Outline
- Commendation, Greetings and Doxology (ch. 16)
Romans 9
1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with
utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow
and unending grief
3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and
sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that
would save them.
4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be
God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with
them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and
receiving his wonderful promises.
5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their
ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is
concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of
eternal praise! Amen.
6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his
promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are
truly members of God’s people!
7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t
make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son
through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other
children, too.
8 This means that Abraham’s physical
descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the
promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
9 For God had promised, “I will return
about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he
married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.
11 But before they were born, before they
had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message
shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;
12 he calls people, but not according to
their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger
son.”
13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved
Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
14 Are we saying, then, that God was
unfair? Of course not!
15 For God said to Moses, “I will show
mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
16 So it is God who decides to show mercy.
We can neither choose it nor work for it.
17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh,
“I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to
spread my fame throughout the earth.”
18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to
some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to
listen.
19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame
people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them
do?”
20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere
human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the
one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t
he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and
another to throw garbage into?
22 In the same way, even though God has the
right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom
his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.
23 He does this to make the riches of his
glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in
advance for glory.
24 And we are among those whom he selected,
both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the
prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people.
And I will love those whom I did not love before.”
26 And, “Then, at the place where they were
told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the
living God.’”
27 And concerning Israel, Isaiah the
prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of
the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.
28 For the LORD will carry out his sentence
upon the earth quickly and with finality.”
29 And Isaiah said the same thing in
another place: “If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our
children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like
Gomorrah.”
30 What does all this mean? Even though the
Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with
God. And it was by faith that this took place.
31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to
get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
32 Why not? Because they were trying to get
right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled
over the great rock in their path.
33 God warned them of this in the
Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people
stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never
be disgraced.”
Romans 10
1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing
of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.
2 I know what enthusiasm they have for
God, but it is misdirected zeal.
3 For they don’t understand God’s way of
making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to
their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
4 For Christ has already accomplished the
purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are
made right with God.
5 For Moses writes that the law’s way of
making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.
6 But faith’s way of getting right with
God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring
Christ down to earth).
7And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place
of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”
8 In fact, it says, “The message is very
close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the
very message about faith that we preach:
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved.
10 For it is by believing in your heart
that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that
you are saved.
11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who
trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this
respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on
him.
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of
the LORD will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him to save
them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have
never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells
them?
15 And how will anyone go and tell them
without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet
of messengers who bring good news!”
16 But not everyone welcomes the Good News,
for Isaiah the prophet said, “ LORD, who has believed our message?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, that is,
hearing the Good News about Christ.
18 But I ask, have the people of Israel
actually heard the message? Yes, they have: “The message has gone throughout
the earth, and the words to all the world.”
19 But I ask, did the people of Israel
really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said, “I
will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will
provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.”
20 And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God,
saying, “I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to
those who were not asking for me.”
21 But regarding Israel, God said, “All day
long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”
Romans 11
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his own
people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a
descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 No, God has not rejected his own people,
whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the Scriptures say
about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and
said,
3 “ LORD, they have killed your prophets
and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to
kill me, too.”
4 And do you remember God’s reply? He
said, “No, I have 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal!”
5 It is the same today, for a few of the
people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace—his undeserved
kindness in choosing them.
6 And since it is through God’s kindness,
then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be
what it really is—free and undeserved.
7 So this is the situation: Most of the
people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so
earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were
hardened.
8 As the Scriptures say, “God has put them
into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and
closed their ears so they do not hear.”
9 Likewise, David said, “Let their
bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well. Let
their blessings cause them to stumble, and let them get what they
deserve.
10 Let their eyes go blind so they cannot
see, and let their backs be bent forever.”
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond
recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available
to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it
for themselves.
12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched
because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how
much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you
Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress
this,
14 for I want somehow to make the people of
Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them.
15 For since their rejection meant that God
offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more
wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead!
16 And since Abraham and the other
patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire
batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if
the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from
Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you
Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So
now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children,
sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive
tree.
18 But you must not brag about being
grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch,
not the root.
19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches
were broken off to make room for me.”
20 Yes, but remember—those branches were
broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you
do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could
happen.
21 For if God did not spare the original
branches, he won’t spare you either.
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe.
He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to
trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut
off.
23 And if the people of Israel turn from
their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft
them back into the tree.
24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a
wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by
grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the
original branches back into the tree where they belong.
25 I want you to understand this mystery,
dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves.
Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until
the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.
26 And so all Israel will be saved. As the
Scriptures say, “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn
Israel away from ungodliness.
27 And this is my covenant with them, that
I will take away their sins.”
28 Many of the people of Israel are now
enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still
the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.
29 For God’s gifts and his call can never
be withdrawn.
30 Once, you Gentiles were rebels against
God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to
you instead.
31 Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy
has come to you so that they, too, will share in God’s mercy.
32 For God has imprisoned everyone in
disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.
33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and
wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions
and his ways!
34 For who can know the LORD ’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35And who has given him so much that he needs to
pay it back?
36 For everything comes from him and exists
by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
