23. He waited with patience so that he could make known the riches of his glory to the people he has chosen to receive his mercy. God has already prepared them to share his glory.
24. We are those people, the ones God chose not only from the Jews but also from those who are not Jews.
25. As the Scriptures say in the book of Hosea, “The people who are not mine— I will say they are my people. And the people I did not love— I will say they are the people I love.” Hosea 2:23
26. And, “Where God said in the past, ‘You are not my people’— there they will be called children of the living God.” Hosea 1:10
27. And Isaiah cries out about Israel: “There are so many people of Israel, they are like the grains of sand by the sea. But only a few of them will be saved.
28. Yes, the Lord will quickly finish judging the people on the earth.” Isaiah 10:22-23
29. It is just as Isaiah said: “The Lord All-Powerful allowed some of our people to live. If he had not done that, we would now be like Sodom, and we would be like Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:9
30. So what does all this mean? It means that people who are not Jews were made right with God because of their faith, even though they were not trying to make themselves right.
31. And the people of Israel, who tried to make themselves right with God by following the law, did not succeed.
32. They failed because they tried to make themselves right by the things they did. They did not trust in God to make them right. They fell over the stone that makes people fall.