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I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
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that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
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For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
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who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
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of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
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But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
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Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called." {Genesis 21:12}
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That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.
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For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." {Genesis 18:10,14}
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Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.
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For 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 who calls,
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it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." {Genesis 25:23}
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Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." {Malachi 1:2-3}
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What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
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For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." {Exodus 33:19}
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So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
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For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." {Exodus 9:16}
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So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
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You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"
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But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" {Isaiah 29:16; 45:9}
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Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
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What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
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and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
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us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
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As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved." {Hosea 2:23}
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"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'children of the living God.'" {Hosea 1:10}
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Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
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for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." {Isaiah 10:22-23}
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As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Armies {Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze'va'ot)} had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah." {Isaiah 1:9}
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What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
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but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.
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Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;
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even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed." {Isaiah 8:14; 28:16}