l

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Israel’s Unbelief

What 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.

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Israel’s Unbelief

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

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But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

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but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.

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Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the lawo instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

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Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

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God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalemp that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”q

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As it is written:
“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”m

Parallel

New Living Translation

New International Version

Romans 9

Romans 9