For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

And not only so, but Rebecca being about to have a child by our father Isaac--

As it is written, I have loved Jacob,

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

For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers [arrogantly] back to God and dares to defy Him? Will the thing which is formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that [is] for {honorable use} and [one] that [is] for {ordinary use}?

It is as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us seed [future generations from which a believing remnant of Israelites came],
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah [totally rejected and destroyed]!”

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one.

Wherefore? Because it was not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone,

in agreement with the statement of Scripture, "See, I am placing on Mount Zion a stone for people to stumble at, and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed."

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Now Christ is an end to law, so as to let every believer have righteousness.

For Moses describes the justice that was to be had by the law, thus : "the man who performeth the things here required, shall have life thereby."

Because, if you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and have faith in your heart that God has made him come back from the dead, you will have salvation:

The Scripture says, "No one who believes in Him shall have reason to feel ashamed."

And the Jew is not different from the Greek: for there is the same Lord of all, who is good to all who have hope in his name:

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

and how shall they preach unless they have been sent? according as it is written, How beautiful the feet of them that announce glad tidings of peace, of them that announce glad tidings of good things!

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

But I say, did Israel fail to understand [that the gospel was to go also to the Gentiles]? First Moses says,

“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation (Gentiles);
With a nation that lacks understanding I will make you angry.”

But Esaias is very bold, and says, I have been found by those not seeking me; I have become manifest to those not inquiring after me.

But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have ye not known -- in Elijah -- what the Writing saith? how he doth plead with God concerning Israel, saying,

Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

But if it is by grace [God’s unmerited favor], it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace [it would not be a gift but a reward for works].

What is it then? What Israel seeks for, that he has not obtained; but the election has obtained, and the rest have been blinded,

As it was said in the holy Writings, God gave them a spirit of sleep, eyes which might not see, and ears which have no hearing, to this day.

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

For, if by their putting away, the rest of men have been made friends with God, what will their coming back again be, but life from the dead?

Now if some of the branches have been broken out, and thou, being a wild olive tree, hast been grafted in amongst them, and hast become a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree,

Thou wilt say then, The branches have been broken out in order that I might be grafted in.

Right: they have been broken out through unbelief, and thou standest through faith. Be not high-minded, but fear:

For, if God did not have mercy on the natural branches, he will not have mercy on you.

Behold then the goodness and severity of God: upon them who have fallen, severity; upon thee goodness of God, if thou shalt abide in goodness, since otherwise thou also wilt be cut away.

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much easier will it be to graft these who are the natural branches back into [the original parent stock of] their own olive tree?

For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;

And, so, all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written - There shall have come out of Zion the Deliverer, - He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins.

For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Or who has given him something only to have him pay it back?"

And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.

For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts:

If prophecy,
use it according to the standard of one’s faith;

or, if we have a ministry, let us be active in our ministry; if any one teaches, let him attend to his teaching;

Let not that business which ye have in hand be tedious to you. Be fervent in the spirit. Apply yourselves to the time.

Have the same respect one for another, not minding high things, but going along with the lowly: be not wise in your own eyes:

Render to no one evil for evil; have regard to what is honorable in the sight of all men.

If it be possible, howbeit of your part, have peace with all men.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

Let every individual be obedient to those who rule over him; for no one is a ruler except by God's permission, and our present rulers have had their rank and power assigned to them by Him.

Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer.

So put yourselves under the authority, not for fear of wrath, but because you have the knowledge of what is right.

Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law.

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandment are summed up in this statement: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This I say, because you know the crisis that we have reached, for the time has already come for you to rouse yourselves from sleep; our Salvation is nearer now than when we accepted the Faith.

The night is almost gone; the day is near. Therefore let us have done with the deeds of Darkness, and arm ourselves with the weapons of Light.

Now receive the one who is weak in the faith, and do not have disputes over differing opinions.

Let not him who takes food have a low opinion of him who does not: and let not him who does not take food be a judge of him who does; for he has God's approval.

As long as we have life we are living to the Lord; or if we give up our life it is to the Lord; so if we are living, or if our life comes to an end, we are the Lord's.

For, to this end, Christ died and lived, in order that, both of dead and living, he might have lordship.

But you, why do you make yourself your brother's judge? or again, why have you no respect for your brother? because we will all have to take our place before God as our judge.

So every one of us will have to give an account of himself to God.

I have known, and am persuaded, in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself, except to him who is reckoning anything to be unclean -- to that one it is unclean;

If your brother is being hurt or offended because of food [that you insist on eating], you are no longer walking in love [toward him]. Do not let what you eat destroy and spiritually harm one for whom Christ died.

The thing you have a right to do must not become a cause of reproach.

Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

For the Christ also did not please himself; but according as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

And may the God of the endurance, and of the exhortation, give to you to have the same mind toward one another, according to Christ Jesus;

And I say Jesus Christ to have become a ministrant of circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises to the fathers,

and that the Gentiles also have glorified God in acknowledgment of His mercy. So it is written, "For this reason I will praise Thee among the Gentiles, and sing psalms in honour of Thy name."

May God, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in Him--so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I, myself, am convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, and have been filled with all kinds of knowledge and are capable of counseling one another.

Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God,

in making me a minister of Christ Jesus to the heathen peoples, to have me act as a sacrificing minister of the good news, in order that my offering of the heathen peoples to God may be acceptable, consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.

Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:

But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.

But now, with no further place for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you—

whensoever I go unto Spain (for I hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first in some measure I shall have been satisfied with your company)--

for Macedonia and Achaia have been well pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor of the saints who are in Jerusalem.

It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.

and I have known that coming unto you -- in the fulness of the blessing of the good news of Christ I shall come.

That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;