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.
24. We are those people. He has chosen us. We do not come only from the Jewish race. Many of us are not Jews.