Letter to the Romans 9

¹ What I want to say now is no pretence; I say it in union with Christ – it is the truth – my conscience in union with the Holy Spirit assures me of it too.

² What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless,

³ I would willingly be condemned[*a] and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood.

⁴ They were adopted as sons, they were given the glory and the covenants; the Law and the ritual were drawn up for them, and the promises were made to them.

⁵ They are descended from the patriarchs and from their flesh and blood came Christ who is above all, God for ever blessed! Amen.

⁶ Does this mean that God has failed to keep his promise? Of course not. Not all those who descend from Israel are Israel;

⁷ not all the descendants of Abraham are his true children. Remember: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on,[*b]

⁸ which means that it is not physical descent that decides who are the children of God; it is only the children of the promise who will count as the true descendants.

⁹ The actual words in which the promise was made were: I shall visit you at such and such a time, and Sarah will have a son.[*c]

¹⁰ Even more to the point is what was said to Rebecca when she was pregnant by our ancestor Isaac,

¹¹ but before her twin children were born and before either had done good or evil. In order to stress that God’s choice is free,

¹² since it depends on the one who calls, not on human merit, Rebecca was told: the elder shall serve the younger,[*d]

¹³ or as scripture says elsewhere: I showed my love for Jacob and my hatred for Esau.[*e]

¹⁴ Does it follow that God is unjust? Of course not.

¹⁵ Take what God said to Moses: I have mercy on whom I will, and I show pity to whom I please.[*f]

¹⁶ In other words, the only thing that counts is not what human beings want or try to do, but the mercy of God.

¹⁷ For in scripture he says to Pharaoh: It was for this I raised you up, to use you as a means of showing my power and to make my name known throughout the world.[*g]

¹⁸ In other words, when God wants to show mercy he does, and when he wants to harden someone’s heart he does so.

¹⁹ You will ask me, ‘In that case, how can God ever blame anyone, since no one can oppose his will?’

²⁰ But what right have you, a human being, to cross-examine God? The pot has no right to say to the potter: Why did you make me this shape?[*h]

²¹ Surely a potter can do what he likes with the clay? It is surely for him to decide whether he will use a particular lump of clay to make a special pot or an ordinary one?

²² Or else imagine that although God is ready to show his anger and display his power, yet he patiently puts up with the people who make him angry, however much they deserve to be destroyed.

²³ He puts up with them for the sake of those other people, to whom he wants to be merciful, to whom he wants to reveal the richness of his glory, people he had prepared for this glory long ago.

²⁴ Well, we are those people; whether we were Jews or pagans we are the ones he has called.

²⁵ That is exactly what God says in Hosea: I shall say to a people that was not mine, ‘You are my people’, and to a nation I never loved, ‘I love you’.

²⁶ Instead of being told, ‘You are no people of mine’, they will now be called the sons of the living God.[*i]

²⁷ Referring to Israel Isaiah had this to say: Though Israel should have many descendants as there are grains of sand on the seashore, only a remnant will be saved,

²⁸ for without hesitation or delay the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth.[*j]

²⁹ As Isaiah foretold: had the Lord of hosts not left us some descendants we should now be like Sodom, we should be like Gomorrah.[*k]

³⁰ From this it follows that the pagans who were not looking for righteousness found it all the same, a righteousness that comes of faith,

³¹ while Israel, looking for a righteousness derived from law failed to do what that law required.

³² Why did they fail? Because they relied on good deeds instead of trusting in faith. In other words, they stumbled over the stumbling-stone[*l]

³³ mentioned in scripture: See how I lay in Zion a stone to stumble over, a rock to trip men up – only those who believe in him will have no cause for shame.[*m]