009:013 This agrees with the other Scripture which says, "Jacob I
have loved, but Esau I have hated."
009:014 What then are we to infer? That there is injustice in God?
009:015 No, indeed; the solution is found in His words to Moses, "Wherever I
show mercy it shall be nothing but mercy, and wherever I show
compassion it shall be simply compassion."
009:016 And from this we learn that everything is dependent not
on man's will or endeavour, but upon God who has mercy.
For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,
009:017 "It is for this very purpose that I have lifted you so high--
that I may make manifest in you My power, and that My name
may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth."
009:018 This is a proof that wherever He chooses He shows mercy,
and wherever he chooses He hardens the heart.
009:019 "Why then does God still find fault?" you will ask;
"for who is resisting His will?"
009:020 Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil
against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it,
"Why have you made me thus?"
009:021 Or has not the potter rightful power over the clay to make out
of the same lump one vessel for more honourable and another
for less honourable uses?
009:022 And what if God, while choosing to make manifest the terrors
of His anger and to show what is possible with Him, has yet
borne with long-forbearing patience with the subjects of His
anger who stand ready for destruction,
009:023 in order to make known His infinite goodness towards the subjects
of His mercy whom He has prepared beforehand for glory,
009:024 even towards us whom He has called not only from among the Jews
but also from among the Gentiles?
009:025 So also in Hosea He says, "I will call that nation My People
which was not My People, and I will call her beloved who
was not beloved.
009:026 And in the place where it was said to them, `No people of Mine
are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving God."
009:027 And Isaiah cries aloud concerning Israel, "Though the number
of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea,
only a remnant of them shall be saved;
009:028 for the Lord will hold a reckoning upon the earth, making it
efficacious and brief."
009:029 Even as Isaiah says in an earlier place, "Were it not that the Lord,
the God of Hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should
have become like Sodom, and have come to resemble Gomorrah."
009:030 To what conclusion does this bring us? Why, that the Gentiles,
who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it--
a righteousness, however, which arises from faith;
009:031 while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law
that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one.
009:032 And why? Because they were pursuing a righteousness which should
arise not from faith, but from what they regarded as merit.
They stuck their foot against the stone which lay in their way;
009:033 in agreement with the statement of Scripture, "See, I am
placing on Mount Zion a stone for people to stumble at,
and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith
rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed."
010:001 Brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God,
on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation.
010:002 For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God,
but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm.
010:003 Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building
their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have
refused submission to God's righteousness.
010:004 For as a means of righteousness Christ is the termination
of Law to every believer.
010:005 Moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness
required by the Law shall live by that righteousness.
010:006 But the righteousness which is based on faith speaks in a
different tone. "Say not in your heart," it declares,
"`Who shall ascend to Heaven?'"--that is, to bring Christ down;
010:007 "nor `Who shall go down into the abyss?'"--that is, to bring
Christ up again from the grave.
010:008 But what does it say? "The Message is close to you, in your
mouth and in your heart;" that is, the Message which we are
publishing about the faith--
010:009 that if with your mouth you confess Jesus as Lord and in
your heart believe that God brought Him back to life,
you shall be saved.
010:010 For with the heart men believe and obtain righteousness,
and with the mouth they make confession and obtain salvation.
010:011 The Scripture says, "No one who believes in Him shall have
reason to feel ashamed."
010:012 Jew and Gentile are on precisely the same footing;
for the same Lord is Lord over all, and is infinitely kind
to all who call upon Him for deliverance.
010:013 For "every one, without exception, who calls on the name
of the Lord shall be saved."
010:014 But how are they to call on One in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in One whose voice they have
never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
010:015 And how are men to preach unless they have been sent to do so?
As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring
glad tidings of good!"
010:016 But, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the Good News.
No, for Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed the Message they
have heard from us?"
010:017 And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard, and that
the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ.
010:018 But, I ask, have they not heard? Yes, indeed: "To the whole
world the preachers' voices have sounded forth, and their words
to the remotest parts of the earth."
010:019 But again, did Israel fail to understand? Listen to Moses first.
He says, "I will fire you with jealousy against a nation
which is no nation, and with fury against a nation
devoid of understanding."
010:020 And Isaiah, with strange boldness, exclaims, "I have been
found by those who were not looking for Me, I have revealed
Myself to those who were not inquiring of Me."
