Romans 9:19-26
New International Version
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a] 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? 22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people: and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”[b]26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”[c
Friday - June 4
Luther: “The question is asked: Is the apostle saying these things with any logical connection to what he has said previously? The answer is that he is speaking in a very orderly way, for he has said previously that all things take place according to God’s election (choice/predestination). …It is solely because of a merciful God that anyone is chosen or is righteous, inasmuch as all men are equally a part of the mass of perdition and no one is righteous before God unless he receives mercy. Everything depends on a merciful God and not on someone’s (free) will (or choice).”