What does it matter? Just that in every way, whether out of false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice

Israel

But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.

Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.

Then they will call me, but I won’t answer;
they will search for me, but won’t find me.

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able

For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance, though he sought it with tears.

But the election

In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.

And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory—

For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.

In love

But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

And the rest

Dull the minds of these people;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.

Such people do not comprehend
and cannot understand,
for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see,
and their minds so they cannot understand.

Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

You will listen and listen,
yet never understand;
and you will look and look,
yet never perceive.

He has blinded

their eyes

and hardened their hearts,

so that they would not see with their eyes
or understand with their hearts,
and be converted,

and I would heal them.

but their minds were closed.

For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God.

and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved.

Blinded

So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.

General references

Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

They did not know He was speaking to them about the Father.