For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
- KJV For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
- BSB For God’s gifts and His call 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- NLT For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.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 they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’”
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Mal 3:6“For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
- Rom 8:28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.