14. What should we say then? Is God unfair? Not at all!
15. He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will show love to those I love." (Exodus 33:19)
16. So it doesn't depend on what we want or do. It depends on God's mercy.
17. In Scripture, God says to Pharaoh, "I had a special reason for making you king. I decided to use you to show my power. I wanted my name to become known everywhere on earth." (Exodus 9:16)
18. So God does what he wants to do. He shows mercy to one person and makes another stubborn.
19. One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still blame us? Who can oppose what he wants to do?"
20. But you are a mere man. So who are you to talk back to God? Scripture says, "Can what is made say to the one who made it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " (Isaiah 29:16; 45:9)
21. Isn't the potter free to make different kinds of pots out of the same lump of clay? Some are for special purposes. Others are for ordinary use.
22. What if God chose to show his great anger? What if he chose to make his power known? That is why he put up with people he was angry with. They had been made to be destroyed.
23. What if he did that to show the riches of his glory to others? Those are the people he shows his mercy to. He had prepared them to receive his glory.