I speak truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that there is for me great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3 For I could wish myself to be anathema from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 such as are Israelites, of whom the sonship/adoption and the glory and the covenant[s] and the giving-of-the-law and the worship and the promises, 5 of whom the fathers and from whom the Christ according to the flesh—the one being over all, God, be blessed forever, amen.[fn]The sentence is syntactically ambiguous, but I judge it unlikely that Paul here identifies “Christ” with “the one being over all God”; see also “Another good reason….”[/fn]
6 But it is not as though the word of God has fallen away; for not all those from Israel are Israel; 7 nor because they are seed of Abraham are all children, but “in Isaac shall seed be called for you.” 8 That is, not these children of the flesh are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed. For the word of the promise was this: “According to this time I will come and there will be for Sarah a son.”
10 And not only so, but also Rebecca having (conceived) from one marital-bed, Isaac our father—11 for they were not yet born and had not yet accomplished good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain, 12 not from works but from the one calling—it was said to her that “the greater shall serve the lesser’,” 13 as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What then shall we say? Is there injustice on God’s part? Let it not be! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then not of the one willing and not of the one running but of the God who is merciful. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh that ‘for just this I have raised you up, in order that I might show my power in you and in order that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth/land’. 18 So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 O man, rather who are you answering back to God? Will what is moulded say to the moulder, “Why did you make me thus?” 21 Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honour, another for dishonour? 22 But what if God, wishing to show wrath and to make known his power, bore with much patience vessels of wrath created for destruction, 23 and in order to make known the wealth of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he fore-prepared for glory, 24 we whom indeed he called not only from Jews but also from Gentiles?
25 As indeed in Hosea he says: I will call the not my people my people and the not beloved my beloved; 26 and there will be in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. 27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved; 28 for finishing and cutting short the Lord will do a matter on the earth. 29 And as Isaiah predicted: Unless the Lord of hosts left for us seed, we would have become as Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
30 What then shall we say? That the nations that did not pursue vindication received vindication, but a vindication which is through faithfulness; 31 but that Israel pursuing the Law of vindication did not reach to the Law. 32 For what reason? Because not from faithfulness but as from works. They stumbled on the stone of stumbling, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and the one believing in him will not be dishonoured.”
Recent comments