1I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying with me in the Holy Spirit—

2I have great sorrow and unceasing distress in my heart.

3For I keep wishing that I myself could be accursed away from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my physical relatives,

4the Israelites. ¹³⁶To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.

5The patriarchs are theirs, and from them came the Christ (the physical part), ¹³⁷who is over all, God forever blessed. Amen.

Children of the promise

6However, it is not as though the Word of God has failed! ¹³⁸For not all who have descended from Israel are ‘Israel’.

7Neither are they all ‘children’ because they are Abraham's descendants; but, “in Isaac will your seed be called.” ¹³⁹

8That is, it is not the physical children who are God's ‘children’, but the children of the promise are regarded as ‘seed’.

9For this is the word of promise: “At this season I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁴⁰

10Not only that, but also when Rebecca had conceived twins by our forefather Isaac

11(though they had not yet been born, not having done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

12it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹⁴¹

13As it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ¹⁴²

It is pointless to fight God's Sovereignty!

14So what shall we say, there is no injustice with God, is there? Of course not!

15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whomever I have compassion.” ¹⁴³

16So then, it is not of him who wills nor of him who strives, but of God who shows mercy.

17For the 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.” ¹⁴⁴

18So then, He has mercy on whom He wishes, and He hardens whom He wishes.

19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has ever resisted His will?”

20Really now, just who are you, O man, to talk back to God? What is formed will not say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?

21Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? ¹⁴⁵

22What if God, wishing to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

23just in order to make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, ¹⁴⁶which He prepared beforehand for glory,

24even us whom He called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

25As He also says in Hosea: “I will call the ‘not my people’, ‘my people’, and the ‘not loved’ (f), ‘loved’.” ¹⁴⁷

26“And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called sons of the living God.” ¹⁴⁸

27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved;

28because He is finishing and cutting short an accounting in righteousness; yes, the Lord will impose a condensed accounting ¹⁴⁹upon the earth.” ¹⁵⁰

29And as Isaiah had said previously: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵¹

Their present condition

30So what shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained to righteousness, namely the righteousness that comes from faith;

31while Israel, pursuing a standard of righteousness, did not attain to that standard.

32Why not? Because it was not from faith, but as from works of the law. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’;

33as it is written: “Look! I am placing in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and no one who believes on Him will be put to shame.” ¹⁵²