Gentiles and Jews

9 I am speaking the truth as one in union with Christ; it is no lie; and my conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, 2 bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow on me and that my heart is never free from pain. 3 I could wish that I were myself accursed and severed from the Christ, for the sake of my people – my own flesh and blood. 4 For they are Israelites, and theirs are the adoption as children, the visible presence, the covenants, the revealed Law, the Temple worship, and the promises. 5 They are descended from the patriarchs, and, as far as his human nature was concerned, from them came the Christ – he who is supreme over all things, God for ever blessed. Amen.

6 Not that God’s Word has failed. For it is not all who are descended from Israel who are true Israelites; 7 nor, because they are Abraham’s descendants, are they all his children; but – “It is Isaac’s children who will be called your descendants.” 8 This means that it is not the children born in the course of nature who are God’s children, but it is the children born in fulfilment of the promise who are to be regarded as Abraham’s descendants. 9 For these words are the words of a promise – “About this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” 10 Nor is that all. There is also the case of Rebecca, when she was about to bear children to our ancestor Isaac. 11 For in order that the purpose of God, working through selection, might not fail – a selection depending, not on obedience, but on his call – Rebecca was told, before her children were born and before they had done anything either right or wrong, 12 that the elder would be a servant to the younger. 13 The words of scripture are – “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

14 What are we to say, then? Is God guilty of injustice? Heaven forbid! 15 For his words to Moses are – “I will take pity on whom I take pity, and be merciful to whom I am merciful.” 16 So, then, all depends, not on human wishes or human efforts, but on God’s mercy. 17 In scripture, again, it is said to Pharaoh – “It was for this purpose that I raised you to the throne, to show my power by my dealings with you, and to make my name known throughout the world.” 18 So, then, where God wills, he takes pity, and where he wills, he hardens the heart. 19 Perhaps you will say to me – “How can anyone still be blamed? For who withstands his purpose?” 20 I might rather ask “Who are you who are arguing with God?” Does a thing which a person has moulded say to the person who has moulded it “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Has not the potter absolute power over their clay, so that out of the same lump they make one thing for better, and another for common, use? 22 And what if God, intending to reveal his displeasure and make his power known, bore most patiently with the objects of his displeasure, though they were fit only to be destroyed, 23 so as to make known his surpassing glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared beforehand for glory, 24 and whom he called – even us – not only from among the Jews but from among the Gentiles also! 25 This, indeed, is what he says in the book of Hosea – “Those who were not my people, I will call my people, and those who were unloved I will love. 26 And in the place where it was said to them – ‘You are not my people’, they will be called sons of the living God.” 27 And Isaiah cries aloud over Israel – “Though the sons of Israel are like the sand of the sea in number, only a remnant of them will escape! 28 For the Lord will execute his sentence on the world, fully and without delay.” 29 It is as Isaiah foretold – “Had not the Lord of Hosts spared some few of our people to us, we should have become like Sodom and been made to resemble Gomorrah.”

30 What are we to say, then? Why, that Gentiles, who were not in search of righteousness, secured it – a righteousness which was the result of faith; 31 while Israel, which was in search of a Law which would ensure righteousness, failed to discover one. 32 And why? Because they looked to obedience, and not to faith, to secure it. They stumbled over the stumbling-block. 33 As scripture says – “See, I place a stumbling-block in Zion – a rock which will prove a hindrance; and he who believes in him will have no cause for shame.”

10 My friends, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for my people is for their salvation. 2 I can testify that they are zealous for the honour of God; but they are not guided by true insight, 3 for, in their ignorance of the divine righteousness, and in their eagerness to set up a righteousness of their own, they refused to accept with submission the divine righteousness. 4 For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by everyone who believes in him. 5 For Moses writes that, as for the righteousness which results from Law, those who practice it will find life through it. 6 But the righteousness which results from faith finds expression in these words: “Do not say to yourself ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ ” (which means to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will go down into the depths below?’ ” (which means to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 No, but what does it say? “The message is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (which means “The message of faith” which we proclaim). 9 For, if with your lips you acknowledge the truth of the message that JESUS IS LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with their hearts people believe and so attain to righteousness, while with their lips they make their profession of faith and so find salvation. 11 As the passage of scripture says – “No one who believes in him will have any cause for shame.” 12 For no distinction is made between the Jew and the Greek, for all have the same Lord, and he is bountiful to all who invoke him. 13 For everyone who invokes the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 But how, it may be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they have not learned to believe? And how are they to believe in one whose words they have not heard? And how are they to hear his words unless someone proclaims him? 15 And how is anyone to proclaim him unless they are sent as his messengers? As scripture says – “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

