Paul’s Concern for the Jews 2 UDB I tell you that I grieve very greatly and I cannot stop the pain in my heart. BSB BSB: I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3 UDB I personally would be willing to let God curse me and keep me apart from Christ forever if that would help my natural kinsmen, those who are the people of Israel. BSB BSB: 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,
5 UDB It was our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whom God chose to begin our nation. And, most importantly, it was from the people of Israel that the Christ was born as a human being. He is God, the one who is worthy for us to praise him forever! This is true! BSB BSB: Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.
God’s Sovereign Choice (Genesis 25:19–28; Malachi 1:1–5)
6 UDB God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would all inherit his blessings. But although most of the people of Israel have rejected Christ, that does not prove that God has failed to do the things that he promised. For it is not all people who are descended from Jacob and who call themselves the people of Israel whom God considers to be truly his people. BSB BSB: It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
7 UDB And it is also not all of Abraham's natural descendants that God considers to be Abraham's true descendants. Instead, God considers only some of them to be Abraham's true descendants. This agrees with what he told Abraham: "It is Isaac, not any of your other sons, whom I will consider to be the true father of your descendants." BSB BSB: Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
8 UDB What I mean is, not all of Abraham's descendants are the people that God accepts as his own children. Instead, only the people that God had in mind when he promised to give Abraham descendants—it is these people whom he considers to be Abraham's true descendants and his own children. BSB BSB: 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.
9 UDB This is what God promised Abraham: "About this time next year I will come back to you, and Sarah your wife will bear a son." God promised this, and he made it happen. BSB BSB: For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 UDB It was similar with Rebekah, the wife of Abraham's son Isaac, when Rebekah conceived twins. BSB BSB: Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.
11 UDB Before the twins Jacob and Esau were born, BSB BSB: Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,
12 UDB and the children had not yet done anything good or bad, God said to Rebekah, "The older one will serve the younger one, contrary to normal custom." God said this so that we might know this: that when he plans to do something, he chooses the people because he wants to choose them, not because they have done anything for him. BSB BSB: not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 UDB It is just what God said in the scriptures: "I chose Jacob, the younger son. I rejected Esau, the older son." BSB BSB: So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 UDB Someone might ask me, "Is God unjust by choosing only certain people?" I would reply, "He is certainly not unjust!" BSB BSB: What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!
15 UDB God told Moses, "I will pity and help anyone whom I choose!" BSB BSB: For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 UDB So God chooses people, not because they want God to choose them or because they try hard to please him. Instead, he chooses people because he himself has mercy on undeserving ones. BSB BSB: So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
17 UDB Moses recorded that God had told Pharaoh, "This is why I made you king of Egypt: It was so I might fight against you and everyone in the world will know how great I am." BSB BSB: 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.”
18 UDB So we know that God can act kindly toward anyone he chooses. And we also know that God can make a person act stubbornly, like he did with Pharaoh. BSB BSB: Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
19 UDB Maybe one of you will say to me, "Because God determines ahead of time everything that people do, and no one can resist what God has wished, it is not right for God to punish those who sin." BSB BSB: One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
20 UDB I would reply, "You are only a human being, so you have no right to criticize God! He is like a man who makes clay pots. A pot has no right to ask its maker, 'Why did you make me like this?' BSB BSB: 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?”
21 UDB Instead, the potter certainly has the right to take a lump of clay and use part of it to make a beautiful pot that people will value highly—and then use the rest of the clay for a pot that someone will use every day. Certainly God has the same right." BSB BSB: 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?
22 UDB Although God desires to show that he is angry about sin, and although he desires to make clear that he can powerfully punish people who have sinned, he tolerated very patiently the people who caused him to be angry and who deserved to be destroyed. BSB BSB: 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?
23 UDB God has been patient so that he might make clear how very wonderfully he acts toward those upon whom he has mercy, those people he prepared ahead of time in order they might experience the glory of God— BSB BSB: 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—
24 UDB that includes even us whom he chose. We were chosen not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles. BSB BSB: including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?
26 UDB And another prophet wrote: "Where God told them before, 'You are not my people,' in those same places they are told that they will become children of the true God." BSB BSB: 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.’”
27 UDB Isaiah also exclaimed concerning Israel: "Even though the sons of Israel are so many that no one can count them, like grains of sand beside the ocean, only a small group of them will be saved BSB BSB: Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
28 UDB because the Lord will punish completely and speedily the people who live in that land, as he said that he would do." BSB BSB: For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.”
29 UDB Isaiah also wrote, "If the Lord of the heavenly armies had not mercifully allowed some of our descendants to survive, we would have become like the people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whom he completely destroyed." BSB BSB: 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.”
Israel’s Unbelief 30 UDB We must conclude this: Although the Gentiles were not trying to be holy, they discovered that God would put them right with himself if they trusted in Christ. BSB BSB: What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
31 UDB But the people of Israel did indeed try to be holy by obeying God's law, but they were not able to. BSB BSB: but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
32 UDB They were not able to, because they tried to do things to please God. They lost their balance when they refused to trust God to forgive them by putting their trust in Christ. BSB BSB: Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33 UDB This is what a prophet said would happen: "Listen! I am placing in Israel one who is like a stone on which people will stumble. What he does will make people angry. Nevertheless, those who believe in him will not be ashamed." BSB BSB: as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.