Chapter 9

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

that I have great sadness and continuous sorrow in my heart.

For I could wish to be anathema myself from Christ for the sake of my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh;

who are Israelites, who have the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the legislation and the worship and the promises;

who have the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is, over all things, God blessed forever, amen. God's Election Depends on His Free Choice

It is not that the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israelites who are sprung from Israel;

nor because they are the descendants of Abraham, are they all his children; but "Through Isaac shall thy posterity bear thy name."

That is to say, they are not sons of God who are the children of the flesh, but it is the children of promise who are reckoned as posterity.

For this is a word of promise: "About this time I will come and Sara shall have a son."

And not she only but also Rebecca, who conceived by one man, Isaac our father;

for before the children had yet been born, or had done aught of good or evil, in order that the selective purpose of God might stand,

depending not on deeds, but on him who calls, it was said to her, "The elder shall serve the younger";

as it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." God is Not Unjust

What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? By no means!

For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show pity to whom I will show pity."

So then there is question not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God showing mercy.

For Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised thee up that I may show in thee my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

Therefore he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens. His Power and Glory

Thou sayest to me: Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?

O man, who art thou to reply to God? Does the object moulded say to him who moulded it: Why hast thou made me thus?

Or is not the potter master of his clay, to make from the same mass one vessel for honorable, another for ignoble use?

But what if God, wishing to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, ready for destruction,

that he might show the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory---

even us whom he has called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

As he says in Osee, "A people not mine I will call my people, and an unbeloved, beloved, and her who had not obtained mercy, one who has obtained mercy.

And it shall be in the place where it was said to them: you are not my people; there they shall be called sons of the living God."

And Isaias cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sands of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.

For the Lord fulfills his word speedily in justice, Because a speedy word will the Lord accomplish on earth."

And as Isaias foretold, "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a posterity, we should have become as Sodom and should have been like Gomorrah." Jews' Refusal to Believe

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who were not pursuing justice have secured justice, but a justice that is from faith;

but Israel, by pursuing a law of justice, has not attained to the law of justice.

And why? Because they sought it not from faith, but as it were from works. For they stumbled at the stumbling-stone,

as it is written, "Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of scandal: And whoever believes in him shall not be disappointed."