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9:1  I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying—my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit
9:2  that I have great sorrow and continuous pain in my heart.
9:3  For I almost wish that I myself could be cursed and separated from Christ in place of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh,
9:4  those who are Israelites. Theirs are the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
9:5  Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, who is God over all, eternally blessed. Amen.
9:6  This does not mean that God’s word has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are really Israel,
9:7  and not all who are descended from Abraham are really his children. On the contrary, “Your line of descent will be traced through Isaac.”
9:8  This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are counted as his descendants.
9:9  For this is what the promise said: “I will arrive at this set time, and Sarah will have a son.”
9:10  Not only that, but Rebekah also had children by one man, our forefather, Isaac.
9:11  Even before the twins were born or did anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose in election might continue—
9:12  not by works but because of him who calls us—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
9:13  Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
9:14  What will we say then? Does this mean that God is unjust? Absolutely not!
9:15  For God says to Moses: I will show mercy to whom I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
9:16  So then, it does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
9:17  Indeed, the Scripture says in regard to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to stand, that I may demonstrate my power in how I deal with you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
9:18  So then, God shows mercy to whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
9:19  Then you will say to me, “Why does God still find fault? For who has ever succeeded in resisting his will?”
9:20  But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Shall the thing that is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” No.
9:21  Doesn’t the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay one pot for special use and another for ordinary use?
9:22  What if God, although he wanted to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known, endured with great patience the objects of wrath—ripe for destruction?
9:23  And what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory,
9:24  including us, whom he called—not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.
9:25  This is also what God says in Hosea: Those who were not my people, I will call my people, and she who was not loved, I will call my loved one.
9:26  And, it will be that in the place where they were told, “You are not my people,” there they will be called “sons of the living God.”
9:27  And Isaiah cries out about Israel: Although the number of the sons of Israel is as great as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
9:28  For the Lord, who carries out what he says without delay, will do what he said completely and decisively on the earth.
9:29  Just as Isaiah said earlier: If the Lord of Armies had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.
9:30  What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith.
9:31  But Israel, while pursuing the law as a way of righteousness, did not reach it.
9:32  Why? Because they kept pursuing it not by faith, but as if it comes by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
9:33  Just as it is written: Look, I am putting a stone in Zion over which they will stumble and a rock over which they will fall. The one who believes in him will not be put to shame.