Romans 9

God’s Sovereign Choice

1 Listen, I am telling the truth, and I am not fronting. The Holy Spirit and my conscience got my back on this.

2 I got mad sorrow and pain in my heart all the time.

3 If it were possible, I would take the hit and be cursed, cut off from Christ, just to save my own people, my fam, my flesh and blood.

4 They are Israelites! They got the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship, and the promises.

5 They got the OGs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And, Listen, Christ Himself came from their bloodline. He is over everything. Praise God forever. Amen.

6 But do not get it twisted. Just because they are Israelites, does not mean God’s word failed. Not all who came from Israel are actually Israel.

7 And just because they are Abraham’s descendants do not mean they are all God’s chosen. God said, “It is through Isaac your line will be called.”

8 That means it is not the kids born from the flesh who are God’s children, but the kids born from the promise.

9 Here is what God promised: “At the right time, I will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”

10 And not just that, but when Rebecca had twins with Isaac, our forefather.

11 Before the twins were even born, before they did anything good or bad, God already had a plan. It was not about works, but about His calling.

12 He told her, “The older will serve the younger.”

13 Just like it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 So what, Is God unjust, Nah, not even close.

15 He told Moses, “I will show mercy to whoever I want, and I will have compassion on whoever I choose.”

16 So it is not about human effort or willpower. It is about God showing mercy.

17 The Scriptures say to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very reason, to show My power in you, so My name would be known across the world.”

18 So God shows mercy to whoever He wants, and He hardens whoever He wants.

19 Now, some of you all might say, “Then how can God blame us if He is in control?”

20 Who are you to talk back to God, Can the thing that is made say to the maker, “Why did you make me like this?”

21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay one pot for special use and another for everyday use,

22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and make His power known, put up with a whole lot of people destined for destruction, just to make an example,

23 And what if He did that to show the riches of His glory to the people He prepared in advance for glory,

24 That is us, Jews and non-Jews, who He called.

25 Just like He says in Hosea, “I will call the ones who is not My people ‘My people,’ and I will call the one who was not loved ‘beloved.’”

26 And, “In the same place where it was said, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called sons of the living God.”

27 Isaiah calls it too: “Even if the number of Israelites was like the sand on the beach, only a few will be saved.

28 The Lord will carry out His plan quickly and finish it.”

29 And Isaiah said, “If the Lord had not left us some descendants, we would have been wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah.”

30 So, what is the deal, The non-Jews, who were not even chasing righteousness, got it through faith.

31 But Israel, who was chasing the law to get right with God, did not reach it.

32 Why, Because they did not go after it by faith but by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone,”

33 Just like it is written: “Look, I am putting a stone in Zion that will make folks trip, but whoever trusts in Him will not be disappointed.”