16 Still, it may be said, everyone did not give heed to the good news. No, for Isaiah asks – “Lord, who has believed our teaching?” 17 And so we gather, faith is a result of teaching, and the teaching comes in the message of Christ. 18 But I ask “Is it possible that people have never heard?” No, indeed, for – “Their voices spread through all the earth, and their message to the ends of the world.” 19 But again I ask “Did not the people of Israel understand?” First there is Moses, who says – “I, the Lord, will stir you to rivalry with a nation which is no nation; against an undiscerning nation I will arouse your anger.” 20 And Isaiah says boldly – “I was found by those who were not seeking me; I made myself known to those who were not inquiring of me.” 21 But of the people of Israel he says – “All day long I have stretched out my hands to a people who disobey and contradict.”

11 I ask, then, “Has God rejected his people?” Heaven forbid! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the first. Have you forgotten the words of scripture in the story of Elijah – how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have pulled down your altars, and I only am left; and now they are eager to take my life.” 4 But what was the divine response? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have never bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 And so in our own time, too, there is to be found a remnant of our nation selected by God in love. 6 But if in love, then it is not as a result of obedience. Otherwise love would cease to be love. 7 What follows from this? Why, that Israel as a nation failed to secure what it was seeking, while those whom God selected did secure it. 8 The rest grew callous; as scripture says – “God has given them a deadness of mind – eyes that are not to see and ears that are not to hear – and it is so to this very day.” 9 David, too, says – “May their feasts prove a snare and a trap to them – a hindrance and a retribution; 10 may their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; and do you always make their backs to bend.” 11 I ask then – “Was their stumbling to result in their fall?” Heaven forbid! On the contrary, through their falling away salvation has reached the Gentiles, to stir the rivalry of Israel. 12 And, if their falling away has enriched the world, and their failure has enriched the Gentiles, how much more will result from their full restoration!

13 But I am speaking to you who were Gentiles. 14 Being myself an apostle to the Gentiles, I exalt my office, in the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry, and so save some of them. 15 For, if their being cast aside has meant the reconciliation of the world, what will their reception mean, but life from the dead? 16 If the first handful of dough is holy, so is the whole mass, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 Some, however, of the branches were broken off, and you, who were only a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and came to share with them the root which is the source of the richness of the cultivated olive. 18 Yet do not exult over the other branches. But, if you do exult over them, remember that you do not support the root, but that the root supports you. 19 But branches, you will say, were broken off, so that I might be grafted in. 20 True, it was because of their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is because of your faith that you are standing. Do not think too highly of yourself, but beware. 21 For, if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 See, then, both the goodness and the severity of God – his severity towards those who fell, and his goodness towards you, provided that you continue to confide in that goodness; otherwise you, also, will be cut off. 23 And they, too, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God has it in his power to graft them in again. 24 If you were cut off from your natural stock – a wild olive – and were grafted, contrary to the course of nature, on a good olive, much more will they – the natural branches – be grafted back into their parent tree.

25 My friends, so that you don’t think too highly of yourselves, I want you to recognise the truth, hitherto hidden, that the callousness which has come over Israel is only partial, and will continue only until the whole Gentile world has been gathered in. 26 And then all Israel will be saved. As scripture says – “From Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. 27 And they will see the fulfilment of my covenant, when I have taken away their sins.” 28 From the standpoint of the good news, the Jews are God’s enemies for your sake; but from the standpoint of God’s selection, they are dear to him for the sake of the patriarchs. 29 For God never regrets his gifts or his call. 30 Just as you at one time were disobedient to him, but have now found mercy in the day of their disobedience; 31 so, too, they have now become disobedient in your day of mercy, in order that they also in their turn may now find mercy. 32 For God has given all alike over to disobedience, that to all alike he may show mercy. 33 Oh! The unfathomable wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, how untraceable his ways! Yes – 34 ho has ever comprehended the mind of the Lord? Who has ever become his counsellor? 35 Or who has first given to him, so that he may claim a reward? 36 For all things are from him, through him, and for him. And to him be all glory for ever and ever! Amen.