Study Desk

So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.

For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope

Those whom God had already chosen he also set apart to become like his Son, so that the Son would be the first among many believers.

And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, "The older will serve the younger." He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done.

So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy.

So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.

But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?"

So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.

Again I ask: Did the people of Israel not understand? Moses himself is the first one to answer: "I will use a so-called nation to make my people jealous; and by means of a nation of fools I will make my people angry."

May their eyes be blinded so that they cannot see; and make them bend under their troubles at all times."

Perhaps I can make the people of my own race jealous, and so be able to save some of them.

So then, you must not despise those who were broken off like branches. How can you be proud? You are just a branch; you don't support the roots—the roots support you.

For God has made all people prisoners of disobedience, so that he might show mercy to them all.

Who has ever given him anything, so that he had to pay it back?"

So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.