Parallel Bible results for "romans 9"

Romans 9

New Living Translation NLT

1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.

4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.

5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!

7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.

8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.

9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.

11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”

13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!

15 For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”

18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.”

26 And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

27 And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.

28 For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”

29 And Isaiah said the same thing in another place: “If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”

30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.

31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

Common English Bible CEB

1 I'm speaking the truth in Christ—I'm not lying, as my conscience assures me with the Holy Spirit:

2 I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart.

3 I wish I could be cursed, cut off from Christ if it helped my brothers and sisters, who are my flesh-and-blood relatives.

4 They are Israelites. The adoption as God's children, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises belong to them.

5 The Jewish ancestors are theirs, and the Christ descended from those ancestors. He is the one who rules over all things, who is God, and who is blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it's not as though God's word has failed. Not all who are descended from Israel are part of Israel.

7 Not all of Abraham's children are called Abraham's descendants, but instead your descendants will be named through Isaac.

8 That means it isn't the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children from the promise who are counted as descendants.

9 The words in the promise were: A year from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.

10 Not only that, but also Rebecca conceived children with one man, our ancestor Isaac.

11 When they hadn't been born yet and when they hadn't yet done anything good or bad, it was shown that God's purpose would continue because it was based on his choice.

12 It wasn't because of what was done but because of God's call. This was said to her: The older child will be a slave to the younger one.

13 As it is written, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.

14 So what are we going to say? Isn't this unfair on God's part? Absolutely not!

15 He says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whomever I choose to have mercy, and I'll show compassion to whomever I choose to show compassion.

16 So then, it doesn't depend on a person's desire or effort. It depends entirely on God, who shows mercy.

17 Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have put you in this position for this very thing: so I can show my power in you and so that my name can be spread through the entire earth.

18 So then, God has mercy on whomever he wants to, but he makes resistant whomever he wants to.

19 So you are going to say to me, "Then why does he still blame people? Who has ever resisted his will?"

20 You are only a human being. Who do you think you are to talk back to God? Does the clay say to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?"

21 Doesn't the potter have the power over the clay to make one pot for special purposes and another for garbage from the same lump of clay?

22 What if God very patiently puts up with pots made for wrath that were designed for destruction, because he wanted to show his wrath and to make his power known?

23 What if he did this to make the wealth of his glory known toward pots made for mercy, which he prepared in advance for glory?

24 We are the ones God has called. We don't come only from the Jews but we also come from the Gentiles.

25 As it says also in Hosea, I will call “my people” those who aren't my people, and the one who isn't well loved, I will call “loved one.”

26 And in the place where it was said to them, "You aren't my people," there they will be called "the living God's children."

27 But Isaiah cries out for Israel, Though the number of Israel's children will be like the sand of the sea, only a remaining part will be saved,

28 because the Lord does what he says completely and quickly.

29 As Isaiah prophesied, If the Lord of the heavenly forces had not left descendants for us, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have become like Gomorrah.

30 So what are we going to say? Gentiles who weren't striving for righteousness achieved righteousness, the righteousness that comes from faith.

31 But though Israel was striving for a Law of righteousness, they didn't arrive.

32 Why? It's because they didn't go for it by faith but they went for it as if it could be reached by doing something. They have tripped over a stumbling block.

33 As it is written: Look! I'm putting a stumbling block in Zion, which is a rock that offends people. And the one who has faith in him will not be put to shame.