Dual PanelIsrael and the Gentiles in God's plan
1I AM speaking the truth as a Christian; my conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, assures me that I do not lie when I tell you
2that there is great grief and unceasing sorrow in my heart.
3I would even pray to be an outcast myself, cut off from Christ, if it would help my brothers, my kinsfolk by natural descent.
4They are descendants of Israel, chosen to be God's sons; theirs is the glory of the divine presence, theirs the covenants, the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
5The patriarchs are theirs, and from them by natural descent came the Messiah. May God, supreme above all, be blessed for ever! Amen.
6It cannot be that God's word has proved false. Not all the offspring of Israel are truly Israel,
7nor does being Abraham's descendants make them all his true children; but, in the words of scripture, “It is through the line of Isaac's descendants that your name will be traced.”
8That is to say, it is not the children of Abraham by natural descent who are children of God; it is the children born through God's promise who are reckoned as Abraham's descendants.
9For the promise runs: “In due season I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
10And that is not all: Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our ancestor Isaac;
11yet, even before they were born, when they as yet had done nothing, whether good or ill, in order that the purpose of God, which is a matter of his choice, might stand firm, based not on human deeds but on the call of God,
12she was told, “The elder shall be servant to the younger.”
13That accords with the text of scripture, “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.”
14What shall we say to that? Is God to be charged with injustice? Certainly not!
15He says to Moses, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and have pity on whom I will have pity.”
16Thus it does not depend on human will or effort, but on God's mercy.
17For in scripture Pharaoh is told, “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 earth.”
18Thus he not only shows mercy as he chooses, but also makes stubborn as he chooses.
19You will say, “Then why does God find fault, if no one can resist his will?”
20Who do you think you are to answer God back? Can the pot say to the potter, “Why did you make me like this?”?
21Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make two vessels out of the same lump, one to be treasured, the other for common use?
22But if it is indeed God's purpose to display his retribution and to make his power known, can it be that he has with great patience tolerated vessels that were objects of retribution due for destruction,
23precisely in order to make known the full wealth of his glory on vessels that were objects of mercy, prepared from the first for glory?
24We are those objects of mercy, whom he has called from among Jews and Gentiles alike,
25as he says in Hosea: “Those who were not my people I will call my people, and the unloved I will call beloved.
26In the very place where they were told, ‘You are no people of mine,’ they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27But about Israel Isaiah makes this proclamation: “Though the Israelites be countless as the sands of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved,
28for the Lord's sentence on the land will be summary and final”;
29as also he said previously, “If the Lord of Hosts had not left us descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and no better than Gomorrah.”
30Then what are we to say? That Gentiles, who made no effort after righteousness, nevertheless achieved it, a righteousness based on faith;
31whereas Israel made great efforts after a law of righteousness, but never attained to it.
32Why was this? Because their efforts were not based on faith but, mistakenly, on deeds. They tripped over the “stone”
33mentioned in scripture: “Here I lay in Zion a stone to trip over, a rock to stumble against; but he who has faith in it will not be put to shame.”