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- What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
- For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."
- So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
- For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
- So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
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- What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!
- For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
- It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
- For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
- Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
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- You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
- On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
- Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
- What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
- And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
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- One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?"
- But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "
- Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
- What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction?
- What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--
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- even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
- As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED.'"
- "AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD."
- Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED;
- FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY."
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- even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
- As he says in 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,"
- and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "
- Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.
- For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality."
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- And just as Isaiah foretold, "UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH."
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- It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."
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