Chapter 9.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in
the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my
heart.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law,
and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as
concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God, blessed forever.
Amen.
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children.
But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise
accounted for the seed.
For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall
have a son.
And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father
Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth.
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God?
God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he
hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault?
For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor, and another unto dishonor?
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory?
Even us, whom he hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles,
as he saith also in Osi, I will call them my people which were not my people,
and her beloved which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them,
Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of
Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, for he will
finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness.
Because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth hath left us a seed,
we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
What shall we say then, that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith?
But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law
of righteousness?
Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the
law.
For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a
stumbling-stone, and rock of a fence.
And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.