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91 I AM SPEAKING the truth as a Christian, and my own conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, assures me it is no lie: 2 in my heart there is great grief and unceasing sorrow. 3 For I could even pray to be outcast from Christ myself for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsfolk. 4 They are Israelites: they were made God's sons, theirs is the splendour of the divine presence, theirs the covenants, the law, the temple worship, and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, in natural descent, sprang the Messiah. May God, supreme above all, be blessed for ever! Amen.
6 It is impossible that the word of God should have proved false. For not all descendants of Israel are truly Israel, nor, 7 because they are Abraham's offspring, are they all his true children; but, in the words of Scripture, 'Through the line of Isaac your posterity shall be traced.' 8 That is to say, it is not those born in the course of nature who are children of God; it is the children born through God's promise who are reckoned as Abraham's descendants. 9 For the promise runs: 'At the time fixed I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.'
10 But that is not all, for Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our ancestor Isaac; 11 and yet, in order that God's selective purpose might stand, based not upon men's deeds but upon the call of God, 12 she was told, even before they were born, when they had as yet done nothing, good or ill, 'The elder shall be servant to the younger'; 13 and that accords with the text of Scripture, 'Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.'
14 What shall we say to that? Is God to be charged with injustice? By no means. 15 For he says to Moses, 'Where I show mercy, I will show mercy, and where I pity, I will pity.' 16 Thus it does not depend on man's will or effort, but on God's mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for this very purpose, to exhibit my power in my dealings with you, and to spread my fame over all the world.' 18 Thus he not only shows mercy as he chooses, but also makes men stubborn as he chooses.
19 You will say, 'Then why does God blame a man? For who can resist his will?' 20 Who are you, sir, to answer God back? Can the pot speak to the potter and say, 'Why did you make me like this?'? 21 Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make out of the same lump two vessels, one to be treasured, the other for common use?
22 But what if God, desiring to exhibit his retribution at work and to make his power known, tolerated very patiently those vessels which were objects of retribution due for destruction, 23 and did so in order to make known the full wealth of his splendour upon vessels which were objects of mercy, and which from the first had been prepared for this splendour?
24 Such vessels are we, whom he has called from among Gentiles as well as Jews, 25 as it says in the Book of Hosea: 'Those who were not my people I will call My People, and the unloved nation I will call My Beloved. 26 For in the very place where they were told "you are no people of mine", they shall be called Sons of the living God.' 27 But Isaiah makes this proclamation about Israel: 'Though the Israelites be countless as the sands of the sea, it is but a remnant that shall be saved; 28 for the Lord's sentence on the land will be summary and final'; 29 as also he said previously, 'If the Lord of Hosts had not left us the mere germ of a nation, we should have become like Sodom, and no better than Gomorrah.'
30 Then what are we to say? That Gentiles, who made no effort after righteousness, nevertheless achieved it, a righteousness based on faith; 31 whereas Israel made great efforts after a law of righteousness, but never attained to it. 32 Why was this? Because their efforts were not based on faith, but (as they supposed) on deeds. They stumbled over the 'stumbling-stone' 33 mentioned in Scripture: 'Here I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip them up; but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame.'
101 BROTHERS, MY DEEPEST DESIRE and my prayer to God is for their salvation. 2 To their zeal for God I can testify; but it is an ill-informed zeal. 3 For they ignore God's way of righteousness, and try to set up their own, and therefore they have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ ends the law and brings righteousness for everyone who has faith.
5 Of legal righteousness Moses writes, 'The man who does this shall gain life by it.' 6 But the righteousness that comes by faith says, 'Do not say to yourself, "Who can go up to heaven?"' (that is to bring Christ down), 7 'or, "Who can go down to the abyss?"' (to bring Christ up from the dead).
16 But not all have responded to the good news. For ie Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our message?' 17 We conclude that faith is awakened by the message, and the message that awakens it comes through the word of Christ.
18 But, I ask, can it be that they never heard it? Of is course they did: 'Their voice has sounded all over the earth, and their words to the bounds of the inhabited world.' 19 But, I ask again, can it be that Israel failed to recognize the message? In reply, I first cite Moses, who says, 'I will use a nation that is no nation to stir your envy, and a foolish nation to rouse your anger.' 20 But Isaiah is still more daring: 'I was found', he says, 'by those who were not looking for me; I was clearly shown to those who never asked about me'; 21 while to Israel he says, 'All day long I have stretched out my hands to an unruly and recalcitrant people.'
111 I ASK THEN, has God rejected his people? I cannot believe it! I am an Israelite myself, of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 No! God has not rejected the people which he acknowledged of old as his own. You know (do you not?) what Scripture says in the story of Elijah - how Elijah pleads with God against Israel: 3 'Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have overthrown thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.' 4 But what does the oracle say to him? 'I have left myself seven thousand men who have not done homage to Baal.' 5 In just the same way at the present time a 'remnant' has come into being, selected by the grace of God. 6 But if it is by grace, then it does not rest on deeds done, or grace would cease to be grace.
7 What follows? What Israel sought, Israel has not achieved, but the selected few have achieved it. The rest were made blind to the truth, 8 exactly as it stands written: 'God brought upon them a numbness of spirit; he gave them blind eyes and deaf ears, and so it is still.' 9 Similarly David says:
13 But I have something to say to you Gentiles. I am a missionary to the Gentiles, and as such I give all honour to that ministry 14 when I try to stir emulation in the men of my own race, and so to save some of them. 15 For if their rejection has meant the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? 16 Nothing less than life from the dead! If the first portion of dough is consecrated, so is the whole lump. 17 If the root is consecrated, so are the branches. But if some of the branches have been lopped off, and you, a wild olive, have been grafted in among them, and have come to share the same root and sap as the olive, do not make yourself superior to the branches. 18 If you is do so, remember that it is not you who sustain the root: the root sustains you.
19 You will say, 'Branches were lopped off so that I might be grafted in.' 20 Very well: they were lopped off for lack of faith, and by faith you hold your place. Put away your pride, and be on your guard; 21 for if God did not spare the native branches, no more will he spare you. 22 Observe the kindness and the severity of God - severity to those who fell away, divine kindness to you, if only you remain within its scope; otherwise you too will be cut off, 23 whereas they, if they do not continue faithless, will be grafted in; for it is in God's power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from your native wild olive and against all nature grafted into the cultivated olive, how much more readily will they, the natural olive-branches, be grafted into their native stock!
25 For there is a deep truth here, my brothers, of which I want you to take account, so that you may not be complacent about your own discernment: this partial blindness has come upon Israel only until the Gentiles have been admitted in full strength; 26 when that has happened, the whole of Israel will be saved, in agreement with the text of Scripture:
33 O depth of wealth, wisdom, and knowledge in God! How unsearchable his judgements, how untraceable his ways! 34 Who knows the mind of the Lord ? Who has been his counsellor? 35 Who has ever made a gift to him, to receive a gift in return? 36 Source, Guide, and Goal of all that is-to him be glory for ever! Amen.