The Word Brings Salvation

¹Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation.

²For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁴For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.

⁵For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

⁶But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’(that is, to bring Christ down)

⁷or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:

⁹that 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.

¹⁰For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

¹¹It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,

¹³for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?

¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

¹⁷Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

¹⁸But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did:“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹I ask instead, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says:“I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation;I will make you angry by a nation without understanding.”

²⁰And Isaiah boldly says:“I was found by those who did not seek Me;I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”

²¹But as for Israel he says:“All day long I have held out My handsto a disobedient and obstinate people.”

Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham

¹Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

²And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’

⁴So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.

⁵He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.

⁶God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

⁷‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’

⁸Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Joseph Sold into Egypt

⁹Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

¹²When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.

¹³On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity tohis brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.

Israel Oppressed in Egypt

¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.

¹⁶Their bones were carried backto Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.

¹⁷As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.

¹⁸Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.

¹⁹He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.

The Birth and Adoption of Moses

²⁰At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God.For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.

²¹When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

The Rejection and Flight of Moses

²³When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him.

²⁵He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not.

²⁶The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

²⁷But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.

The Call of Moses

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:

³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

³⁵This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angelwho appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

³⁷This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’

³⁸He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

The Rebellion of Israel

³⁹But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offeringsforty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³You have taken along the tabernacle of Molechand the star of your god Rephan,the idols you made to worship.Therefore I will send you into exilebeyond Babylon.’

The Tabernacle of the Testimony

⁴⁴Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,

⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘Heaven is My throneand the earth is My footstool.What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord,or where will My place of repose be?

⁵⁰Has not My hand made all these things?’

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

⁵³you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged,and they gnashed their teeth at him.

⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

⁵⁶“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him.

⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

⁶⁰Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

A Remnant Chosen by Grace

¹I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

²God 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:

³“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”?

⁴And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

⁷What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,

⁸as 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.”

⁹And David says:“May their table become a snare and a trap,a stumbling block and a retribution to them.

¹⁰May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,and their backs be bent forever.”

The Ingrafting of the Gentiles

¹¹I 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.

¹²But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

¹³I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry

¹⁴in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them.

¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

¹⁶If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root,

¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”

²⁰That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.

²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly notspare you either.

²²Take 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.

²³And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

All Israel Will Be Saved

²⁵I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:“The Deliverer will come from Zion;He will remove godlessness from Jacob.

²⁷And this is My covenant with themwhen I take away their sins.”

²⁸Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs.

²⁹For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

³⁰Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience,

³¹so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.

³²For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.

A Hymn of Praise

³³O, the depth of the richesof the wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable are His judgments,and untraceable His ways!

³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord?Or who has been His counselor?”

³⁵“Who has first given to God,that God should repay him?”

³⁶For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

The Fool Says There Is No God

¹The foolsays in his heart,“There is no God.”They are corrupt; their acts are vile.There is no one who does good.

²The LORD looks down from heavenupon the sons of mento see if any understand,if any seek God.

³All have turned away,they have together become corrupt;there is no one who does good,not even one.

⁴Will the workers of iniquity never learn?They devour my people like bread;they refuse to call upon the LORD.

⁵There they are, overwhelmed with dread,for God is in the company of the righteous.

⁶You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed,yet the LORD is their shelter.

⁷Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!When the LORD restores His captive people,let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!