Study Desk

they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever! Amen.

I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God.

Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you."

This means that the children born in the usual way are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants.

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.

Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all.

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?"

But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, "Why did you make me like this?"

And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction.

And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,' there they will be called the children of the living God."

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

while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them!

I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God; but their devotion is not based on true knowledge.

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.

Moses wrote this about being put right with God by obeying the Law: "Whoever obeys the commands of the Law will live."

But what the scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this: "You are not to ask yourself, Who will go up into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down).

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved.