Romans 9

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¹I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, ✦ ²that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. ✦ ³For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my countrymen, my kinsmen according to the flesh, ✦ ⁴who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the temple service, and the promises; ✦ ⁵whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. ✦ ⁶But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; ✦ ⁷nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” ✦ ⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. ✦ ⁹For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” ✦ ¹⁰And not only that, but there was also Rebekah, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; ✦ ¹¹for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, ✦ ¹²it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” ✦ ¹³Just as it is written: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” ✦ ¹⁴What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? Far from it! ✦ ¹⁵For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I show compassion.” ✦ ¹⁶So then, it does not depend on the person who wants it nor the one who runs, but on God who has mercy. ✦ ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I raised you up, in order to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the earth.” ✦ ¹⁸So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. ✦ ¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” ✦ ²⁰On the contrary, who are you, you foolish person, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? ✦ ²¹Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object for honorable use, and another for common use? ✦ ²²What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with great patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? ✦ ²³And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon objects of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, ✦ ²⁴namely us, whom He also called, not only from among Jews, but also from among Gentiles, ✦ ²⁵as He also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ” ✦ ²⁶“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” ✦ ²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel may be like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; ✦ ²⁸for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” ✦ ²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold: “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, We would have become like Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah.” ✦ ³⁰What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is by faith; ✦ ³¹however, Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. ✦ ³²Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though they could by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ✦ ³³just as it is written: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And the one who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Rom 9 ·13 Rom 11 ·12 Gal 3 ·11 Rom 4 ·10 Eph 2 ·10 Rom 3 ·9 Rom 10 ·9 Rom 1 ·7

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 9 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
VideoMike Winger — BibleThinkerMike Winger · Free · reformed
Free verse-by-verse studies through whole books plus careful apologetics — "learn to think biblically about everything." (Reformed-leaning, non-denominational.)

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Romans 9YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Romans 9David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Romans 9Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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