Dual Panel1I AM speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying; my conscience [enlightened and prompted] by the Holy Spirit bearing witness with me
2That I have bitter grief and incessant anguish in my heart.
3For I could wish that I myself were accursed {and} cut off {and} banished from Christ for the sake of my brethren {and} instead of them, my natural kinsmen {and} my fellow countrymen.
4For they are Israelites, and to them belong God's adoption [as a nation] and the glorious Presence (Shekinah). With them were the special covenants made, to them was the Law given. To them [the temple] worship was revealed and [God's own] promises announced.
5To them belong the patriarchs, and as far as His natural descent was concerned, from them is the Christ, Who is exalted {and} supreme over all, God, blessed forever! Amen (so let it be).
6However, it is not as though God's Word had failed [coming to nothing]. For it is not everybody who is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) who belongs to [the true] Israel.
7And they are not all the children of Abraham because they are by blood his descendants. No, [the promise was] Your descendants will be called {and} counted through the line of Isaac [though Abraham had an older son].
8That is to say, it is not the children of the body [of Abraham] who are made God's children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham's true] descendants.
9For this is what the promise said, About this time [next year] will I return and Sarah shall have a son.
10And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac,
11And the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God's purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works {or} what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them],
12It was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son].
13As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob).
14What shall we conclude then? Is there injustice upon God's part? Certainly not!
15For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion.
16So then [God's gift] is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God's mercy. [It depends not on one's own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God's having mercy on him.]
17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My power in [dealing with] you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over.
18So then He has mercy on whomever He wills (chooses) and He hardens (makes stubborn and unyielding the heart of) whomever He wills.
19You will say to me, Why then does He still find fault {and} blame us [for sinning]? For who can resist {and} withstand His will?
20But who are you, a mere man, to criticize {and} contradict {and} answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same mass (lump) one vessel for beauty {and} distinction {and} honorable use, and another for menial {or} ignoble {and} dishonorable use?
22What if God, although fully intending to show [the awfulness of] His wrath and to make known His power {and} authority, has tolerated with much patience the vessels (objects) of [His] anger which are ripe for destruction?
23And [what if] He thus purposes to make known {and} show the wealth of His glory in [dealing with] the vessels (objects) of His mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory,
24Even including ourselves whom He has called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles (heathen)?
25Just as He says in Hosea, Those who were not My people I will call My people, and her who was not beloved [I will call] My beloved.
26And it shall be that in the very place where it was said to them, You are not My people, they shall be called sons of the living God.
27And Isaiah calls out (solemnly cries aloud) over Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only the remnant (a small part of them) will be saved [from perdition, condemnation, judgment]!
28For the Lord will execute His sentence upon the earth [He will conclude and close His account with men completely and without delay], rigorously cutting it short in His justice.
29It is as Isaiah predicted, If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed [from which to propagate descendants], we [Israel] would have fared like Sodom and have been made like Gomorrah.
30What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not follow after righteousness [who did not seek salvation by right relationship to God] have attained it by faith [a righteousness imputed by God, based on and produced by faith],
31Whereas Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law [for the securing] of righteousness (right standing with God), actually did not succeed in fulfilling the Law.
32For what reason? Because [they pursued it] not through faith, relying [instead] on the merit of their works [they did not depend on faith but on what they could do]. They have stumbled over the Stumbling Stone.
33As it is written, Behold I am laying in Zion a Stone that will make men stumble, a Rock that will make them fall; but he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall not be put to shame {nor} be disappointed in his expectations.