1<\/sup>I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience offers testimony to me in the Holy Spirit,<\/span> <\/p>\n 2<\/sup>because the sadness within me is great, and there is a continuous sorrow in my heart.<\/span> <\/p>\n 3<\/sup>For I was desiring that I myself might be anathemized from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh.<\/span> <\/p>\n 4<\/sup>These are the Israelites, to whom belongs adoption as sons, and the glory and the testament, and the giving and following of the law, and the promises.<\/span> <\/p>\n 5<\/sup>Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all things, blessed God, for all eternity. Amen.<\/span> <\/p>\n 6<\/sup>But it is not that the Word of God has perished. For not all those who are Israelites are of Israel.<\/span> <\/p>\n 7<\/sup>And not all sons are the offspring of Abraham: “For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 8<\/sup>In other words, those who are the sons of God are not those who are sons of the flesh, but those who are sons of the Promise; these are considered to be the offspring.<\/span> <\/p>\n 9<\/sup>For the word of promise is this: “I will return at the proper time. And there shall be a son for Sarah.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 10<\/sup>And she was not alone. For Rebecca also, having conceived by Isaac our father, from one act,<\/span> <\/p>\n 11<\/sup>when the children had not yet been born, and had not yet done anything good or bad (such that the purpose of God might be based on their choice),<\/span> <\/p>\n 12<\/sup>and not because of deeds, but because of a calling, it was said to her: “The elder shall serve the younger.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 13<\/sup>So also it was written: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 14<\/sup>What should we say next? Is there unfairness with God? Let it not be so!<\/span> <\/p>\n 15<\/sup>For to Moses he says: “I will pity whomever I pity. And I will offer mercy to whomever I will pity.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 16<\/sup>Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity.<\/span> <\/p>\n 17<\/sup>For Scripture says to the Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this purpose, so that I may reveal my power by you, and so that my name may be announced to all the earth.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 18<\/sup>Therefore, he takes pity on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.<\/span> <\/p>\n 19<\/sup>And so, you would say to me: “Then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”<\/span> <\/p>\n 20<\/sup>O man, who are you to question God? How can the thing that has been formed say to the One who formed him: “Why have you made me this way?”<\/span> <\/p>\n 21<\/sup>And does not the potter have the authority over the clay to make, from the same material, indeed, one vessel unto honor, yet truly another unto disgrace?<\/span> <\/p>\n 22<\/sup>What if God, wanting to reveal his wrath and to make his power known, endured, with much patience, vessels deserving wrath, fit to be destroyed,<\/span> <\/p>\n 23<\/sup>so that he might reveal the wealth of his glory, within these vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?<\/span> <\/p>\n 24<\/sup>And so it is with those of us whom he has also called, not only from among the Jews, but even from among the Gentiles,<\/span> <\/p>\n 25<\/sup>just as he says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘my people,’ and she who was not beloved, ‘beloved,’ and she who had not obtained mercy, ‘one who has obtained mercy.’<\/span> <\/p>\n 26<\/sup>And this shall be: in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called the sons of the living God.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 27<\/sup>And Isaiah cried out on behalf of Israel: “When the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.<\/span> <\/p>\n 28<\/sup>For he shall complete his word, while abbreviating it out of equity. For the Lord shall accomplish a brief word upon the earth.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 29<\/sup>And it is just as Isaiah predicted: “Unless the Lord of hosts had bequeathed offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made similar to Gomorrah.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 30<\/sup>What should we say next? That the Gentiles who did not follow justice have attained justice, even the justice that is of faith.<\/span> <\/p>\n 31<\/sup>Yet truly, Israel, though following the law of justice, has not arrived at the law of justice.<\/span> <\/p>\n 32<\/sup>Why is this? Because they did not seek it from faith, but as if it were from works. For they stumbled over a stumbling block,<\/span> <\/p>\n 33<\/sup>just as it was written: “Behold, I am placing a stumbling block in Zion, and a rock of scandal. But whoever believes in him shall not be confounded.”<\/span> <\/p>\n