I tell you very sincerely that I grieve greatly about most of my fellow Israelites having rejected Christ. I would be willing to be separated from Christ if that would help them believe in him.

1Now I would like to discuss the fact that most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ. Because of my relationship with Christ, I say completely truthfully what I will now tell you. I am not lying [DOU]! My conscience confirms what I say because the Holy Spirit controls it.

2I tell you that I grieve very greatly and deeply [DOU] about my fellow Israelites.

3I personally would be willing to let God curse me and, as a result, be separated from Christ, if that would help my fellow Israelites, my natural kinsmen, to believe in Christ.

4We Jews are Israelites, God’s chosen descendants of Jacob. God has always considered us as his children [MET]. It was to our ancestors that he used to appear gloriously while they were in the desert. It was with them that God made covenants several times. It was to them that God gave the laws at Sinai Mountain. They were the ones to whom God showed how they should worship him. They were the ones to whom God promised many things, especially that the Messiah would come from their race.

5It was our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom God chose to found our nation. And, most importantly, it was from us Israelites that the Messiah received his human nature. Nevertheless, most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ, who is the one who controls all things! He is God, the one who is worthy that we praise him forever! This is true! (OR, Amen!)

This does not prove that God has failed to do for Abraham what he promised, because, as Scripture illustrates, it is not all who are naturally descended from Jacob or Abraham whom God considers to be his children, but it is those who were born as a result of what God promised whom he considers his children.

6God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that their descendants would all inherit his blessings. But although most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ, that does not prove that God has failed to do the things that he promised, because it is not all who are descended from Jacob and who call themselves the people of Israel whom God considers to be truly his people.

7And it is also not all of Abraham’s natural descendants that God considers to be his people. Instead, God considers only some of them to be Abraham’s children. This agrees with what God told Abraham: “It is Isaac, not any of your(sg) other sons, whom I will consider to be the true father of your descendants.”

8That means that it is not all the natural-born descendants of Abraham whom God considers as his children. Instead, it is those who believed what God promised whom he considers to be his children.

9You know that what God promised to Abraham was this: “About this time next year Sarah your wife will bear a son as a result of my enabling [MTY] her to do so.” So Abraham knew that it was not through Ishmael, the son that he already had, that God would fulfill what he had promised him (OR, that his true descendants would come).

10And not only then did God show that he did not determine who would be his true children according to who their ancestors were. He showed it again when Rebecca conceived twins by our ancestor Isaac.

11Before the twins, Jacob and Esau, were born, when neither one had yet done anything good or bad, God said to Rebecca about the twins she was to bear, “The older one shall later serve the younger one, contrary to normal custom.” God said this in order that we might clearly understand that what he purposed for people was according to what he himself determined. That is, people’s eternal destiny does not depend on what they do. Instead, their destiny depends on God, the one who chooses them.

13And this teaching is ◄supported/shown to be true► by what is written in the Scriptures {what a prophet recorded} that God said: “I favored Jacob, the younger son. I did not favor [HYP] Esau, the older son.”

As the Scriptures indicate, God’s choosing people depends not on their wishes or efforts. He helps whomever he wants to help, and he makes stubborn whomever he wants to make stubborn. We cannot conclude that God is unjust in choosing the ones he wants to choose.

14Someone might say, “◄Is God unjust by choosing the ones he wants to choose?/I think that God is unjust by choosing the ones he wants to choose!►” [RHQ] I would reply, “He is certainly not unjust!”

15God told Moses, “I will pity and help anyone whom I choose [DOU]!”

16So God chooses people, not because they want God to choose them or because they try hard to do things so that he will accept them. Instead he chooses people because he himself has mercy on undeserving ones.

17Moses recorded [PRS] that God had told Pharaoh, “This is why I gave you (sg) authority [MTY]: It was in order that I might show by how I oppose you how exceedingly powerful I am, and in order that people everywhere [HYP] would hear about me [MTY].”

