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God’s Selection of Israel
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
God’s Sovereign Choice
I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit —
I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit —
My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;
though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls —
she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory —
And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
Israel’s Unbelief
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.
Israel’s Unbelief
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”