(Rom 11:1 NIV) 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.
(Rom 11:2 NIV) 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:
(Rom 11:3 NIV) "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"?
(Rom 11:4 NIV) And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
(Rom 11:5 NIV) So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
(Rom 11:6 NIV) And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
(Rom 11:7 NIV) What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
(Rom 11:8 NIV) 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."
(Rom 11:9 NIV) And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
(Rom 11:10 NIV) May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."
(Rom 11:11 NIV) 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.
(Rom 11:12 NIV) But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
(Rom 11:13 NIV) I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry
(Rom 11:14 NIV) in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
(Rom 11:15 NIV) For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
(Rom 11:16 NIV) 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.
(Rom 11:17 NIV) If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
(Rom 11:18 NIV) do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
(Rom 11:19 NIV) You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."
(Rom 11:20 NIV) Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
(Rom 11:21 NIV) For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
(Rom 11:22 NIV) Consider 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.
(Rom 11:23 NIV) And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
(Rom 11:24 NIV) 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!
(Rom 11:25 NIV) 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.
(Rom 11:26 NIV) And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
(Rom 11:27 NIV) And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
(Rom 11:28 NIV) 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 the patriarchs,
(Rom 11:29 NIV) for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
(Rom 11:30 NIV) Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
(Rom 11:31 NIV) 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.
(Rom 11:32 NIV) For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
(Rom 11:33 NIV) Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
(Rom 11:34 NIV) "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
(Rom 11:35 NIV) "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
(Rom 11:36 NIV) For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
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