²⁸ A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly,^(A) nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.^(B)

¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything;^(A) what counts is the new creation.^(B)

⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’^(A) I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

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)

¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.^(A) So then, he is the father^(B) of all who believe^(C) but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 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.

Stubborn Israel

⁶ Gomer^(A) conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”),^(B) for I will no longer show love to Israel,^(C) that I should at all forgive them. ⁷ Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow,^(D) sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God,^(E) will save them.”

⁸ After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah,^(F) Gomer had another son. ⁹ Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.^[a](G)

²¹ and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you^(A) also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience^(B) toward God.^[a] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,^(C)