18So we conclude that God kindly helps the ones he wants to act kindly towards. But he makes stubborn the ones such as Pharaoh that he wants to make stubborn.

My reply to anyone’s objection to this doctrine is that God has a right to carry out his purposes; he tolerated the people who caused him to be angry, in order that he might disclose how gloriously he acts toward those on whom he intends to have mercy.

19One of you may object to this by saying to me, “Because God determines ahead of time everything that people do, that also implies that he wants us to do everything that we do. ◄No one has resisted what God has willed!/Who has resisted what God has willed?► [RHQ] Therefore, ◄it would not be right that God would still condemn a person for having sinned!/why does God still condemn a person for having sinned?► [RHQ]”

20I would reply that since you (sg) are just a human being, ◄you do not have any right at all to criticize God!/who are you to say that what God does is wrong?► [RHQ] As a potter is the one who creates a clay pot, God is the one who created you. ◄A clay pot [MET] certainly would not have a right to criticize the potter by asking [PRS], “Why did you (sg) make me this way?”/Would a clay pot have a right to criticize the potter by asking [PRS], “Why did you (sg) make me this way?”► [RHQ]

21Instead, ◄the potter certainly has the right to take some clay and from one lump of clay make one pot that people will honor and make another one for ordinary purposes [MET]./does not a potter have the right to take some clay and from one lump of clay make one pot that people will honor and make another pot for ordinary purposes?► [MET, RHQ] Similarly, God has the right to carry out what he purposes for people.

22Although God desires to show that he is angry about sin, and although he desires to make clear that he can powerfully punish people who have sinned, he tolerated very patiently the people [MET] who caused him to be angry and who deserved to be destroyed (OR, who were made to be destroyed).

23God has been patient in order that he might make clear how very wonderfully he acts toward those [MET] whom he intended to act mercifully towards and whom he prepared ahead of time in order that they might live gloriously in heaven.

24That means us whom he chose—not only us Jews but also non-Jews.

25These words that Hosea wrote [MTY] that God said also ◄show that God has the right/support God’s right► to choose from among both Jews and non-Jews [MTY]: I will declare that many people who were not my people are now my people. I will declare that many people whom I did not love [HYP] before, I love now.

26And another prophet wrote: What will happen is that in the places where God told them before, “You are not my people,” in those same places people will declare truthfully that they are children of God, who is completely powerful.

27Isaiah also exclaimed concerning the Israelites: Even though the Israelites are so many that no one can count them, like sand particles on the beach beside the ocean, only a small part of them will be saved {God will save only a small part of them},

28because the Lord will punish completely and speedily the people who live on this earth, as he said that he would do.

29Also, we can understand from what the prophet Isaiah said that God would not save anyone if he did not show mercy: If the Lord, who controls everything in heaven, had not mercifully allowed some of our descendants to survive, we would have become like the people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were [SIM, DOU] completely destroyed.

The non-Jews found the way by which God could declare them righteous. The Jews did not succeed in fulfilling what the Mosaic laws require. Instead, they tried to find a way to be declared righteous by doing things in order that God would accept them.

30We must conclude this: [RHQ] Although non-Jews did not search out a way by which God would erase the record of their sins, they actually found that way because they trusted in what Christ did for them.

31But although the people of Israel sought a basis by which God would erase the record of their sins, they did not succeed in fulfilling the true purpose of the laws that God gave to Moses.

32The reason [RHQ] that they did not succeed is that they did not trust that God would provide a way to save them. Instead, they were trying to do certain things in order that God would accept them. Because they did not expect the Messiah to die, the Israelites felt disgusted about Jesus’ death, which is like the stone [MET] on which people stumble.

33This is what a prophet predicted when he wrote these words that God said about the Messiah: Listen! I am placing in Israel [MTY] one who is like a stone [MET] on which people will stumble. What he does will offend people [DOU]. Nevertheless, those who believe in him will not be disappointed.