Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

The privileges and tragedy of Israel

9 I’m speaking the truth in the Messiah, I’m not lying. I call my conscience as witness, in the holy spirit, ² that I have great sorrow and endless pain in my heart. ³ Left to my own self, I am half inclined to pray that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, on behalf of my own family, my own flesh-and-blood relatives. ⁴ They are Israelites: the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises all belong to them. ⁵ The patriarchs are their ancestors; and it is from them, according to the flesh, that the Messiah has come—who is God over all, blessed forever, Amen!

Abraham’s two families

⁶ But it can’t be the case that God’s word has failed! Not all who are from Israel, you see, are in fact Israel. ⁷ Nor is it the case that all the children count as “seed of Abraham.” No: “in Isaac shall your seed be named.” ⁸ That means that it isn’t the flesh-and-blood children who are God’s children; rather, it is the children of the promise who will be calculated as “seed.” ⁹ This was what the promise said, you see: “Around this time I shall return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰ And that’s not all. The same thing happened when Rebecca conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹ When they had not yet been born, and had done nothing either good or bad—so that what God had in mind in making his choice might come to pass, ¹² not because of works but because of the one who calls—it was said to her, “the elder shall serve the younger.” ¹³ As the Bible says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

God’s purpose and justice

¹⁴ So what are we going to say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! ¹⁵ He says to Moses, you see, “I will have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy, and I will pity those I will pity.” ¹⁶ So, then, it doesn’t depend on human willing, or on human effort; it depends on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the Bible says to Pharaoh: “This is why I have raised you up, to show my power in you, and so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So, then, he has mercy on the one he wants, and he hardens the one he wants.

¹⁹ You will say to me, then, “So why does he still blame people? Who can stand against his purpose?” ²⁰ Are you, a mere human being, going to answer God back? “Surely the clay won’t say to the potter, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” ²¹ Doesn’t the potter have authority over the clay, so that he can make from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²² Supposing God wanted to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, and for that reason put up very patiently with the vessels of anger created for destruction, ²³ in order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, the ones he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ including us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

God calls a remnant

²⁵ This is what he says in Hosea,

²⁷ Isaiah cries out, concerning Israel,

²⁹ As Isaiah said in an earlier passage,

Israel, the nations and the Messiah

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the nations, who were not aspiring towards covenant membership, have obtained covenant membership, but it is a covenant membership based on faith. ³¹ Israel meanwhile, though eager for the law which defined the covenant, did not attain to the law. ³² Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as though it was on the basis of works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³ as the Bible says,

10 My dear family, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God on their behalf, is for their salvation. ² I can testify on their behalf that they have a zeal for God; but it is not based on knowledge. ³ They were ignorant, you see, of God’s covenant faithfulness, and they were trying to establish a covenant status of their own; so they didn’t submit to God’s faithfulness. ⁴ The Messiah, you see, is the goal of the law, so that covenant membership may be available for all who believe.

The fulfillment of the covenant

⁵ Moses writes, you see, about the covenant membership defined by the law, that “the person who performs the law’s commands shall live in them.” ⁶ But the faith-based covenant membership puts it like this: “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who shall go up to heaven?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah down), ⁷ “or, ‘Who shall go down into the depths?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we proclaim); ⁹ because if you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ Why? Because covenant membership comes by believing with the heart, and salvation comes by professing with the mouth. ¹¹ The Bible says, you see, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich towards all who call upon him. ¹³ “All who call upon the name of the Lord,” you see, “will be saved.”

The call to the world, and the failure of Israel

¹⁴ So how are they to call on someone when they haven’t believed in him? And how are they to believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear without someone announcing it to them? ¹⁵ And how will people make that announcement unless they are sent? As the Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of the ones who bring good news of good things.”

¹⁶ But not all obeyed the good news. Isaiah asks, you see, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of the Messiah.

¹⁸ This might make us ask, did they not hear? But they certainly did:

¹⁹ But I ask, did Israel not know? To begin with, Moses says,

²⁰ Then Isaiah, greatly daring, puts it like this:

²¹ But in respect of Israel he says,