Read the Bible

Paul’s Concern for the Jews

¹ I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.² I have deep 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 brothers, my own flesh and blood,⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

(Genesis 25:19-28; Malachi 1:1-5)

⁶ It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.⁷ Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.&rdquo^(a);⁸ So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.⁹ For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.&rdquo^(a);¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.¹¹ Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,¹² not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.&rdquo^(a);¹³ So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.&rdquo^(a);

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!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.&rdquo^(a);¹⁶ So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.¹⁷ For the 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.&rdquo^(a);¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

The Calling of 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 Beloved’ who is not My beloved,&rdquo^(a);²⁶ and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’&rdquo^(a);²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.²⁸ For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.&rdquo^(a);²⁹ It is just as Isaiah predicted: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.&rdquo^(a);

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰ What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;³¹ but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.³² Why not? Because their pursuit was 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 of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.&rdquo^(a);