ROM.

10: 9.

HEARING AND BELIEVING.

169

And this word is, that if you shall confess with

your mouth

That Jesus is Jehovah,

And shall believe with all your heart,

That God raised him from the dead,

You will be saved.

For with the heart such a belief is exercised

As leads to goodness,

And with the mouth such a confession is made

As leads to salvation.

For the Scripture says:

No one who believes in him
Shall be put to shame.

For there is no difference

Between Jew and Greek,

For the same Lord is Lord of all,

And rich towards all who call on him.

For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.

How, then, are they to call on him
In whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him
Whom they have not heard?

And how are they to hear,

Without some one to bring the news?

And how is he to bring it,

10: 15.

If he has not been sent?

Just as it is written :

How pleasant is the coming of those

Who bring good news!

But they did not all listen to the good news.

For Isaiah says:

Lord, who has believed our report?

So faith comes from hearing,

And hearing by means of the message of Christ. But I say, did they not hear at all?

Most surely they did.

Their voice went out into all the earth,

And their words to the ends of the world.

But I say, did not Israel know at all?
First Moses says:

I will move you to jealousy at that

Which is not a nation

At a nation without understanding
Will I rouse you to wrath.

And Isaiah is very bold,

And says:

I was found by those

Who were not seeking me.

I became known to those

Who were not asking for me.

But regarding Israel he says:

All day long have I been stretching out my hands
To a disobedient and contradictory people.

ROM.

THE FALL.

171

11: 1.

I say, then, surely God has not rejected his

people?

By no means.

For I myself also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. No. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or, do you not know what the Scripture says in the narrative of Elijah's life where he is pleading with God against Israel:

Jehovah, they have killed thy prophets,
They have digged down thine altars,
And I myself am left alone,

And they are seeking my life.

But what is the divine response to him?
I have left for myself seven thousand men

Who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

In the same way, then, now, also, in our time, there are a chosen few selected in accord with the provisions of God's favor and if it has been done in accord with the provisions of God's favor, it was in no way done because of what they had done. For, then, the favor would no longer be favor.

What, then?

What Israel is earnestly seeking for, he has not obtained. But the chosen few have obtained it, and the rest became callous, just as it is written : God has given them a stupid spirit,

Eyes so that they cannot see,

And ears so that they cannot hear, To this very day.

And David says:

Let their table become a snare, and a trap,

And bring on them failure and retribution.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see.
And bow down their backs forever.

11: 9.

say then, surely this failure was not so that they might fall?

By no means. On the contrary, by their lapse salvation has come to the heathen, so that they may provoke them to emulation. Now if their lapse is a priceless advantage to the world, and their reduction in numbers a priceless advantage to the heathen, how much more priceless will be the advantage resulting from their full and complete restoration.

But to you who are heathen, am I speaking. So since I am the apostle of the heathen, I am making a great deal of my office, if only I may thus incite to emulation my own countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection has led to the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance lead to, but life from the dead?

Now if the first of the dough is holy so is the whole mass, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Now, if some of the branches were broken off and you, a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and have come to share with them in the root of the fat olive tree, do not boast over the branches.

If

ROM.

11: 18.

THE GRAFTING.

173

you do, it is not you who are bearing the root, but

the root you.

You will say, then : The branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.

Well, it was because of their unbelief they were broken off, and you are standing because of your faith. Do not be haughty. On the contrary, be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

See then, the gentleness
And the severity of God.

His severity to such as have fallen

But towards you, gentleness, if you continue

in it.

Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of what is naturally a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

For I do not desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this secret truth, so that you may not be wise in your own conceits, that a partial callousness has fallen on Israel till the full number of the heathen is made up, and in this way the whole of Israel will be saved. Just as it is written :