Paul is sad about the Jews who do not believe in Christ
1I belong to Christ and the Holy_Spirit helps me to know what is right and what is wrong. So I speak the truth, and I am not lying when I tell you 2that I am very sad and I always cry over my people. 3They are my brothers, my own people. If God would save them, then I would be satisfied if He cursed me and cut me off from Christ. 4Yes, they are Israelites. God has adopted them to be his children. He showed them his glory, He made covenants with them, He gave his laws to them, He told them how they should serve Him, and He promised them that He would give them many things. 5Their forefathers were the important forefathers, and everyone knows who they were. Christ, who rules over all, was also an Israelite. He is God and we must always praise Him. Amen.
God chooses people that He wants to choose
6Do not think that God promised something and that it did not happen. You must know that many of the Israelites are not_true Israelites. 7And many of the descendants of Abraham are not_true children_of_Abraham. It is written in the Old_Testament:
‘The children of Isaac will be your descendants.’
8This means that people are not children of God just because they are descendants of Abraham. No, people are children of God because God has promised them that they will be his children. 9Because God promised Abraham when He said:
‘I will come back to you next year this time.
Then your wife Sarah will have a son.’
10The same happened to Rebekah. She was pregnant and expected 2 babies, and one man, Isaac, was their father. He was our forefather. 11-12God said to Rebekah:
‘The older son will serve the younger son.’
God said this before the 2 children were born and before they had done anything good or bad. This shows that God decides whom He wants to choose to be his children. He does not choose them because they have done something good. He chooses them because He decides that He wants to choose them. 13It is like the Old_Testament says:
‘I loved Jacob, but I did not like Esau.’
14Is it right if we say that God is not fair or that He is not doing the right thing? No, we can never say that. 15Because God said to Moses:
‘I will decide
to whom I will be good and gracious.’
16This shows us that God does not choose people because they do good or because they want to do good. God chooses people because He wants to be good to them. 17In the Old_Testament God said to Pharaoh:
‘I have made you king
so that I can show how strong I am
and everyone on earth
will know who I am.’
18Yes, God does what He wants to do. He is good to some people and He makes some people stubborn. 19Maybe you will say: ‘God does what He wants to do and people can not stop it. Why is He not pleased with what I do?’
20But you must remember that you are only human and you can not speak to God like that. It is the same when someone makes something. That thing can not ask the person who made it: ‘Why have you made me like this?’ 21Think of a potter. A potter can make anything that he wants to make from his clay. He may take one piece of clay and make 2 pots. One pot may be beautiful and special and the other pot may be made to use every day. 22God does the same. There were some people whom God had to punish with eternal_death. He wanted to show that He was angry with those people, and He wanted everyone to know how strong He is. Therefore He decided to be very patient with those people and to wait a long time before He punished them. 23God did this because He wanted to show how merciful He is to other people. He wanted everyone to see his glory and to know that He is good and merciful to his people and that He is preparing them to have part in his glory. 24He is preparing us because He chose us long ago to belong to Him. Yes, God has chosen us from the Jews and from the Gentiles. 25It is like God says in the book of Hosea:
‘I will say to people who were not my people:
“You are my people.”
And I will say to people
whom no one loved:
“I love you.” ’
26God also said in the book of Hosea:
‘I told them:
“You are not my people.”
But at the place where I said that,
I will tell them:
“You are children of the living God.” ’
27And the prophet Isaiah shouted and said this about the people of Israel:
‘The Israelites are as many
as the sand of the sea,
but the Lord will save only a few of them.
He will save the few that are left over.
28Because the Lord will punish
the people on earth.
He will do it soon.’
29This is the same as Isaiah said long ago before it happened. He said:
‘The Lord who rules over all
did not cause all of us to die.
He let some of his children live.
If He had not saved us,
we would have been
like Sodom and Gomorrah.’
God saves everyone who believes in Christ
30This is why I say it was not important to the Gentiles that God should forgive them and make them righteous. But God did that. He made them righteous because they believed in Christ. 31The Israelites tried to do what the laws say so that God would make them righteous. But they did not_really do what the laws say. 32Why not? They wanted God to make them righteous, but they did not want to believe in Christ. They only did what the laws say. They were like people who stumble over a rock and fall. 33It is like the Old_Testament says:
‘I have put a stone in Zion
over which people will stumble,
a rock on which they will fall.’
It is also written:
‘But the people who believe in Him
will never be disappointed.
He will not leave them alone.’
