Thematic Bible
Romans 9:1 (show verse)
I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit --
Romans 9:2 (show verse)
I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
Romans 9:3 (show verse)
For I could wish that I myself were accursed -- cut off from Christ -- for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen,
Romans 9:4 (show verse)
who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
Romans 9:5 (show verse)
To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 9:6 (show verse)
It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,
Romans 9:7 (show verse)
nor are all the children Abraham's true descendants; rather "through Isaac will your descendants be counted."
Romans 9:8 (show verse)
This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.
Romans 9:9 (show verse)
For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son."
Romans 9:10 (show verse)
Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac --
Romans 9:11 (show verse)
even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) --
Romans 9:12 (show verse)
it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger,"
Romans 9:13 (show verse)
just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Romans 9:14 (show verse)
What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
Romans 9:15 (show verse)
For he says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
Romans 9:16 (show verse)
So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.
Romans 9:17 (show verse)
For the scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."
No Themes for this verse.
Romans 9:18 (show verse)
So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.
Romans 9:19 (show verse)
You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?"
Romans 9:20 (show verse)
But who indeed are you -- a mere human being -- to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, "Why have you made me like this?"
Romans 9:21 (show verse)
Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?
Romans 9:22 (show verse)
But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?
Romans 9:23 (show verse)
And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory --
Romans 9:24 (show verse)
even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9:25 (show verse)
As he also says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'My people,' and I will call her who was unloved, 'My beloved.'"
Romans 9:26 (show verse)
"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"
Romans 9:27 (show verse)
And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,
Romans 9:28 (show verse)
for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly."
No Themes for this verse.
Romans 9:29 (show verse)
Just as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah."
Romans 9:30 (show verse)
What shall we say then? -- that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith,
Romans 9:31 (show verse)
but Israel even though pursuing a law of righteousness did not attain it.
Romans 9:32 (show verse)
Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
Romans 9:33 (show verse)
just as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."