Paul's Anguish for His People
Paul opens with grief, not argument: he would be cursed himself for his own people. Then the hard question — has our Father's word failed? — answered with Isaac, Jacob, Pharaoh and a potter. Israel stumbled by pursuing righteousness through effort rather than trust.
9 1I speak truth in Christ, not lying—my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3I could wish myself cursed, cut off from Christ, for my brothers and sisters, my own people by blood. 4They are Israelites: theirs the full rights as sons, the glory, the covenants, the lawgiving, the worship, the promises. 5The ancestors are theirs; from them, by human descent, comes the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. a a v5 Paul calls Christ "God over all, blessed forever" — one of the New Testament's clearest declarations that Jesus is fully divine.
6This doesn't mean our Father's word has failed, for not all descended from Israel are Israel.
7Not all Abraham's offspring are his children; rather, "Your offspring will be named through Isaac."
8That is, the children of the flesh are not children of our Father, but children of the promise count as offspring.
9For the promise says: "At this time next year I will come, and Sarah will have a son."
10Not only that, but Rebekah too conceived by one man, our father Isaac, 11though not yet born, having done nothing good or bad—so our Father's purpose by election might stand,
12not from works, but from him who calls, she was told: "the older will serve the younger." 13As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." b b v13 'Hated' is a Hebrew idiom for choosing one over another — our Father's free choice of Jacob, not animosity toward Esau.
14What should we say then? Is there injustice with our Father? By no means!
15For he tells Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
16So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on our Father, who has mercy.
17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very reason, to show my power in you, and to have my name proclaimed in all the earth."
18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19So you'll ask me, "Why does he still find fault? Who resists his will?" 20But who are you, mere human, to argue with our Father? Does the molded say to its molder, "Why did you make me like this?" 21Does the potter not have authority over the clay, making from one lump a vessel for honor, another for dishonor? 22What if our Father, wanting to show his wrath and make known his power, patiently endured vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23to reveal his glory's riches for vessels of mercy he prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
25As he says in Hosea, "I will call those not my children, my children, and her not beloved, beloved."
26"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living Father.'"
27Isaiah cries out about Israel: "Though Israel's children number like sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved, 28for our Father will carry out his sentence upon the earth, fully and without delay."
29And as Isaiah predicted: "Had the Father of heaven's armies not left us offspring, we'd have become like Sodom, made like Gomorrah."
Israel Stumbled Over the Stone
30What then should we say? Gentiles not pursuing righteousness attained righteousness, righteousness by faith; 31but that Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, did not reach that law. 32Why? Because they pursued it not through faith but as though through works. They stumbled on the stumbling stone,
33as it is written, "See, I am placing in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock that offends; whoever trusts him won't be put to shame."
