Study Desk

for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch."

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened.

For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.

For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him.

For, "every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."

Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba'al."

And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them;

let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs for ever."

Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.