Romans 9:14-18 New International Version 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[a] 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[b] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Thursday - June 3
Luther: “[God] seems by these words to be rebuffing those who are anxious and curious about the predestination (election/God’s choosing) of themselves or of others, as if to drive them away from thoughts and questions about predestination. …It is as if [God] were saying: “No one will know to whom I will be merciful and to whom I will be gracious, nor can anyone be certain about it because of his merits or his works or anything else.” (Many people believe that you must “prove” that you are saved by your works. This is a complete misunderstanding of 1 verse in the letter of James, but over and over again, Paul shows that God removed all of our “works” from the salvation equation so that we would depend completely on Jesus alone.)