010:021 While as to Israel he says, "All day long I have stretched
out My arms to a self-willed and fault-finding people."
011:001 I ask then, Has God cast off His People? No, indeed.
Why, I myself am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham
and of the tribe of Benjamin.
011:002 God has not cast off His People whom He knew beforehand.
Or are you ignorant of what Scripture says in speaking of Elijah--
how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,
011:003 "Lord, they have put Thy Prophets to death, and have overthrown
Thy altars; and, now that I alone remain, they are thirsting
for my blood"?
011:004 But what did God say to him in reply? "I have reserved
for Myself 7,000 men who have never bent the knee to Baal."
011:005 In the same way also at the present time there has come to be
a remnant whom God in His grace has selected.
011:006 But if it is in His grace that He has selected them,
then His choice is no longer determined by human actions.
Otherwise grace would be grace no longer.
011:007 How then does the matter stand? It stands thus. That which
Israel are in earnest pursuit of, they have not obtained;
but God's chosen servants have obtained it, and the rest
have become hardened.
011:008 And so Scripture says, "God has given them a spirit of drowsiness--
eyes to see nothing with and ears to hear nothing with--
even until now."
011:009 And David says, "Let their very food become a snare and a trap
to them, a stumbling-block and a retribution.
011:010 Let darkness come over their eyes that they may be unable to see,
and make Thou their backs continually to stoop."
011:011 I ask, however, "Have they stumbled so as to be finally ruined?"
No, indeed; but by their lapse salvation has come to the Gentiles
in order to arouse the jealousy of the descendants of Israel;
011:012 and if their lapse is the enriching of the world, and their
overthrow the enriching of the Gentiles, will not still
greater good follow their restoration?
011:013 But to you Gentiles I say that, since I am an Apostle specially
sent to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry,
011:014 trying whether I can succeed in rousing my own countrymen
to jealousy and thus save some of them.
011:015 For if their having been cast aside has carried with it
the reconciliation of the world, what will their being accepted
again be but Life out of death?
011:016 Now if the firstfruits of the dough are holy, so also is
the whole mass; and if the root of a tree is holy, so also
are the branches.
011:017 And if some of the branches have been pruned away, and you,
although you were but a wild olive, have been grafted in among
them and have become a sharer with others in the rich sap
of the root of the olive tree,
011:018 beware of glorying over the natural branches. Or if you are
so glorying, do not forget that it is not you who uphold the root:
the root upholds you.
011:019 "Branches have been lopped off," you will say, "for the sake
of my being grafted in."
011:020 This is true; yet it was their unbelief that cut them off,
and you only stand through your faith.
011:021 Do not be puffed up with pride. Tremble rather--for if God did
not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.
011:022 Notice therefore God's kindness and God's severity.
On those who have fallen His severity has descended,
but upon you His kindness has come, provided that you do not
cease to respond to that kindness. Otherwise you will be
cut off also.
011:023 Moreover, if they turn from their unbelief, they too will be
grafted in. For God is powerful enough to graft them in again;
011:024 and if you were cut from that which by nature is a wild olive
and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree,
how much more certainly will these natural branches be grafted
on their own olive tree?
011:025 For there is a truth, brethren, not revealed hitherto,
of which I do not wish to leave you in ignorance, for fear you
should attribute superior wisdom to yourselves--the truth,
I mean, that partial blindness has fallen upon Israel until
the great mass of the Gentiles have come in;
011:026 and so all Israel will be saved. As is declared
in Scripture, "From Mount Zion a Deliverer will come:
He will remove all ungodliness from Jacob;
011:027 and this shall be My Covenant with them; when I have taken
away their sins."
011:028 In relation to the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies for
your sakes; but in relation to God's choice they are dearly
loved for the sake of their forefathers.
011:029 For God does not repent of His free gifts nor of His call;
011:030 but just as you were formerly disobedient to Him, but now have
received mercy at a time when they are disobedient,
011:031 so now they also have been disobedient at a time when you are
receiving mercy; so that to them too there may now be mercy.
011:032 For God has locked up all in the prison of unbelief, that upon
all alike He may have mercy.
011:033 Oh, how inexhaustible are God's resources and God's wisdom
and God's knowledge! How impossible it is to search into His
decrees or trace His footsteps!