The Justice of God's Sovereign Choice

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So are we to say, “It is unjust for God to do this”? Heaven forbid!

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For to Moshe he says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will pity whom I pity.”

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Thus it doesn’t depend on human desires or efforts, but on God, who has mercy.

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For the Tanakh says to Pharaoh, “It is for this very reason that I raised you up, so that in connection with you I might demonstrate my power, so that my name might be known throughout the world.”

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So then, he has mercy on whom he wants, and he hardens whom he wants.

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But you will say to me, “Then why does he still find fault with us? After all, who resists his will?”

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Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me this way?”

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Or has the potter no right to make from a given lump of clay this pot for honorable use and that one for dishonorable?

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Now what if God, even though he was quite willing to demonstrate his anger and make known his power, patiently put up with people who deserved punishment and were ripe for destruction?

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What if he did this in order to make known the riches of his glory to those who are the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory —

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that is, to us, whom he called not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?

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