I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience
bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and
unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my
kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them
belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the
law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs,
and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is
God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all
who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are
children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through
Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the
children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the
promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah
shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had
conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they
were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order
that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works
but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve
the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no
means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So
then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has
mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I
have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my
name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on
whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who
can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to
God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me
like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of
the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for
dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to
make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of
wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches
of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand
for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but
also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not
my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of
the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of
them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon
the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue
righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by
faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to
righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because
they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.
They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock
of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
