Romans 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 for ever. 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 are
counted for the seed.
- For this is the word of promise, At this
time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
- And not only this; but when Rebecca 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 sheweth mercy.
- For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even
for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew
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 repliest
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 honour, and another unto dishonour?
- What if God, willing to shew 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 afore prepared unto glory,
- Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles?
- As he saith also in Osee,
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.
- Esaias 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 Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had
left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made
like unto Gomorrha.
- 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 stumblingstone;
- As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed.