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The remnant of Israel

¹So I ask: has God rejected his people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, descended from Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what Scripture says in the story of Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel? ³“Lord, they have killed your prophets and demolished your altars. I alone am left, and now they are trying to take my life.” ⁴But what was God’s answer to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”^{a 5}In the same way, at the present time too there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶And if it is by grace, it does not come from works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.^{b 7}What then? Israel did not obtain what it was seeking. Those God chose obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written, “God has given them a spirit of numbness, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear, to this very day.” ⁹And David says, “May their table turn into a snare and a net, a stumbling block and a just penalty for them. ¹⁰May their eyes grow dark so that they cannot see, and keep their backs bent forever.”^cd

Israel’s stumbling and the Gentiles’ salvation

¹¹So I ask: did they stumble so as to fall for good?^e Certainly not! Rather, through their wrongdoing salvation has come to the Gentiles, so that Israel would become jealous. ¹²Now if their wrongdoing means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches their fullness will bring!^fg

¹³Now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. So since I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry, ¹⁴in the hope that somehow I may make my own flesh and blood jealous and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? Nothing less than life from the dead!^{hi 16}If the portion of dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole batch; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.^j

The olive tree and its branches

¹⁷Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and now share in the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember: you do not hold up the root; the root holds you up.^{k 19}Then you will say, “Branches were broken off to let me be grafted in.” ²⁰That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand firm by faith. Do not be proud, but fear. ²¹For if God did not spare the branches that grew naturally on the tree, he will not spare you either.^{l 22}Notice, then, both the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God’s kindness toward you, as long as you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. ²³And they too, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them back in. ²⁴After all, if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, against nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!

All Israel will be saved

²⁵Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery, so that you will not think yourselves wise: a hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in. ²⁶And in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written, “Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will turn ungodliness away from Jacob.”^{mno 27}“And this will be my covenant with them, when I take their sins away.” ²⁸As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as God’s choice is concerned, they are loved because of the patriarchs.^{p 29}For the gifts and the call of God can never be taken back. ³⁰Once you were disobedient to God, but now you have been shown mercy because of their disobedience. ³¹In the same way they have now been disobedient, so that by the mercy God has shown you, they too may now be shown mercy.^{qr 32}For God has locked everyone up together in disobedience, so that he may show mercy to everyone.^s

Praise to God’s wisdom

³³How deep are the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How impossible to search out his judgments, and how impossible to trace his ways!^t

³⁴For “who has known the mind of the Lord?” “Or who has been his counselor?” ³⁵“Or who has given him anything first and must be paid back?” ³⁶For all things are from him and through him and for him. To him be glory forever! Amen.