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I ask then:
Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself,
a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
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God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.
Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah -
how he appealed to God against Israel:
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"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars;
I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"?
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And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand
who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
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so too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
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And if by grace, then it is no longer by works;
if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
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What then? What Israel sought earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did.
The others were hardened,
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as it is written:
"God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see
and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day."
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And David says:
"May their table become a snare and a trap.a stumbling block
and a retribution fo them.
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May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."
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Again I ask:
Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather because of
their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
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But if their transgressio means riches for the world,
and their loss means riches for the Gentiles,
how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
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I am talking to you Gentiles. In asmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I make much of my ministry
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in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save
some of them.
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For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
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If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy,
then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
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If some of the branches have been broken off, and you,
though a wild olive shoot, have been graftred in among the others
and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.
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do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this:
You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
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You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."
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Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith.
Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
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For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
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onsider therefore the kindness and sternness of God:
sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue
in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
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And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be granted in,
for God is able to graft them in again.
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After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature,
and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more readily will these, the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree!
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I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers,
so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part
until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
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And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away fro Jacob.
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And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
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As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account;
but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of patriarchs,
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for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
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Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God
have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
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so they too have now become disobedient in order that
they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.
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For God has bound all men over to disobedience
so that he may have mercy on them all.
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Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchble his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
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"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
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"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
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For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
