Part 10

009:023 in order to make known His infinite goodness towards the subjects of His mercy whom He has prepared beforehand for glory,

009:024 even towards us whom He has called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

009:025 So also in Hosea He says, "I will call that nation My People which was not My People, and I will call her beloved who was not beloved.

009:026 And in the place where it was said to them, `No people of Mine are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving God."

009:027 And Isaiah cries aloud concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved;

009:028 for the Lord will hold a reckoning upon the earth, making it efficacious and brief."

009:029 Even as Isaiah says in an earlier place, "Were it not that the Lord, the God of Hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and have come to resemble Gomorrah."

009:030 To what conclusion does this bring us? Why, that the Gentiles, who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it-- a righteousness, however, which arises from faith;

009:031 while the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a Law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one.

009:032 And why? Because they were pursuing a righteousness which should arise not from faith, but from what they regarded as merit. They stuck their foot against the stone which lay in their way;

009:033 in agreement with the statement of Scripture, "See, I am placing on Mount Zion a stone for people to stumble at, and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed."

010:001 Brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God, on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation.

010:002 For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm.

010:003 Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to God's righteousness.

010:004 For as a means of righteousness Christ is the termination of Law to every believer.

010:005 Moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness required by the Law shall live by that righteousness.

010:006 But the righteousness which is based on faith speaks in a different tone. "Say not in your heart," it declares, "`Who shall ascend to Heaven?'"--that is, to bring Christ down;

010:007 "nor `Who shall go down into the abyss?'"--that is, to bring Christ up again from the grave.

010:008 But what does it say? "The Message is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart;" that is, the Message which we are publishing about the faith--

010:009 that if with your mouth you confess Jesus as Lord and in your heart believe that God brought Him back to life, you shall be saved.

010:010 For with the heart men believe and obtain righteousness, and with the mouth they make confession and obtain salvation.

010:011 The Scripture says, "No one who believes in Him shall have reason to feel ashamed."

010:012 Jew and Gentile are on precisely the same footing; for the same Lord is Lord over all, and is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him for deliverance.

010:013 For "every one, without exception, who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

010:014 But how are they to call on One in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in One whose voice they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?

010:015 And how are men to preach unless they have been sent to do so? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good!"

010:016 But, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed the Message they have heard from us?"

010:017 And this proves that faith comes from a Message heard, and that the Message comes through its having been spoken by Christ.