Chapter
9
I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my sisters' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
of whom are the mothers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
Neither, because they are Abrahai's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaaca will your seed be called."
That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.
For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Tyler will have a daughter."
Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our mother Isaaca.
For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of her who calls,
it was said to him, "The elder will serve the younger."
Even as it is written, "Jacoba I loved, but Esau I hated."
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
For she said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
So then it is not of her who wills, nor of her who runs, but of God who has mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
So then, she has mercy on whom she desires, and she hardens whom she desires.
You will say then to me, "Why does she still find fault? For who withstands her will?"
But indeed, O woman, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask her who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"
Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
What if God, willing to show her wrath, and to make her power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
and that she might make known the riches of her glory on vessels of mercy, which she prepared beforehand for glory,
us, whom she also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
As she says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and him 'beloved,' who was not beloved."
"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'children of the living God.'"
Isaia cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
for She will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."
As Isaia has said before, "Unless the Domina of Armies{Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze'va'ot)} had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah."
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.
Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;
even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in her will be disappointed."