Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, ¹  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” ²  says the Lord.

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹ 

And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.” ¹ 

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ¹  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ²  (I am speaking in human terms.) ³ 

But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand? ¹  First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.” ² 

But who indeed are you – a mere human being ¹  – to talk back to God? ²  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ³ 

And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.” ¹ 

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: ¹  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” ² 

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you ¹  a measure of faith. ² 

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³ 

You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor ¹  idols, do you rob temples?

But I ask, have they ¹  not heard? ²  Yes, they have: ³  Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. ⁴ 

So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised ¹  on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ² 

So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

¹ I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ²  in the Holy Spirit –

Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being ¹  shown up as a liar, ²  just as it is written: “so that you will be justified ³  in your words and will prevail when you are judged.” ⁴ 

I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, ¹  did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel ²  jealous.

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.