Romans 9:14-33 - God's Sovereign Choice To Show Mercy

¹⁴ What do we conclude? That God is guilty of injustice? By no means. ¹⁵ He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on the man on whom I choose to have mercy, and take pity on the man on whom I choose to take pity."

¹⁶ So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God. ¹⁷ The Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you to your position for the very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, and making my name known all over the world."

¹⁸ So he has mercy on anyone he pleases, and hardens the heart of anyone he pleases.

¹⁹ "Why, then," you will ask, "does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" ²⁰ On the contrary, who are you, my friend, to answer back to God? Can something a man shapes say to the man who shaped it, "Why did you make me like this?" ²¹ Has not the potter with his clay the right to make from the same lump one thing for exalted uses and another for menial ones? ²² Then what if God, though he wanted to display his anger and show his power, has shown great patience toward the objects of his anger, already ripe for destruction, ²³ so as to show all the wealth of his glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he has prepared from the beginning to share his glory, ²⁴ including us whom he has called not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen? ²⁵ Just as he says in Hosea, "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

²⁶ And in the very place where they were told, 'You are no people of mine,' They shall be called sons of the living God."

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out about Israel, "Although the sons of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, ²⁸ for the Lord will execute his sentence rigorously and swiftly on the earth."

²⁹ As Isaiah foretold, "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us children, We would have been like Sodom, and have resembled Gomorrah!"

³⁰ Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith; ³¹ while Israel, straining after a law that should bring uprightness, did not come up to it. ³² And why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through doing certain things. They stumbled over that stone that makes people stumble, ³³ as the Scripture says, "See, I will put a stone on Zion to make people stumble, and a rock to trip over, But no one who has faith in it will be disappointed."