God's word has not failed: election, unbelief and mercy for Israel in Romans 9-11

9I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. ²I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, ⁴the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. ⁵Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen. ⁶It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. ⁹For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. ¹¹Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, ¹²not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ¹⁴What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! ¹⁵For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. ¹⁹One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” ²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? ²²What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? ²³What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,” ²⁶and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” ²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved. ²⁸For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.” ²⁹It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ³⁰What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³²Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

10Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation. ²For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge. ³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes. ⁵For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.” ⁶But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” ⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. ¹¹It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, ¹³for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ¹⁶But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. ¹⁸But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” ¹⁹I ask instead, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says: “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation without understanding.” ²⁰And Isaiah boldly says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.” ²¹But as for Israel he says: “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

11I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel: ³“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”? ⁴And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. ⁷What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, ⁸as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” ⁹And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them. ¹⁰May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.” ¹¹I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. ¹²But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! ¹³I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either. ²²Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! ²⁵I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. ²⁷And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.” ²⁸Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. ²⁹For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you. ³²For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone. ³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! ³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” ³⁵“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?” ³⁶For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.