God’s Sovereign Choice: Romans 9-11 – From the Epistle to the Romans by Saint Paul (vegetarian) in the Holy Bible, Part 1 of 2

I’m pleased to introduce selections from Romans chapters 9 and 10. In these powerful passages, the Apostle Paul emphasizes God’s sovereign right to show mercy or harden hearts as He chooses. He reminds us that belonging to God comes through His calling, not through human effort or ancestry.

Romans Chapter 9

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. […]

As He says also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and Her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the Living God. Esaias also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the Earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.”