18. So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
19. But one of you will say to me, “If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?”
20. But who are you, my friend, to answer God back? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21. After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.
22. And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction.
23. And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.
24. For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.
25. This is what he says in the book of Hosea:“The people who were not mineI will call ‘My People’.The nation that I did not loveI will call ‘My Beloved’.
26. And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’there they will be called the children of the living God.”
27. And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: “Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved;