Romans 9-10

These chapters talked about how God saved the Gentiles and the Jews were unsaved. Paul quoted Hosea:

" I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;

and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one."

Before Jesus, ONLY the Israelites were God's people. Everybody else was cursed to his disfavor. But when Jesus took their sins, EVERYBODY could be his!!!! Imagine how happy God was. But the Israelites were having a hard time with this Jesus thing ("Crucify him!!!"). They were confused. They were proud of being God's only people. Forget those Gentiles, who do they think THEY are! They were sticklers about the Law. They WERE the only ones who had God's law anyway! Paul said, "What shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works... Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

Then later he tells us how we - anybody - can be saved: "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is LORD,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." That's it!!!!