Well then, are we Jews in any better condition than the Gentiles? Not at all! I have already shown that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.

What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means!

Do I imply, then, that an idol or the food offered to it really amounts to anything?

It does not matter! I am happy about it---just so Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy,

while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me.

"Do your best to go in through the narrow door; because many people will surely try to go in but will not be able.

Afterward, you know, he wanted to receive his father's blessing; but he was turned back, because he could not find any way to change what he had done, even though in tears he looked for it.

It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.

Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love

We must thank God at all times for you, friends, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth.

God called you to this through the Good News we preached to you; he called you to possess your share of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure.

Then he said to me, "Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed."

Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth.

So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them: 'This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see,

because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.'

"God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them."

Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.

They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved.

The result is that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in sin, will be condemned.

So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.