Parallel Bible results for "romans 9"

Romans 9

The Message Bible MSG

1 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow.

2 It's an enormous pain deep within me, and I'm never free of it. I'm not exaggerating - Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It's the Israelites . . .

3 If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I'd do it in a minute. They're my family.

4 I grew up with them. They had everything going for them - family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises,

5 to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!

6 Don't suppose for a moment, though, that God's Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit.

7 It wasn't Abraham's sperm that gave identity here, but God's promise. Remember how it was put: "Your family will be defined by Isaac"?

8 That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise.

9 Remember that promise, "When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son"?

10 And that's not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac,

11 and her babies were still innocent in the womb - incapable of good or bad - she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don't do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative.

12 God told Rebecca, "The firstborn of your twins will take second place."

13 Later that was turned into a stark epigram: "I loved Jacob; I hated Esau."

14 Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please.

15 God told Moses, "I'm in charge of mercy. I'm in charge of compassion."

16 Compassion doesn't originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God's mercy.

17 The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, "I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power."

18 All we're saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill.

19 Are you going to object, "So how can God blame us for anything since he's in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?"

20 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?"

21 Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans?

22 If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure

23 and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right?

24 Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people.

25 Hosea put it well: I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.

26 In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!" they're calling you "God's living children."

27 Isaiah maintained this same emphasis: If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled "chosen of God," They'd be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection.

28 God doesn't count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus.

29 Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth: If our powerful God had not provided us a legacy of living children, We would have ended up like ghost towns, like Sodom and Gomorrah.

30 How can we sum this up? All those people who didn't seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives.

31 And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it.

32 How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling.

33 Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together: Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way.

The Latin Vulgate VUL

1 veritatem dico in Christo non mentior testimonium mihi perhibente conscientia mea in Spiritu Sancto

2 quoniam tristitia est mihi magna et continuus dolor cordi meo

3 optabam enim ipse ego anathema esse a Christo pro fratribus meis qui sunt cognati mei secundum carnem

4 qui sunt Israhelitae quorum adoptio est filiorum et gloria et testamenta et legislatio et obsequium et promissa

5 quorum patres et ex quibus Christus secundum carnem qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula amen

6 non autem quod exciderit verbum Dei non enim omnes qui ex Israhel hii sunt Israhel

7 neque quia semen sunt Abrahae omnes filii sed in Isaac vocabitur tibi semen

8 id est non qui filii carnis hii filii Dei sed qui filii sunt promissionis aestimantur in semine

9 promissionis enim verbum hoc est secundum hoc tempus veniam et erit Sarrae filius

10 non solum autem sed et Rebecca ex uno concubitum habens Isaac patre nostro

11 cum enim nondum nati fuissent aut aliquid egissent bonum aut malum ut secundum electionem propositum Dei maneret

12 non ex operibus sed ex vocante dictum est ei quia maior serviet minori

13 sicut scriptum est Iacob dilexi Esau autem odio habui

14 quid ergo dicemus numquid iniquitas apud Deum absit

15 Mosi enim dicit miserebor cuius misereor et misericordiam praestabo cuius miserebor

16 igitur non volentis neque currentis sed miserentis Dei

17 dicit enim scriptura Pharaoni quia in hoc ipsum excitavi te ut ostendam in te virtutem meam et ut adnuntietur nomen meum in universa terra

18 ergo cuius vult miseretur et quem vult indurat

19 dicis itaque mihi quid adhuc queritur voluntati enim eius quis resistit

20 o homo tu quis es qui respondeas Deo numquid dicit figmentum ei qui se finxit quid me fecisti sic

21 an non habet potestatem figulus luti ex eadem massa facere aliud quidem vas in honorem aliud vero in contumeliam

22 quod si volens Deus ostendere iram et notam facere potentiam suam sustinuit in multa patientia vasa irae aptata in interitum

23 ut ostenderet divitias gloriae suae in vasa misericordiae quae praeparavit in gloriam

24 quos et vocavit nos non solum ex Iudaeis sed etiam ex gentibus

25 sicut in Osee dicit vocabo non plebem meam plebem meam et non misericordiam consecutam misericordiam consecutam

26 et erit in loco ubi dictum est eis non plebs mea vos ibi vocabuntur filii Dei vivi

27 Esaias autem clamat pro Israhel si fuerit numerus filiorum Israhel tamquam harena maris reliquiae salvae fient

28 verbum enim consummans et brevians in aequitate quia verbum breviatum faciet Dominus super terram

29 et sicut praedixit Esaias nisi Dominus Sabaoth reliquisset nobis semen sicut Sodoma facti essemus et sicut Gomorra similes fuissemus

30 quid ergo dicemus quod gentes quae non sectabantur iustitiam adprehenderunt iustitiam iustitiam autem quae ex fide est

31 Israhel vero sectans legem iustitiae in legem iustitiae non pervenit

32 quare quia non ex fide sed quasi ex operibus offenderunt in lapidem offensionis

33 sicut scriptum est ecce pono in Sion lapidem offensionis et petram scandali et omnis qui credit in eum non confundetur