The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (163 page)

26
 Likewise
the Spirit helps us
in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
²⁷
And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because
^j
the Spirit
intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.

28
 We know that in everything God works for good
^k
with those who love him,
^l
who are called according to his purpose.
²⁹
For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.
³⁰
And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God's Love in Christ Jesus

31
 What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?
³²
He who
did not spare
his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?
³³
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies;
³⁴
who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
^m
35
Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
³⁶
As it is written,

  
"
For your sake
we are being killed all the day long;

  
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

³⁷
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
³⁸
For
I am sure that neither death
, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
³⁹
nor height, nor depth,
nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God's Election of Israel

9
  
I am speaking the truth
in Christ,
I am not lying
; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit,
²
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
³
For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut off
from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
⁴
They are Israelites, and
to them belong
the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
⁵
to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ, who is God
over all, blessed for ever.
ⁿ
Amen.

6
 But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For
not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel
,
⁷
and
not all are children
of Abraham because they are his descendants; but "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named."
⁸
This means that it is not the
children of the flesh
who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.
⁹
For this is what the promise said, "About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son."
¹⁰
And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
¹¹
though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of
his call
,
¹²
she was told, "The elder will serve the younger."
¹³
As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but
Esau I hated
."

14
 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?
By no means
!
¹⁵
For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
¹⁶
So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.
¹⁷
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."
¹⁸
So then
he has mercy
upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.

God's Wrath and Mercy

19
 
*
 You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?"
²⁰
But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me thus?"
²¹
Has
the potter
no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?
²²
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath
made for destruction
,
²³
in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory,
²⁴
even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵
As indeed
he says in Hose'a
,

  
"Those who were not my people

  
I will call 'my people,'

  
and her who was not beloved

  
I will call 'my beloved.' "

²⁶
"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,'

  
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "

27
 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;
²⁸
for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch."
²⁹
And as Isaiah predicted,

  
"If the Lord of hosts had not left us children,

  
we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomor'rah."

Israel's Lack of Faith

30
 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;
³¹
but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
³²
Why? Because they did not pursue it
through faith
, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
³³
as it is written,

  
"
Behold, I am laying
in Zion a stone that will make men stumble,

  
a rock that will make them fall;

  
and he who believes in him will not be put to shame."

10
  
Brethren
, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
 
*
²
I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened.
³
For, being ignorant of the
righteousness
that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
⁴
For Christ is
the end
of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.

Salvation Is for Believers in Christ

5
 Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law
shall live by it
.
⁶
But the righteousness
based on faith says
, Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down)
⁷
or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
⁸
But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach);
⁹
because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
¹⁰
For man believes with
his heart
and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.
¹¹
The Scripture says, "
No one who believes
in him will be put to shame."
¹²
For there is
no distinction
between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him.
¹³
For, "
every one who calls
upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

14
 But
how are men to call
upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
¹⁵
And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!"
¹⁶
But they have not all heeded the gospel; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"
¹⁷
So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.

18
 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for

  
"
Their voice
has gone out to all the earth,

  
and their words to the ends of the world."

¹⁹
Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

  
"
I will make you jealous
of those who are not a nation;

  
with a foolish nation I will make you angry."

²⁰
Then
Isaiah is so bold
as to say,

  
"I have been found by those who did not seek me;

  
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

²¹
But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

Israel's Rejection Is Not Final

11
 I ask, then, has God
rejected his people
? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
²
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the
Scripture says
of Eli'jah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
³
"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."
⁴
But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba'al."
⁵
So too at the present time there is a
remnant
, chosen by grace.
⁶
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.