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I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.
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I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
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For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,
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the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
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Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise!(a) Amen.
God’s Sovereign Choice
(Genesis 25:19–28; Malachi 1:1–5)
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It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
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Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”(b)
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So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.
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For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”(c)
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Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.
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Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,
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not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”(d)
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So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(e)
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What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!
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For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”(f)
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So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
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For the 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.”(g)
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Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
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One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
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But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”(h)
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Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
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What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
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What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—
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including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?
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As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”(i)
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and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”(j)
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Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
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For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.”(k)
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It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”(l)
Israel’s Unbelief
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What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
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but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
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Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
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as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense;(m) and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”(n)
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