How I read Romans

Apocalyptic Re-reading of Paul
Most of what is written here can be found in Douglas Campbell's The Deliverance of God. Romans 1-4 is his rendering. I added 5-11. they are my understanding.

Paul's Introduction of Theme

Paul:   ¹⁴I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish ¹⁵ -- hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome. ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ The deliverance of God is revealed through the gospel by means of faithfulness for faithfulness; as it is written, "The Righteous One, by means of faithfulness, will live." ⁽¹⁾

The Opposing Teacher's Introduction of Theme

Teacher: ¹⁸"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness

of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; ²¹ for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools; ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, ²⁷ and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. ⁽²⁾

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. ²⁹ They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die -- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them." 

Paul's First Rebuttal: The Teacher's 'Wrath of God' Seen Instead as the Human Wrath of Judging

Paul:    2 ¹ Therefore you have no excuse, Every Person, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. ² You say, 'we know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.' ³ Do you imagine (when you judge) those who do such things (and yet do them yourself:) that you will escape the judgment of God?⁴ Or do you disregard the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience -- unaware that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ So by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁽³⁾

⁶ ...Who will repay according to each one's deeds: ^(4) 7 to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God does not respect mere appearance. ¹² All who have sinned lawlessly will also perish lawlessly, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who will be righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Paul's Next Rebuttal: Gentiles Who Live by the Law Vs. Jews Who Don't

Paul:   ¹⁴ But when Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves; ¹⁵ they show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶ (on the day when God will judge the secret thoughts of all), according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ.

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and “rely on the law” and “boast of your relation to God” ¹⁸ and “know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law”, ¹⁹ and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, ²¹ you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

²⁵ Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸ For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. ²⁹ Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart -- it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.

First Dialogue of Paul and the Teacher -- Paul as Questioner

3 Paul: ¹ Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

Teacher: ² Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of

God.

Paul: ³ What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

Teacher: ⁴ By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So

that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging."

Paul: ⁵ But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is

unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ⁽⁶⁾

Teacher: ⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

Paul: ⁷ But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being

condemned as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"?

Teacher: Their condemnation is deserved!

Paul Marshals Scripture Citations Before Climaxing His Argument

Paul: ⁹ What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, ¹⁰ as it is written:

"There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
¹¹there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God.
¹²All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one."

¹³"Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive."

"The venom of vipers is under their lips."

¹⁴"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."

¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ruin and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known."

¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

The Core of Paul's Argument Against the Teacher: Universal Sinfulness Prompted Not Wrathful Judgment Under the Law but God's Unilaterally Saving Act in Jesus Christ

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For "no human being will be justified in his sight" by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now, apart from law, the saving act of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²² the saving act of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who trust. For there is no distinction, ²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God intended to be a singular act of atonement effective through that faithfulness in his blood. He did this to show his justice, because in his divine forbearance he granted amnesty for sins previously committed; ²⁶ it was to prove at the present time that God's justice is itself just in the very act of declaring everyone just from the faithfulness of Jesus.⁽⁷⁾

Second Dialogue of Paul and Teacher -- Teacher as Questioner

Teacher: ²⁷ Then what becomes of boasting?

Paul:   It is excluded.

Teacher: By what teaching? By that of works?

Paul:   No, but by the teaching of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that a person is delivered by faithfulness apart from works of law.

Teacher: ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only?

Paul:   Is he not the God of Gentiles also?

Teacher: Yes, of Gentiles also.

Paul: ³⁰ If God is one -- the God who will deliver the circumcised through fidelity -- then he will deliver the uncircumcised through that same fidelity.

Teacher: ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

Paul: By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

4 Teacher: ¹ What then are we to say was found out in relation to Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.

Paul:   But not before God. ³ For what does the scripture say?

"Abraham trusted in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."⁴

^`Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works: 

⁷ ‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
              and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.’

9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, ‘Trust was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.’ ¹⁰How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

Teacher: It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 

Paul:   ¹¹He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, ¹²and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is “the adherents of the law” who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to “the adherents of the law” but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸Hoping against hope, he trusted that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ ²³Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. 

Romans 5-8 This is considered the core of Paul’s gospel. It is written without chapter and number so that the argument is easier to follow

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we* have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access*to this grace in which we stand; and we* boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.* For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification*leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments* of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments* of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.* For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do you not know, brothers and sisters*—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

 In the same way, my friends,* you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

 Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.* I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit* of life in Christ Jesus has set you* free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,* he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.* For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit* set their minds on the things of the Spirit.* To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit* is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,* since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit* is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through* his Spirit that dwells in you.

 So then, brothers and sisters,* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in* hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes* for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes* with sighs too deep for words. And God,* who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit* intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.*

 We know that all things work together for good* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.* And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.* Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;

   we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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.

Romans 9- 11
Paul’s gospel then creates a bit of a problem, what about the Jews? Why have the people of God rejected God? He seeks to answer that question as well as completely defeat the Jewish exceptionalism found in the Teacher’s teaching.

Paul:   I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy

Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people,* my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,* who is over all, God blessed for ever.* Amen.

It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’ Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ As it is written,

‘I have loved Jacob,

   but I have hated Esau.’

What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses,

‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

   and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’

So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 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.’

So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses. You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,

‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”,

                          and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’

‘And in the very place where it was said to them,

“You are not my people”,

                          there they shall be called children of the living God.’

Paul:   And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea,

 only a remnant of them will be saved;

for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’

And as Isaiah predicted,

‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors* to us,

                          we would have fared like Sodom

   and been made like Gomorrah.’

Teacher: What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained

it,

Paul:   that is, righteousness through faith;

Teacher: but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed

in fulfilling that law. 32Why not?

Paul: Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.

They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone, as it is written,

‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble,

a rock that will make them fall,

                                     and whoever believes in him* will not be put to shame.’

Brothers and sisters,* my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.  Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that

‘the person who does these things will live by them.’

But the righteousness that comes from faith says,

‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’

(that is, to bring Christ down) ‘or

“Who will descend into the abyss?” ’

(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

But what does it say?

‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’

(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

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. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says,

‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For,

‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Teacher: But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to

believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without    someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

Paul:   As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

Teacher: But not all have obeyed the good news!

Paul:  For [this reason] Isaiah says,

                        ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.*

Teacher 18 But I ask, have they not heard?

Paul:   Indeed they have; for

‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth,

and their words to the ends of the world.’

Teacher: Again I ask, did Israel not understand?

Paul:   First Moses says,

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

with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’

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.’

But of Israel he says,

‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’

Teacher: I ask, then, has God rejected his people?

Paul:   By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

‘Lord, they have killed your prophets,

 they have demolished your altars;

 I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’

But what is the divine reply to him?

‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’

So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Teacher:  What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.

Paul:   The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,

‘God gave them a sluggish spirit,

   eyes that would not see

   and ears that would not hear,

down to this very day.’

And David says,

‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,

   a stumbling-block and a retribution for them;

 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,

                          and keep their backs for ever bent.’

Teacher: 11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall?

Paul:   By no means! But through their stumbling* salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to

make Israel* jealous. Now if their stumbling* means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people* jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root* of the olive tree, do not vaunt yourselves over the branches. If you do vaunt yourselves, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness towards you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters,* I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written,

‘Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;  

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’

 ‘And this is my covenant with them,  

when I take away their sins.’

As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!  ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?   Or who has been his counsellor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

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