The Word Made Fresh
1I am telling the truth in Christ. I’m not making any of this up. My conscience is confirmed by the Holy Spirit. 2Sorrow and anguish fill my heart continually. 3I could easily wish that I were cursed and cut off from Christ for my own family’s sake. 4They are Israelites after all, and they possess the adoption, the glory, the agreements, the advent of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5The patriarchs belong to them, from whom comes the Messiah who is over all and is blessed by God forever. Amen!
6The word of God hasn’t failed. Not all Israelites really belong to Israel, 7and not all of Abraham’s children are true Israelites. Instead, the scriptures say, “it is through Isaac that your offspring will be traced.” 8In other words, it isn’t the children of the flesh who are children of God. The children of the promise are also counted as descendants. 9The promise was, “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah will bear a son.”
10And that isn’t all: Something like that happened to Rebecca when she became pregnant by her husband, our ancestor Isaac. 11Even before they were born and before they had done anything, in order that God’s plan for election might continue 12(not by deeds but by God’s words) she was told that the firstborn child would serve the younger one, 13for it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but hated Esau.”
14What then can we say? That God is not just? Of course not! 15God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So it doesn’t depend on what we think or what we do, but rather on God alone who is merciful. 17After all, the scriptures say about Pharaoh, “I have elevated you in order to show my power in you, and so that my name will be honored all over the world.” 18So, God is merciful to whomever he chooses, and hardens the hearts of whomever he chooses.
19You might ask me then, “Why does God still find fault? Who can resist God’s will?” 20But who do you think you are to argue with God? You’re only human. Can the thing molded ask the one who molds it, “Why have you shaped me like this?” 21Does the potter have no right over the clay that allows him to make one lump of it for ordinary use and another lump for special use?
22What if God, to show his anger and power, has patiently endured the things of anger that are doomed to destruction; 23and what if he has done so in order to reveal the richness of his glory for the objects of his mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory – 24including those who have been called – not only from the Jews but from the Gentiles as well? 25After all, he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I have now called ‘my people,’
and she who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26And in the very place where they were told, ‘you are not my people,’
there they are called the children of the living God.”
27Isaiah also says concerning Israel, “Even though the people of Israel were as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a few of them will be saved 28because the Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth quickly and completely.” 29And Isaiah also says, “If the Lord had not spared some of us we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.”
30So, what can we say? The Gentiles, who didn’t work for righteousness, are righteous now through faith. 31But Israel, who did work for that righteousness that is based on the law, didn’t succeed. 32And why not? Because they didn’t work for it on the grounds of faith, but rather as if it were based on works. They have tripped over the stumbling block. 33It is written, “Look! I am laying a stone in Zion over which people will stumble; a rock that will make them fall. And the one who believes will never be ashamed.”
Commentary
1-5: Paul is in anguish, however, over his own people, the people of Israel, and goes so far as to say that he would forfeit his own adoption if it would result in all of them embracing Jesus as the Messiah.
6-18: He traces Israel’s history from Abraham, acknowledging that from time-to-time God seemed to favor one branch of Abraham’s family tree over another. This, he says, is not because God is capricious, but because God is, well, sort of capricious. God picks and chooses as God sees fit.
19-29: And we have no ground on which to argue with the choices God has made. God is, after all, God. Paul’s point is that God isn’t calling people based on whether they are Jew or Gentile but rather on their faith in Christ. He accepts the witness of Hosea and Isaiah that only a remnant of Israel will embrace the faith.
30-33: The problem with the Jews, he says, is that they thought the law could be obeyed by works, when God’s requirement is that they have faith. He quotes the prophets (Isaiah 28:16) to show that God does not regard the law as the sole basis on which salvation is given.
Takeaway
We can’t make deals with God; either we believe, or we don’t.