30 What
then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the
people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not
attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by
faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As
it is written:
“See,
I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to
shame.”
14 What
then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 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.”[f]
16 It
does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For
Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might
display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[g]18 Therefore
God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to
harden.
19 One
of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to
resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk
back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you
make me like this?’”[h]21 Does
not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery
for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What
if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with
great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What
if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his
mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom
he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As
he says in Hosea:
“I
will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved
one,”[i]
26 and,
“In
the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living
God.’”[j]
27 Isaiah
cries out concerning Israel:
“Though
the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[k]
29 It
is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless
the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,
my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have
great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could
wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my
people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is
the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving
of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are
the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who
is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.
31 What,
then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be
against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him
up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has
chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who
condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to
life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it
is written:
“For
your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]
37 No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
