29. It is as Isaiah said:“The Lord of heaven’s armiesallowed a few of our descendants to live.Otherwise we would have been completely destroyedlike the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:9
30. So what does all this mean? It means this: the non-Jews were not trying to make themselves right with God. But they were made right with God because of their faith.
31. And the people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed,
32. 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 causes people to fall.
33. As it is written in the Scripture:“I will put in Jerusalem a stone that causes people to stumble.It is a rock that makes them fall.Anyone who trusts in him will not be disappointed.” Isaiah 8:14; 28:16