Israel
9
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying with me in the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing distress in my heart. 3 For I keep wishing that I myself could be accursed away from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my physical relatives, 4 the Israelites.* To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The patriarchs are theirs, and from them came the Christ (the physical part),† who is over all, God forever blessed. Amen.
Children of the promise
6 However, it is not as though the Word of God has failed!‡ For not all who have descended from Israel are ‘Israel’. 7 Neither are they all ‘children’ because they are Abraham's descendants; but, “in Isaac will your seed be called.”§ 8 That is, it is not the physical children who are God's ‘children’, but the children of the promise are regarded as ‘seed’. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this season I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”*
10 Not only that, but also when Rebecca had conceived twins by our forefather Isaac 11 (though they had not yet been born, not having done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”† 13 As it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”‡
It is pointless to fight God's Sovereignty!
14 So what shall we say, there is no injustice with God, is there? Of course not! 15 For He says to Moses:
“I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on
whomever I have compassion.”§
16 So then, it is not of him who wills nor of him who strives, but of God who shows 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.”* 18 So then, He has mercy on whom He wishes, and He hardens whom He wishes.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has ever resisted His will?” 20 Really now, just who are you, O man, to talk back to God? What is formed will not say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?†
22 What if God, wishing to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 just in order to make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy,‡ which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As He also says in Hosea:
“I will call the ‘not my people’, ‘my people’,
and the ‘not loved’ (f), ‘loved’.”§
26 “And it will be in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called sons of the living God.”*
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved;
28 because He is finishing and cutting short an accounting in righteousness; yes, the Lord will impose a condensed accounting† upon the earth.”‡
29 And as Isaiah had said previously:
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah.”§
Their present condition
30 So what shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained to righteousness, namely the righteousness that comes from faith; 31 while Israel, pursuing a standard of righteousness, did not attain to that standard. 32 Why not? Because it was not from faith, but as from works of the law. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’; 33 as it is written:
“Look! I am placing in Zion a stumbling stone
and a rock of offense,
and no one who believes on Him will be put to shame.”*
* 9:4 Wow, Paul, do you really mean it? Perhaps he is reflecting God's sorrow. † 9:5 Both “the Christ” and “who is over all” are in the masculine gender, separated by το κατα σαρκα, often rendered as ‘according to the flesh’. But the article, το, is in the neuter gender, and so must have a different referent. Paul is being precisely correct: it was only the physical part of the Messiah that came through Israel, the divine part did not. ‡ 9:6 The covenants and the promises involve human participation, so they only come to fruition for those who obey God (almost always a minority of the population). § 9:7 See Genesis 21:12. * 9:9 See Genesis 18:10,14. † 9:12 See Genesis 25:23. ‡ 9:13 See Malachi 1:2,3. Of course Malachi was written long after the two had demonstrated their characters by their lives. Further, the ‘hated’ is not an active hate, but a disregard. § 9:15 See Exodus 33:19. * 9:17 See Exodus 9:16. If you check the record, Pharaoh hardened his own heart the first five times; after that God did the hardening. † 9:21 We can argue, and complain, and squirm, but after everything is said and done, when faced with God's Sovereignty we have just two options: rebel or submit, giving due regard to the consequences. That said, however, this text is concentrating on God's Sovereignty. Due regard must also be given to all the texts that deal with human responsibility. ‡ 9:23 Presumably by way of contrast. § 9:25 See Hosea 2:23. * 9:26 See Hosea 1:10. † 9:28 “In righteousness; yes, the Lord will impose a condensed accounting” is omitted by less than 3% of the Greek manuscripts, to be followed by NIV, NASB, TEV, LB, etc.—an inferior proceeding. ‡ 9:28 See Isaiah 10:22-23. It has always been the case that those who really want to walk with God represent a small minority of the population sample. § 9:29 See Isaiah 1:9. To be like Sodom would be complete destruction. * 9:33 See Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16. They had to ‘believe on’ the ‘stumbling block’, the Christ, but He did not perform the way they expected that the Messiah would perform.