New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.
1
Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what's best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time.
2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.
2
I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God - but they are doing everything exactly backwards.
3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
3
They don't seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God's business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.
4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
4
The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it.
5 For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.
5
Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy - every detail of life regulated by fine print!
6 But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth).
6
But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story - no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah,
7 And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”
7
no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah.
8 In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:
8
So what exactly was Moses saying? The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest.
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
9
Say the welcoming word to God - "Jesus is my Master" - embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation.
10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
10
With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
11
Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this - heart and soul - will ever regret it."
12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.
12
It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help.
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
13
"Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help."
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
14
But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?
15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
15
And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God!
16 But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “ LORD, who has believed our message?”
16
But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: "Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?"
17 So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
17
The point is, Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ's Word is preached, there's nothing to listen to.
18 But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have: “The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world.”
18
But haven't there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what's going on? Plenty, I'd say. Preachers' voices have gone 'round the world, Their message to earth's seven seas.
19 But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said, “I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.”
19
So the big question is, Why didn't Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted, When you see God reach out to those you consider your inferiors - outsiders! - you'll become insanely jealous. When you see God reach out to people you think are religiously stupid, you'll throw temper tantrums.
20 And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, “I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.”
20
Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God: People found and welcomed me who never so much as looked for me. And I found and welcomed people who had never even asked about me.
21 But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”
21
Then he capped it with a damning indictment: Day after day after day, I beckoned Israel with open arms, And got nothing for my trouble but cold shoulders and icy stares.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.