God’s Sovereign Choice to Show Mercy

14 What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there?* May it never be! 15 For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”i 16 Consequently therefore, ⌊it does not depend on the⌋j one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”k 18 Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.

19 Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? For who has resistedl his will? 20 On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this”?m 21 Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for ⌊honorable use⌋n and one that is for ⌊ordinary use⌋o? 22 And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And he did so* in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory, 24 us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he also says in Hosea,

“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’

and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’p

26 And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”q

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

“Even if the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea,

the remnant will be saved,

28 ⌊for the Lord will execute his sentence thoroughly and decisively⌋r upon the earth.”s

29 And just as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom

and would have resembled Gomorrah.”t

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—even the righteousness that is by faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. 32 Why that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if by works. They stumbled over the ⌊stone that causes people to stumble⌋u, 33 just as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion ⌊a stone that causes people to stumble⌋v,

and ⌊a rock that causes them to fall⌋w,

and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”x

The Righteousness of God through Faith in Christ

10 Brothers, the desire of my heart and my prayer to God on behalf of them is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For ignoring the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own,a they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: “The person who does thisb will live by it.”c d 6 But the righteousness from faith speaks like this: “Do not say in your heart,e ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ”f (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or “Who will descend into the abyss?”g (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart”h (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim), 9 thati if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”j 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who is rich to all who call upon him. 13 For “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”k