The Bible

Romans Chapter 9

¹I tell the truth in AnointedOne. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit ²that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were accursed from AnointedOne for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh ⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵of whom are the fathers, and from [whom comes] AnointedOne (according to the flesh), who is God over all, forever praiseworthy. Absolutely.

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. ⁷Neither, because they are Abraham's offspring, are they all children. But, "your offspring will be counted as from Isaac." ⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. ⁹For this is a word of promise: "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." ¹⁰Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. ¹¹For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of actions, but of him who calls, ¹²it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." ¹³Even as it is written, "Jacob I selflessly-loved, but Esau I hated."

¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Not at all! ¹⁵For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." ¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. ¹⁷For 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." ¹⁸So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹Then, [perhaps, you'll] say to me, "Why [does he] still find fault? For who [can] resist his will?" ²⁰But indeed, O human, who are you to answer back to God? Will what's been formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" ²¹Or doesn't the potter have authority over the clay, to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor from the same lump [of clay]?

²²What if God, choosing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³in order to make-known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy, which he prepared-beforehand for glory- ²⁴[even] us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he says also in Hosea,
"I will call them 'my people,' who weren't my people;
and [call] her 'loved,' who was not loved."
²⁶"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You-all are not my people,'
there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

²⁷Isaiah cries concerning Israel,
"If the number of the sons of Israel are as the sand of the sea,
it is the remnant who will be saved;
²⁸for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
because ForeverOne will make a short work upon the earth."

²⁹As Isaiah has said before,
"Unless ForeverOne of Armies had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and would have been made like Gomorrah."

³⁰What are we to say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't pursue righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at that law. ³²Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by actions of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³even as it is written,
"See, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense;
and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."