18. So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.
19. You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will? ”
20. But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this? ”
21. Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
22. And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction?
23. And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory —
24. on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
25. As He also says in Hosea:I will call Not My People, My People,and she who is Unloved, Beloved.
26. And it will be in the place where they were told,you are not My people,there they will be called sons of the living God.
27. But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:Though the number of Israel’s sonsis like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved;
28. for the Lord will execute His sentencecompletely and decisively on the earth.
29. And just as Isaiah predicted:If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom,and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
30. What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness — namely the righteousness that comes from faith.