- 1
- I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
- 2
- that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
- 3
- For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
- 4
- who are Israelites;
whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises;
- 5
- whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen.
- 6
- But [it is] not as though the word of God hath come to nought.
For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel:
- 7
- neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
- 8
- That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God;
but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed.
- 9
- For this is a word of promise, According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
- 10
- And not only so;
but Rebecca also having conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac —
- 11
- for [the children] being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,
- 12
- it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
- 13
- Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
- 14
- What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
- 15
- For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
- 16
- So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.
- 17
- For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth.
- 18
- So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardeneth.
- 19
- Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault?
For who withstandeth his will?
- 20
- Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
- 21
- Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
- 22
- What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
- 23
- and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
- 24
- [even] us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
- 25
- As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that my people, which was not my people;
And her beloved, that was not beloved.
- 26
- And it shall be, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.
- 27
- And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:
- 28
- for the Lord will execute [his] word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.
- 29
- And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
- 30
- What shall we say then?
That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith:
- 31
- but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law.
- 32
- Wherefore?
Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;
- 33
- even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
|