using here. And then, in order to justify God, Paul refers back to Exodus 33, where God says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Rom. 9:15). God himself claims exactly the sovereignty that Paul has been asserting on his behalf. Is this doctrine of the sovereign mercy of God something that Paul is making up, or is it something that God has revealed all through the history of his people? “Well,” Paul says, “just look at your Bible, which,
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