Romans
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for the Israelites is
that they may be saved.
For I testify to this fact about them: they have a zeal
for God, but it is not based on knowledge.
For they are ignorant of God’s
way of being right, and seeking to establish their own way,
they have failed to subject themselves to God’s way of being right.
For Messiah is
the fulfillment and end of the Law, to make right everyone who believes.
For Moses writes about the way of being right based on the Law: “The
one who does these things will live by them.”
But the way of being right
based on belief says this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend to
heaven?’ (that is, to bring Messiah down),
or ‘Who will descend to the
abyss?’ (that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead).”
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” — that is, the Gospel-word of faith that we are proclaiming.
For if you confess with your mouth that
Jesus is lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes, resulting in being right,
and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.
As Scripture says,
“Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, as the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on Him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord
will be saved.”
How then will people call on him unless they have believed him? And how will they believe him unless they have heard him preaching the Gospel? And how will they hear it unless someone preaches it to them?
And how are they
to preach it unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are those who preach the Gospel!”
But they did not all obey the Gospel. As Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”
So then belief is based on
hearing — hearing the Gospel Message preached by the Messiah.
But I ask, has Israel not heard? Yes, they have. “Their voice went out
throughout all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
I ask, did
Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with
what is really not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation without
understanding!”
And Isaiah says boldly, “I was found by those who did not
seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not inquire about Me.”
But
about Israel God says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a
disobedient and stubborn people.”
Romans