9:1 I speak the truth in ChristI am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit
9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
9:3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race,
9:4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.
9:5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
9:6 It is not as though Gods word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
9:7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abrahams children. On the contrary, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
9:8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are Gods children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abrahams offspring.
9:9 For this was how the promise was stated: At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.
9:10 Not only that, but Rebekahs children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.
9:11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or badin order that Gods purpose in election might stand:
9:12 not by works but by him who callsshe was told, The older will serve the younger.
9:13 Just as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
9:14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
9:15 For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
9:16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on Gods mercy.
9:17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
9:18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
9:19 One of you will say to me: Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?
9:20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, Why did you make me like this?
9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
9:22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrathprepared for destruction?
9:23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory
9:24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
9:25 As he says in Hosea: I will call them my people who are not my people; and I will call her my loved one who is not my loved one,
9:26 and, In the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called children of the living God.
9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
9:28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.
9:29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
9:30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
9:31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.
9:32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
9:33 As it is written: See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.
Facts about Romans chapter 9;
Paul turns suddenly from the previous topic and begins to focus on the people of Israel. He has just finished making the case that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, all who come to God by faith in Christ will be loved by God forever.
Paul was rejected by the Jews and he has sorrow because they are lost without Christ. Paul himself was Jewish. He expressed sorrow for Jews that did not believe and also Gentiles who were unbelieving. Many of his fellow countrymen may have been suspicious of his loyalty to the Jewish people.
It is authored by Paul the Apostle, while he was in Corinth in the mid-50s AD, with the help of an amanuensis (secretary), Tertius, who adds his own greeting in Romans 16:22.
God reserves the right to show mercy to some and not others, as Paul demonstrates from Scripture. God is like a potter who creates some vessels for destruction and others for glory. God has called out His people from both the Gentiles and the Jews to faith in Christ, the stumbling stone.
Closing Prayer; Heavenly Father We pray for your compassion and your love and your mercy to be made known among more people around us, more peoples around the world. God, use our lives, your mercy toward us for the spread of your mercy toward others. God, we praise you as the God of mercy.
Prayer of Salvation: Which is how you ask to become a child of Our Heavenly Father. Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and ask for your forgiveness. Please come into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Take complete control of my life and help me to walk in Your footsteps daily by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord for saving me and I know you will answer my prayers. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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