18 For I consider that the sufferings of the present time do not amount to anything in comparison with the glory that is going to be revealed in us.+ 19 For the creation is waiting with eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God.+ 20 For the creation was subjected to futility,+ not by its own will, but through the one who subjected it, on the basis of hope+ 21 that the creation itself will also be set free+ from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 For we know that all creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves also who have the firstfruits, namely, the spirit,+ yes, we ourselves groan within ourselves+ while we are earnestly waiting for adoption as sons,+ the release from our bodies by ransom.+ 24 For we were saved in this hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for when a man sees a thing, does he hope for it? 25 But if we hope+ for what we do not see,+ we keep eagerly waiting for it with endurance.+
26 In like manner, the spirit also joins in with help for our weakness;+ for the problem is that we do not know what we should pray for as we need to, but the spirit itself pleads for us with unuttered groanings. 27 But the one who searches the hearts+ knows what the meaning of the spirit is, because it is pleading in harmony with God for the holy ones.
28 We know that God makes all his works cooperate together for the good of those who love God, those who are the ones called according to his purpose;+ 29 because those whom he gave his first recognition he also foreordained to be patterned after the image of his Son,+ so that he might be the firstborn+ among many brothers.+ 30 Moreover, those whom he foreordained+ are the ones he also called;+ and those whom he called are the ones he also declared to be righteous.+ Finally those whom he declared righteous are the ones he also glorified.+
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who will be against us?+ 32 Since he did not even spare his own Son but handed him over for us all,+ will he not also, along with him, kindly give us all other things? 33 Who will file accusation against God’s chosen ones?+ God is the One who declares them righteous.+ 34 Who will condemn them? Christ Jesus is the one who died, yes, more than that, the one who was raised up, who is at the right hand of God+ and who also pleads for us.+
35 Who will separate us from the love of the Christ?+ Will tribulation or distress or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or sword?+ 36 Just as it is written: “For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we have been accounted as sheep for slaughtering.”+ 37 On the contrary, in all these things we are coming off completely victorious+ through the one who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things now here nor things to come nor powers+ 39 nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
9 I am telling the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as my conscience bears witness with me in holy spirit, 2 that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were separated from the Christ as the cursed one for the sake of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons+ and the glory and the covenants+ and the giving of the Law+ and the sacred service+ and the promises.+ 5 To them the forefathers belong,+ and from them the Christ descended according to the flesh.+ God, who is over all, be praised forever. Amen.
6 However, it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who descend from Israel are really “Israel.”+ 7 Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s offspring;+ rather, “What will be called your offspring will be through Isaac.”+ 8 That is, the children in the flesh are not really the children of God,+ but the children by the promise+ are counted as the offspring. 9 For the word of promise was as follows: “At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son.”+ 10 Not only then but also when Re·bekʹah conceived twins from the one man, Isaac our forefather;+ 11 for when they had not yet been born and had not practiced anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not on works, but on the One who calls, 12 it was said to her: “The older will be the slave of the younger.”+ 13 Just as it is written: “I loved Jacob, but Eʹsau I hated.”+
14 What are we to say, then? Is there injustice with God? Certainly not!+ 15 For he says to Moses: “I will show mercy to whomever I will show mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I will show compassion.”+ 16 So, then, it depends, not on a person’s desire or on his effort, but on God, who has mercy.+ 17 For the scripture says to Pharʹaoh: “For this very reason I have let you remain: to show my power in connection with you and to have my name declared in all the earth.”+ 18 So, then, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, but he lets whomever he wishes become obstinate.+
19 You will therefore say to me: “Why does he still find fault? For who has withstood his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to be answering back to God?+ Does the thing molded say to its molder: “Why did you make me this way?”+ 21 What? Does not the potter have authority over the clay+ to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use, another for a dishonorable use? 22 What, then, if God had the will to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, and he tolerated with much patience vessels of wrath made fit for destruction? 23 And if this was done to make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy,+ which he prepared beforehand for glory, 24 namely, us, whom he called not only from among Jews but also from among nations,+ what of it? 25 It is as he says also in Ho·seʹa: “Those not my people+ I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not loved, ‘beloved’;+ 26 and in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”+
27 Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.+ 28 For Jehovah will make an accounting on the earth, concluding it and cutting it short.”+ 29 Also, just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless Jehovah of armies had left an offspring to us, we should have become just like Sodʹom, and we should have resembled Go·morʹrah.”+
30 What are we to say, then? That people of the nations, although not pursuing righteousness, attained righteousness,+ the righteousness that results from faith;+ 31 but Israel, although pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law. 32 For what reason? Because they pursued it, not by faith, but as by works. They stumbled over the “stone of stumbling”;+ 33 as it is written: “Look! I am laying in Zion a stone+ of stumbling and a rock of offense, but the one who rests his faith on it will not be disappointed.”+
10 Brothers, the goodwill of my heart and my supplication to God for them are indeed for their salvation.+ 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,+ but not according to accurate knowledge. 3 For because of not knowing the righteousness of God+ but seeking to establish their own,+ they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.+ 4 For Christ is the end of the Law,+ so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness.+
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the Law: “The man who does these things will live by means of them.”+ 6 But the righteousness resulting from faith says: “Do not say in your heart,+ ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’+ that is, to bring Christ down, 7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’+ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your own mouth and in your own heart”;+ that is, “the word” of faith, which we are preaching. 9 For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,+ and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration+ for salvation.
11 For the scripture says: “No one who rests his faith on him will be disappointed.”+ 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.+ There is the same Lord over all, who is rich toward all those calling on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.”+ 14 However, how will they call on him if they have not put faith in him? How, in turn, will they put faith in him about whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? 15 How, in turn, will they preach unless they have been sent out?+ Just as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!”+
16 Nevertheless, they did not all obey the good news. For Isaiah says: “Jehovah, who has put faith in the thing heard from us?”+ 17 So faith follows the thing heard.+ In turn, what is heard is through the word about Christ. 18 But I ask, They did not fail to hear, did they? Why, in fact, “into all the earth their sound went out, and to the ends of the inhabited earth their message.”+ 19 But I ask, Israel did not fail to know, did they?+ First Moses says: “I will incite you to jealousy through that which is not a nation; I will incite you to violent anger through a foolish nation.”+ 20 But Isaiah becomes very bold and says: “I was found by those who were not seeking me;+ I became known to those who were not asking for me.”+ 21 But he says regarding Israel: “All day long I have spread out my hands toward a disobedient and obstinate people.”+
11 I ask, then, God did not reject his people, did he?+ By no means! For I too am an Israelite, of the offspring of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.+ 2 God did not reject his people, whom he first recognized.+ Do you not know what the scripture says in connection with E·liʹjah, as he pleads with God against Israel? 3 “Jehovah, they have killed your prophets, they have dug up your altars, and I alone am left, and now they are trying to take my life.”+ 4 Yet, what does the divine pronouncement say to him? “I have left for myself 7,000 men who have not bent the knee to Baʹal.”+ 5 So in the same way, at the present time also, there is a remnant+ according to a choosing through undeserved kindness. 6 Now if it is by undeserved kindness,+ it is no longer through works;+ otherwise, the undeserved kindness would no longer be undeserved kindness.
7 What, then? The very thing Israel is earnestly seeking he did not obtain, but the ones chosen obtained it.+ The rest had their senses dulled,+ 8 just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of deep sleep,+ eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, down to this very day.”+ 9 Also, David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution for them. 10 Let their eyes become darkened so that they cannot see, and always make them bend their backs.”+