The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 9 -

I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience offers testimony to me in the Holy Spirit,

because the sadness within me is great, and there is a continuous sorrow in my heart.

For I was desiring that I myself might be anathemized from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh.(a)

These are the Israelites, to whom belongs adoption as sons, and the glory and the testament, and the giving and following of the law, and the promises.

Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all things, blessed God, for all eternity. Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

(Genesis 25:19–28; Malachi 1:1–5)

But it is not that the Word of God has perished. For not all those who are Israelites are of Israel.(b)

And not all sons are the offspring of Abraham: “For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac.”

In other words, those who are the sons of God are not those who are sons of the flesh, but those who are sons of the Promise; these are considered to be the offspring.

For the word of promise is this: “I will return at the proper time. And there shall be a son for Sarah.”

And she was not alone. For Rebecca also, having conceived by Isaac our father, from one act,

when the children had not yet been born, and had not yet done anything good or bad (such that the purpose of God might be based on their choice),(c)

and not because of deeds, but because of a calling, it was said to her: “The elder shall serve the younger.”

So also it was written: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

What should we say next? Is there unfairness with God? Let it not be so!

For to Moses he says: “I will pity whomever I pity. And I will offer mercy to whomever I will pity.”

Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity.(d)

For Scripture says to the Pharaoh: “I have raised you up for this purpose, so that I may reveal my power by you, and so that my name may be announced to all the earth.”(e)

Therefore, he takes pity on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.(f)

And so, you would say to me: “Then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

O man, who are you to question God? How can the thing that has been formed say to the One who formed him: “Why have you made me this way?”

And does not the potter have the authority over the clay to make, from the same material, indeed, one vessel unto honor, yet truly another unto disgrace?(g)

What if God, wanting to reveal his wrath and to make his power known, endured, with much patience, vessels deserving wrath, fit to be destroyed,

so that he might reveal the wealth of his glory, within these vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?

And so it is with those of us whom he has also called, not only from among the Jews, but even from among the Gentiles,

just as he says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘my people,’ and she who was not beloved, ‘beloved,’ and she who had not obtained mercy, ‘one who has obtained mercy.’

And this shall be: in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called the sons of the living God.”

And Isaiah cried out on behalf of Israel: “When the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.(h)

For he shall complete his word, while abbreviating it out of equity. For the Lord shall accomplish a brief word upon the earth.”

And it is just as Isaiah predicted: “Unless the Lord of hosts had bequeathed offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made similar to Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

What should we say next? That the Gentiles who did not follow justice have attained justice, even the justice that is of faith.

Yet truly, Israel, though following the law of justice, has not arrived at the law of justice.

Why is this? Because they did not seek it from faith, but as if it were from works. For they stumbled over a stumbling block,

just as it was written: “Behold, I am placing a stumbling block in Zion, and a rock of scandal. But whoever believes in him shall not be confounded.”

Footnotes

(a)9:3 Anathema;:A curse. The apostle’s concern and love for his countrymen the Jews was so great, that he was willing to suffer even an anathema, or curse, for their sake; or any evil that could come upon him, without his offending God.(Challoner)

(b)9:6 All are not Israelites, etc:Not all, who are the carnal seed of Israel, are true Israelites in God’s account: who, as by his free grace, he heretofore preferred Isaac before Ismael, and Jacob before Esau, so he could, and did by the like free grace, election and mercy, raise up spiritual children by faith to Abraham and Israel, from among the Gentiles, and prefer them before the carnal Jews.(Challoner)

(c)9:11 Not yet born, etc:By this example of these twins, and the preference of the younger to the elder, the drift of the apostle is, to show that God, in his election, mercy and grace, is not tied to any particular nation, as the Jews imagined; nor to any prerogative of birth, or any forgoing merits. For as, antecedently to his grace, he sees no merits in any, but finds all involved in sin, in the common mass of condemnation; and all children of wrath: there is no one whom he might not justly leave in that mass; so that whomsoever he delivers from it, he delivers in his mercy: and whomsoever he leaves in it, he leaves in his justice. As when, of two equally criminal, the king is pleased out of pure mercy to pardon one, whilst he suffers justice to take place in the execution of the other.(Challoner)

(d)9:16 Not of him that wills, etc:That is, by any power or strength of his own, abstracting from the grace of God.(Challoner)

(e)9:17 To this purpose, etc:Not that God made him on purpose that he should sin, and so be damned; but foreseeing his obstinacy in sin, and the abuse of his own free will, he raised him up to be a mighty king, to make a more remarkable example of him: and that his power might be better known, and his justice in punishing him, published throughout the earth.(Challoner)

(f)9:18 He hardens:Not by being the cause or author of his sin, but by withholding his grace, and so leaving him in his sin, in punishment of his past demerits.(Challoner)

(g)9:21 The potter:This similitude is used only to show that we are not to dispute with our Maker, nor to reason with him why he does not give as much grace to one as to another; for since the whole lump of our clay is vitiated by sin, it is owing to his goodness and mercy, that he makes out of it so many vessels of honor; and it is no more than just, that others, in punishment of their unrepented sins, should be given up to be vessels of dishonor.(Challoner)

(h)9:27 A remnant:That is, a small number only of the children of Israel shall be converted and saved. How perversely is this text quoted for the salvation of men of all religions, when it speaks only of the converts of the children of Israel!(Challoner)