Romans 1-9

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Salutation

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,^{(A) 3} the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh^{(B) 4} and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit^[a] of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,^{(C) 5} through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for the sake of his name,^{(D) 6} including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷ To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.^(E)

Prayer of Thanksgiving

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.^{(F) 9} For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel^[b] of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers,^{(G) 10} asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened— ¹² or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles. ¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, ¹⁵ hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Power of the Gospel

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes,^[c] for the Jew first and also for the Greek.^{(H) 17} For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”^[d](I)

The Guilt of Humankind

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who by their injustice suppress the truth.^{(J) 19} For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ Ever since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been seen and understood through the things God has made. So they are without excuse,^{(K) 21} for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened.^{(L) 22} Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.^(M)

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.^{(N) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.^(O)

²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Their females exchanged natural intercourse^[e] for unnatural,^{(P) 27} and in the same way also the males, giving up natural intercourse^[f] with females, were consumed with their passionate desires for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.^(Q)

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind and to do things that should not be done.^{(R) 29} They were filled with every kind of injustice, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters,^[g] insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,^{(S) 31} foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.^{(T) 32} They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.^(U)

The Righteous Judgment of God

2 Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.^{(V) 2} We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth. ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?^{(W) 5} But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.^{(X) 6} He will repay according to each one’s deeds:^{(Y) 7} to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury.^{(Z) 9} There will be affliction and distress for everyone who does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek,^{(AA) 10} but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, both the Jew first and the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.^(AB)

¹² All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified.^{(AC) 14} When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do^[h] what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. ¹⁵ They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶ on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.^(AD)

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God^{(AE) 18} and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹ and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,^{(AF) 21} you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^{(AG) 22} You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? ²⁴ For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed^[i] among the gentiles because of you.”^(AH)

²⁵ Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.^{(AI) 26} So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. ²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.^{(AJ) 29} Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.^(AK)

3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ² Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews^[j] were entrusted with the oracles of God.^{(AL) 3} What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?^{(AM) 4} By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,

⁵ But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)^{(AO) 6} By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved!^(AP)

None Is Righteous

⁹ What then? Are we any better off?^[l] No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin,^{(AQ) 10} as it is written:

¹⁹ Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.^{(AU) 20} For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.^(AV)

Righteousness through Faith

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets,^{(AW) 22} the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ^[m] for all who believe.^[n] For there is no distinction,^{(AX) 23} since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;^{(AY) 24} they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,^{(AZ) 25} whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement^[o] by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;^{(BA) 26} it was to demonstrate at the present time his own righteousness, so that he is righteous and he justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus.^[p]

²⁷ Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, rather through the law of faith.^{(BB) 28} For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.^{(BC) 29} Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one, and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.^{(BD) 31} Do we then overthrow the law through this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

The Example of Abraham

4 What then are we to say was gained by^[q] Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.^{(BE) 3} For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed^[r] God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”^{(BF) 4} Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.^{(BG) 5} But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶ So also David pronounces a blessing on those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:

⁹ Is this blessing, then, pronounced only on the circumcised or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” ¹⁰ How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after but before he was circumcised. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith^[s] while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe^[t] without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,^{(BI) 12} and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

God’s Promise Realized through Faith

¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.^{(BJ) 14} For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(BK)

¹⁶ For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us,^{(BL) 17} as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed,^[u] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.^{(BM) 18} Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already^[v] as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.^{(BN) 20} No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.^{(BO) 22} Therefore “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ²³ Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone^{(BP) 24} but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe^[w] in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,^{(BQ) 25} who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.^(BR)

Results of Justification

5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we^[x] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,^{(BS) 2} through whom we have obtained access^[y] to this grace in which we stand, and we^[z] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.^{(BT) 3} And not only that, but we^[aa] also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,^{(BU) 4} and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.^(BV)

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.^{(BW) 7} Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.^{(BX) 9} Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.^{[ab](BY) 10} For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.^{(BZ) 11} But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Adam and Christ

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned^(CA)— ¹³ for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam, who is a pattern of the one who was to come.^(CB)

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification. ¹⁷ If, because of the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. ¹⁹ For just as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,^{(CC) 21} so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dying and Rising with Christ

6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase?^{(CD) 2} By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?^{(CE) 3} Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?^{(CF) 4} Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.^(CG)

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.^{(CH) 7} For whoever has died is freed^[ac] from sin. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.^{(CI) 10} The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.^{(CJ) 11} So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.^(CK)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires.^{(CL) 13} No longer present your members to sin as instruments^[ad] of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments^[ae] of righteousness.^{(CM) 14} For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.^(CN)

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?^{(CO) 17} But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted^{(CP) 18} and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness.^{(CQ) 19} I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations.^[af] For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.^(CR)

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.^{(CS) 21} So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.^{(CT) 22} But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.^{(CU) 23} For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.^(CV)

An Analogy from Marriage

7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? ² Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.^{(CW) 3} Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress.^(CX)

⁴ In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.^{(CY) 5} For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.^{(CZ) 6} But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code.^(DA)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{(DB) 8} But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead.^{(DC) 9} I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰ and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.^{(DD) 11} For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.^(DE)

¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.

The Inner Conflict

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.^{[ag] 15} I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.^{(DF) 16} Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability.^{(DG) 19} For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,^{(DH) 23} but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.^{(DI) 24} Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God^[ah] through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.

Life in the Spirit

8 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^{(DJ) 2} For the law of the Spirit^[ai] of life in Christ Jesus has set you^[aj] free from the law of sin and of death.^{(DK) 3} For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,^[ak] he condemned sin in the flesh,^{(DL) 4} so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.^{[al](DM) 5} For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit^[am] set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^{[an](DN) 6} To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit^[ao] is life and peace.^{(DO) 7} For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot,^{(DP) 8} and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,^[ap] since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.^{(DQ) 10} But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit^[aq] is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus^[ar] from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^[as] his Spirit that dwells in you.^(DR)

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³ for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.^{(DS) 14} For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.^{(DT) 15} For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!^[at] Father!”^{(DU) 16} it is that very Spirit bearing witness^[au] with our spirit that we are children of God,^{(DV) 17} and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.^(DW)

Future Glory

¹⁸ I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, ²⁰ for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, ²³ and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.^{(DX) 24} For in^[av] hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes^[aw] with groanings too deep for words.^{(DY) 27} And God,^[ax] who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit^[ay] intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.^(DZ)

²⁸ We know that all things work together^[az] for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.^{(EA) 29} For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.^{[ba](EB) 30} And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.^(EC)

God’s Love in Christ Jesus

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?^{(ED) 32} He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.^{(EE) 34} Who is to condemn? It is Christ^[bb] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.^{(EF) 35} Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.^{(EH) 38} For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,^{(EI) 39} nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s Election of Israel

9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit^(EJ)— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.^{(EK) 4} They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;^{(EL) 5} to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.^[bc] Amen.^(EM)

⁶ It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,^{(EN) 7} and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”^{(EO) 8} This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. ⁹ For the word of the promise is this: “About this time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”^{(EP) 10} Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac:^{(EQ) 11} even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, ¹² not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”^{(ER) 13} As it is written,

¹⁴ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!^{(ET) 15} For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ So it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{(EV) 18} So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

God’s Wrath and Mercy

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”^{(EW) 20} But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”^{(EX) 21} Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?^{(EY) 22} What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,^{(EZ) 23} and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? ²⁵ As he also says in Hosea,

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,^{(FC) 28} for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”^{[bd] 29} And as Isaiah predicted,

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰ What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith,^{(FE) 31} but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{(FF) 32} Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^{(FG) 33} as it is written,