God's Choice of Israel
1 I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience. So I tell the truth and I am not lying when I say 2 my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. 3 I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people. 4 They are the descendants of Israel, and they are also God's chosen people. God showed them his glory. He made agreements with them and gave them his Law. The temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. 5 They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of the Christ. I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever! Amen.
6 It cannot be said that God broke his promise. After all, not all of the people of Israel are the true people of God. 7-8 In fact, when God made the promise to Abraham, he meant only Abraham's descendants by his son Isaac. God was talking only about Isaac when he promised 9 Sarah, “At this time next year I will return, and you will already have a son.”
10 Don't forget what happened to the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 11-12 Even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, the Lord told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger one. The Lord said this to show he makes his own choices and it wasn't because of anything either of them had done. 13 That's why the Scriptures say that the Lord liked Jacob more than Esau.
14 Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15 The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16 Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17 In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18 Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.
God's Anger and Mercy
19 Someone may ask, “How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20 But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21 Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”
22 God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23 He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24 Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones, 25 just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,
“Although they are not
my people,
I will make them my people.
I will treat with love
those nations
that have never been loved.
26 “Once they were told,
‘You are not my people.’
But in that very place
they will be called
children of the living God.”
27 And this is what the prophet Isaiah said about the people of Israel,
“The people of Israel
are as many
as the grains of sand
along the beach.
But only a few who are left
will be saved.
28 The Lord will be quick
and sure to do on earth
what he has warned
he will do.”
29 Isaiah also said,
“If the Lord All-Powerful
had not spared some
of our descendants,
we would have been destroyed
like the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah.”
Israel and the Good News
30 What does all of this mean? It means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that he would accept them if they had faith. 31-32 It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying to be acceptable by obeying the Law instead of by having faith in God. The people of Israel fell over the stone that makes people stumble, 33 just as God says in the Scriptures,
“Look! I am placing in Zion
a stone to make people
stumble and fall.
But those who have faith
in that one will never
be disappointed.”
1 I say the trueth in Christ, I lye not, my conscience bearing mee witnes in the holy Ghost, 2 That I haue great heauinesse, and continuall sorow in mine heart. 3 For I woulde wish my selfe to be separate from Christ, for my brethren that are my kinsemen according to the flesh, 4 Which are the Israelites, to whome perteineth the adoption, and the glory, and the Couenants, and the giuing of the Lawe, and the seruice of God, and the promises. 5 Of whome are the fathers, and of whome concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God ouer all, blessed for euer, Amen. 6 Notwithstanding it can not bee that the worde of God should take none effect: for all they are not Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither are they all children, because they are the seede of Abraham: but, In Isaac shall thy seede be called: 8 That is, they which are the children of the flesh, are not the children of God: but the children of the promise, are counted for the seede. 9 For this is a worde of promise, In this same time wil I come, and Sara shall haue a sonne. 10 Neither he onely felt this, but also Rebecca when shee had conceiued by one, euen by our father Isaac. 11 For yer the children were borne, and when they had neither done good, nor euill (that the purpose of God might remaine according to election, not by workes, but by him that calleth) 12 It was said vnto her, The elder shall serue the yonger. 13 As it is written, I haue loued Iacob, and haue hated Esau. 14 What shall wee say then? Is there vnrighteousnes with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I wil haue mercy on him, to whom I wil shew mercie: and wil haue compassion on him, on who I wil haue copassion. 16 So then it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy. 17 For the Scripture saith vnto Pharao, For this same purpose haue I stirred thee vp, that I might shewe my power in thee, and that my Name might be declared throughout al the earth. 18 Therefore he hath mercie on whome he will, and whom he will, he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then vnto me, Why doeth he yet complaine? for who hath resisted his will? 20 But, O man, who art thou which pleadest against God? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power of the clay to make of the same lumpe one vessell to honour, and another vnto dishonour? 22 What and if God would, to shewe his wrath, and to make his power knowen, suffer with long patience the vessels of wrath, prepared to destruction? 23 And that hee might declare the riches of his glory vpon the vessels of mercy, which hee hath prepared vnto glory? 24 Euen vs whome hee hath called, not of of the Iewes onely, but also of the Gentiles, 25 As he sayth also in Osee, I will call them, My people, which were not my people: and her, Beloued, which was not beloued. 26 And it shalbe in the place where it was said vnto them, Ye are not my people, that there they shalbe called, The children of the liuing God. 27 Also Esaias cryeth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel were as the sand of the sea, yet shall but a remnant be saued. 28 For he wil make his account, and gather it into a short summe with righteousnes: for the Lord will make a short count in the earth. 29 And as Esaias sayde before, Except the Lord of hostes had left vs a seede, we had bene made as Sodom, and had bene like to Gomorrha. 30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which folowed not righteousnes, haue attained vnto righteousnes, euen the righteousnes which is of faith. 31 But Israel which followed the Lawe of righteousnes, could not arteine vnto the Law of righteousnes. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the workes of the Lawe: for they haue stumbled at the stumbling stone, 33 As it is written, Beholde, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone, and a rocke to make men fall: and euery one that beleeueth in him, shall not be ashamed.