Study Desk

For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

This includes everyone, because there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him.

I ask, then: Did God reject his own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the beginning. You know what the scripture says in the passage where Elijah pleads with God against Israel:

What answer did God give him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not worshiped the false god Baal."

It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

As the scripture says, "God made their minds and hearts dull; to this very day they cannot see or hear."

If the first piece of bread is given to God, then the whole loaf is his also; and if the roots of a tree are offered to God, the branches are his also.

God did not spare the Jews, who are like natural branches; do you think he will spare you?

Here we see how kind and how severe God is. He is severe toward those who have fallen, but kind to you—if you continue in his kindness. But if you do not, you too will be broken off.

And if the Jews abandon their unbelief, they will be put back in the place where they were; for God is able to do that.

You Gentiles are like the branch of a wild olive tree that is broken off and then, contrary to nature, is joined to a cultivated olive tree. The Jews are like this cultivated tree; and it will be much easier for God to join these broken-off branches to their own tree again.

There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

For God does not change his mind about whom he chooses and blesses.

As for you Gentiles, you disobeyed God in the past; but now you have received God's mercy because the Jews were disobedient.

In the same way, because of the mercy that you have received, the Jews now disobey God, in order that they also may now receive God's mercy.

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

For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory forever! Amen.

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.