God

that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel:

And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”

I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.

For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either.

Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience,

For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.

O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God’s servants, who devote themselves to their work.

The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.