¹⁶ Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to^[a] the Israel of God.

²⁹ If you belong to Christ,^(A) then you are Abraham’s seed,^(B) and heirs^(C) according to the promise.^(D)

³ For it is we who are the circumcision,^(A) we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus,^(B) and who put no confidence in the flesh—

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word^(A) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^{(B) 7} Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[a](C) 8} In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children,^(D) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.^(E)

⁷ Understand, then, that those who have faith^(A) are children of Abraham.^{(B) 8} Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”^{[a](C) 9} So those who rely on faith^(D) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.^(E)

⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built^(A) into a spiritual house^[a](B) to be a holy priesthood,^(C) offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.^{(D) 6} For in Scripture it says:

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,^(G)

⁸ and,

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.^(K)

⁹ But you are a chosen people,^(L) a royal priesthood,^(M) a holy nation,^(N) God’s special possession,^(O) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.^(P)

¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹⁰ “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.^(A) In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’^(B)

²⁸ A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly,^(A) nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.^{(B) 29} No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart,^(C) by the Spirit,^(D) not by the written code.^(E) Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.^(F)