17. The Scripture says to the king of Egypt: “I made you king for this reason: to show my power in you so that my name will be talked about in all the earth.”
18. So God shows mercy where he wants to show mercy, and he makes stubborn the people he wants to make stubborn.
19. So one of you will ask me: “Then why does God blame us for our sins? Who can fight his will?”
20. You are only human, and human beings have no right to question God. An object should not ask the person who made it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21. The potter can make anything he wants to make. He can use the same clay to make one thing for special use and another thing for daily use.
22. It is the same way with God. He wanted to show his anger and to let people see his power. But he patiently stayed with those people he was angry with—people who were made ready to be destroyed.
23. He waited with patience so that he could make known his rich glory to the people who receive his mercy. He has prepared these people to have his glory,
24. and we are those people whom God called. He called us not from the Jews only but also from those who are not Jews.
25. As the Scripture says in Hosea:“I will say, ‘You are my people’to those I had called ‘not my people.’And I will show my loveto those people I did not love.”
26. “They were called,‘You are not my people,’but later they will be called‘children of the living God.’ ”
27. And Isaiah cries out about Israel:“The people of Israel are many,like the grains of sand by the sea.But only a few of them will be saved,
28. because the Lord will quickly and completely punish the people on the earth.”
29. It is as Isaiah said:“The Lord All-Powerfulallowed a few of our descendants to live.Otherwise we would have been completely destroyedlike the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
30. So what does all this mean? Those who are not Jews were not trying to make themselves right with God, but they were made right with God because of their faith.
31. The people of Israel tried to follow a law to make themselves right with God. But they did not succeed,