For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- BSB For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.
- NKJV For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- NASB for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- NLT For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God's gifts and calling are irrevocable; he does not retract his covenant purposes for Israel.
Overview
Paul states a foundational principle: what God graciously bestows and the calling by which he summons a people are 'irrevocable.' This guarantees that Israel's hardening cannot be the final word, since God's electing purpose stands firm. More broadly, it assures every believer that God's call in Christ is sure and will not be revoked.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Heb 7:21(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
- Mal 3:6For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
- Rom 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 11:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.