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The Letter to the Romans 11

11 Since these things are true, this is what I say, “God certainly has not rejected his people, the Israelites!” Of course not! I know this is true because I too am one of the Israelites. I descended from Abraham. More specifically, I descended from the tribe that descended from Benjamin. 2 God did not discard his people. They are the people whom he chose in advance. You certainly are aware of what the Prophet Elijah said in the Scriptures when he appealed to God against the people of Israel! 3 Elijah said, “Lord, the people of Israel murdered all of your prophets except for me! They demolished all of your altars! I am the very last prophet who is still alive! Now, they are trying to kill me too!” 4 However, this is how God replied to Elijah, “I have kept alive 7,000 men for my purposes. These men have not worshipped the false god Baal.” 5 So, similarly, at this time some faithful Israelites also remain. This is because God has graciously chosen them to remain. 6 Yet because God chooses his people based on how gracious he is, God does not choose his people based on what they do. If God chose people based on what they do, then how gracious he is would not really be gracious.

7 So this is what we should conclude: Although the people of Israel keep trying to make themselves righteous, they cannot do so. Instead, those whom God graciously chose from them became righteous. But God made stubborn those people of Israel whom he did not graciously choose. 8 This is exactly what God meant when he wrote in the Scriptures, “God caused the people of Israel to not think properly. Until this present day, God has made them completely unable to understand how to become righteous.” 9 David also stated in the Scriptures, “O God, make the luxurious way they live punish them completely like a hunter catches an animal in a net or trap! Make the luxurious way they live cause them to sin and pay them back for sinning!

10 Make them unable to understand! Make them suffer like slaves forever!”

11 Since these things are true, this is what I say, “The Jewish people were certainly not offended in order that God would completely reject them!” Of course not! Rather, God saves non-Jewish people because the Jewish people disobeyed him. This happened in order for God to make the Jewish people envious of non-Jewish people who know him. 12 Indeed, God used how the Jewish people disobeyed him and failed to make themselves righteous to abundantly bless people from all the nations in the whole world. So, when the complete amount of faithful Jewish people become righteous, there will be even greater blessings!

13 But now I am speaking to you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus. God indeed made me his representative to non-Jewish people. Therefore, I show how glorious is what I do to minister to non-Jewish people. 14 If possible, I want to make those who I am physically related to, the Jews, envious of the non-Jewish people who know God, so that God will save some of them. 15 Indeed, God is reconciling with people in the world as a result of him rejecting the Jewish people. So, when God accepts the Jewish people, it will result in God making alive those who are dead. 16 Indeed, because the ancestors of the Jewish people belong to God, just like the first portion of a lump of dough belongs to God, all the Jewish people belong to God, just like that whole lump of dough belongs to God. Also, because the ancestors of the Jewish people belonged to God, just like the root of an olive tree belongs to God, all the Jewish people belong to God, just like the branches of that same tree belong to God.

17 Indeed, God has removed some of the Jewish people from his people, as a farmer breaks unfruitful branches off of an olive tree. But, God has made you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus part of his people, as a farmer grafts wild olive branches into a cultivated tree. You also share together in benefitting from being part of God‘s people, as grafted branches share in the nutrition in the olive tree root. 18 Therefore, you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus must not boast against the Jewish people whom God removed, even though they are like broken off branches! If you do boast, you must realize that you indeed do not sustain the Jewish people. Rather, they sustain you, as the root sustains the branches! 19 So then, you might say, “God removed some of the Jewish people from his people, as a farmer breaks unfruitful branches off of a tree. God did this in order that he could join me to his people, as a farmer grafts a branch into a tree.” 20 I would reply by saying that what you said is correct. God removed some of the Jewish people from being his people, as a farmer breaks off unfruitful branches because they were unfaithful. However, you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus remain part of God‘s people by trusting in him. Do not arrogantly think that you are better than unbelieving Jewish people! Rather, fear God! 21 You should fear God because he did not show pity to the faithless Jewish people, who are like natural branches. So, he will not show pity to you non-Jewish people if you stop trusting in Jesus!

22 Since this is true, pay attention to how kind and severe God can be! God acts severely toward those who stop trusting in him. However, God will act kindly toward you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus if you continue accepting how kind he is. But, if you do not do this, God will reject you, like a farmer cuts an unfruitful branch off of a tree! 23 However, if those faithless Jewish people believe in Jesus, God will allow them to rejoin his people, just as a farmer grafts branches into a tree. This is because God is powerful enough to rejoin the Jewish people to his people. 24 Indeed, God removed you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus from the nations and joined you to his people, as a farmer cuts off a branch from a naturally wild olive tree and grafts it into a cultivated olive tree, even though doing so is not natural. Since this is true, God will certainly join Israelites back into his people, just as a farmer grafts a naturally cultivated olive branch back into its own tree.

25 I say this because I really want you, my non-Jewish fellow believers, to know what God had previously hidden from people, so that you do not become arrogant. God had previously hidden from people the fact that some of the people of Israel will stubbornly oppose him until all the non-Jewish people God has chosen have joined his people. 26 Then, in the same way, God will save all of the people of Israel. This is what Isaiah meant when he wrote in the Scriptures, “God will send from Jerusalem someone to rescue his people. That man will make the descendants of Jacob stop being ungodly.”

27 God says, “This is the agreement that I will make with the descendants of Jacob, when I forgive them for the sinful things that they have done.”

28 With regard to Jewish people rejecting the good news, they are enemies of God for your benefit. However, with regard to God choosing Jewish people, God loves them for the sake of what he promised their ancestors. 29 This is true because God does not revoke the things he graciously gives. He also does not revoke the people whom he summons to be his people. 30 Indeed, it is just as you non-Jewish people who trust in Jesus used to disobey God, but now God has been merciful to you because the Jewish people disobeyed him. 31 In the same way, the Jewish people also are now disobeying God because God has been merciful to you non-Jewish people. This happened in order for God to now also be merciful to them. 32 Indeed, God allowed everyone to disobey him in order to be merciful to them.

33 God is so very wealthy, wise, and knowledgeable! No one can fully understand what he does! 34 Indeed, as Isaiah wrote, “No one could ever comprehend what the Lord thinks or advise him!” 35 Furthermore, “No one could ever give God anything that would cause God to owe him something!”

36 No one can do these things, because everything came from God, exists by God, and exists for God. I pray that everyone will glorify him forever. May this truly be so!

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