9
I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My mind tells me that what I say is true. It is guided by the Holy Spirit. 2 My heart is full of sorrow. My sadness never ends. 3 I am so concerned about my people, who are members of my own race. I am ready to be cursed, if that would help them. I am even willing to be separated from Christ. 4 They are the people of Israel. They have been adopted as God's children. God's glory belongs to them. So do the covenants. They received the law. They were taught to worship in the temple. They were given the promises. 5 The founders of our nation belong to them. The Messiah comes from their family line. He is God over all. May he always be praised! Amen. 6 I do not mean that God's word has failed. Not everyone in the family line of Israel really belongs to Israel. 7 Not everyone in Abraham's family line is really his child. Not at all! Scripture says, ‘Your family line will continue through Isaac.’ (Genesis 21:12) 8 In other words, God's children are not just in the family line of Abraham. Instead, they are the children God promised to him. They are the ones considered to be Abraham's children. 9 God promised, ‘I will return at the appointed time. Sarah will have a son.’ (Genesis 18:10, 14)
10 And that's not all. Rebekah's children were born at the same time by the same father. He was our father Isaac. 11 Here is what happened. Rebekah's twins had not even been born. They hadn't done anything good or bad yet. So they show that God's purpose is based firmly on his free choice. 12 It was not because of anything they did but because of God's choice. So Rebekah was told, ‘The elder son will serve the younger one.’ (Genesis 25:23) 13 It is written, ‘I chose Jacob instead of Esau.’ (Malachi 1:2, 3)
‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.
I will show love to those I love.’ (Exodus 33:19)
16 So it doesn't depend on what people want or what they do. It depends on God's mercy. 17 In Scripture, God says to Pharaoh, ‘I had a special reason for making you king. I decided to use you to show my power. I wanted my name to become known everywhere on earth.’ (Exodus 9:16) 18 So God does what he wants to do. He shows mercy to one person and makes another stubborn.
9:1–18 Paul was part of the people of Israel. They refused to accept that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God. Paul was deeply sad about this. He would have given up Jesus' love for him to help Israel accept Jesus. But that wouldn't have helped. God gave Israel many gifts like the temple, the law and his promises. Yet many people in Israel didn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. This didn't mean that God's word and his covenants had failed. God is faithful and what he says is true. God had chosen to work through Abraham in his plan for saving the world. God wanted Abraham's family line to receive his mercy and love. God continued his plan through Abraham's son Isaac and Isaac's son Jacob. But being in Jacob's family line isn't what makes someone God's child. All who accept God's mercy and love are God's children.
19 One of you will say to me, ‘Then why does God still blame us? Who can oppose what he wants to do?’ 20 But you are a mere human being. So who are you to talk back to God? Scripture says, ‘Can what is made say to the one who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” ’ (Isaiah 29:16; 45:9) 21 Isn't the potter free to make different kinds of pots out of the same lump of clay? Some are for special purposes. Others are for ordinary use.
22 What if God chose to show his great anger? What if he chose to make his power known? But he put up with the people he was angry with. They were made to be destroyed. 23 What if he put up with them to show the riches of his glory to other people? Those other people are the ones he shows his mercy to. He made them to receive his glory. 24 We are those people. He has chosen us. We do not come only from the Jewish race. Many of us are not Jews. 25 God says in Hosea,
‘I will call those who are not my people “my people.”
I will call the one who is not my loved one “my loved one.” ’ (Hosea 2:23)
26 He also says,
‘Once it was said to them,
“You are not my people.”
In that very place they will be called “children of the living God.” ’ (Hosea 1:10)
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. He says,
‘The number of people from Israel may be like the sand by the sea.
But only a few of them will be saved.
28 The Lord will carry out his sentence.
He will be quick to carry it out on earth, once and for all.’ (Isaiah 10:22, 23)
29 Earlier Isaiah had said,
‘The Lord who rules over all
left us children and grandchildren.
If he hadn't, we would have become like Sodom.
We would have been like Gomorrah.’ (Isaiah 1:9)
30 What should we say then? Gentiles did not look for a way to be right with God. But they found it by having faith. 31 The people of Israel tried to obey the law to make themselves right with God. But they didn't reach their goal of being right with God. 32 Why not? Because they tried to do it without faith. They tried to be right with God by what they did. They tripped over the stone that causes people to trip and fall. 33 It is written,
‘Look! In Zion I am laying a stone that causes people to trip.
It is a rock that makes them fall.
The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ (Isaiah 8:14; 28:16)
9:19–33 Paul used words from several prophets in the Old Testament. He did this to talk about who God's people are. Prophecies in the book of Isaiah described God as a potter. They described Israel like the clay. God was trying to form and shape the nation of Israel. He wanted them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Prophecies from Isaiah and Hosea showed that God's people would include both Jews and Gentiles. God's people aren't chosen because they know the law. They aren't chosen according to which family they come from. They are chosen because they put their trust in Jesus. This shows that they have faith in God. They aren't trying to make themselves right with God. They trust Jesus to make them right with God.