Bible: Romans 9:16-33

9:16 So then, 1  it does not depend on human desire or exertion, 2  but on God who shows mercy. 9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: 3  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 4  9:18 So then, 5  God 6  has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 7 

9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being 8  – to talk back to God? 9  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 10  9:21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay 11  one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 12  9:22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects 13  of wrath 14  prepared for destruction? 15  9:23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects 16  of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – 9:24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 9:25 As he also says in Hosea:

“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, 17  ‘My beloved.’” 18 

9:26 “And in the very place 19  where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 20 

9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children 21  of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” 22  9:29 Just 23  as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of armies 24  had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” 25 

Israel’s Rejection Culpable

9:30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 9:31 but Israel even though pursuing 26  a law of righteousness 27  did not attain it. 28  9:32 Why not? Because they pursued 29  it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. 30  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 31  9:33 just as it is written,

“Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble

and a rock that will make them fall, 32 

yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 33 

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