A Stumbling Stone
Scripture Reading: Romans 9:19–33 (ESV)
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,
28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;
31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,
33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Paul anticipates objections to God’s sovereignty and addresses them directly. God, as the potter, has the right to shape the clay as He sees fit. His patience toward “vessels of wrath” serves to display the riches of His mercy toward “vessels of mercy.”
This section ends with a striking reversal: the Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have received it by faith, while Israel, pursuing righteousness through works, has stumbled over Christ—the very cornerstone of salvation.
The lesson is clear: righteousness comes through faith in Jesus, not by trying to earn it through our own effort. Those who believe in Him will never be put to shame.
Prayer Points:
Thank God for giving you righteousness through faith in Christ.
Pray for humility to accept His plan even when you do not fully understand it.
Ask God to remove any stumbling blocks in the way of those you are praying for.