A remnant chosen by grace
1So I ask: has God pushed his people away? Never. I am an Israelite myself, from Abraham’s offspring, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God has not pushed away the people he knew beforehand. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel? 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are out for my life.” 4And what was the answer he received? “I have kept seven thousand men for myself, men who have not bent the knee to Baal.” 5So it is at the present time too: there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then no longer by works; otherwise grace would stop being grace. 7What then? What Israel was searching for, it did not obtain. The chosen obtained it; the rest were hardened, 8as it stands written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, right down to this very day.” 9And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a payment against them. 10Let their eyes go dark so they cannot see, and bend their backs for good.”
The wild olive branch
11So I ask: did they stumble in order to fall? Never. By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. 12And if their trespass means riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full number mean. 13I am speaking to you Gentiles now. Since I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry, 14hoping somehow to make my own flesh and blood jealous and to save some of them. 15For if their rejection means the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16If the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17Some of the branches were broken off, and you—a wild olive shoot—were grafted in among them and now share in the rich sap of the olive root. 18So do not crow over the branches. If you do, remember this: you do not carry the root; the root carries you. 19You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20True enough. They were broken off for their unbelief, and you stand by faith. So do not think grand thoughts about yourself; be afraid. 21If God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22Look, then, at God’s kindness and God’s severity: severity toward those who fell, kindness toward you—if you stay inside that kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23And they, if they do not stay in their unbelief, will be grafted in; God has the power to graft them in again. 24If you were cut from an olive tree that is wild by nature and grafted, against nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more easily will these natural branches be grafted back into their own tree.
Mercy for all
25Brothers and sisters, I do not want you in the dark about this mystery, or you will start thinking you are clever: a hardening has come over part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it stands written: “The deliverer will come out of Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” 28As far as the gospel goes, they are enemies—for your sake; as far as God’s choosing goes, they are loved—for the sake of the patriarchs. 29For God’s gifts and God’s call are never taken back. 30Once you disobeyed God, and now you have received mercy through their disobedience; 31so too they have now disobeyed, so that through the mercy shown to you they too may now receive mercy. 32For God has shut them all up in disobedience in order to have mercy on them all.
The depth of God
33Oh, the depth of the wealth and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, how untraceable his ways! 34“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor?” 35“Who has ever given him anything, to have it paid back?” 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
