Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?” No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.” And Isaiah said the same thing in another place: “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.” What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
Romans 9:14-33 NLT
We don’t just choose God; God chooses us. In these verses, Paul is wrestling with the problem that few of his Jewish brothers and sisters had chosen Christ, while many Gentiles had come to faith. Yet he knew that the Lord is always just (v.14), and he could see the pattern in Scripture. The prophet Hosea foretold the time when the Gentiles would come to faith (vv.25-26), and Isaiah prophesied that the number of faithful Jews (in his day as well as Paul’s) was so small as to be called a “remnant.” This was the fulfillment of God’s promise, not a contradiction of it. Our Creator shows mercy for the salvation of His people and the glory of His name (v.23). The Jews in Paul’s day were “stumbling” over the message of Jesus because they refused to approach God by faith, like Abraham did; they tried to merit themselves by works of the law (vv.30-33). Paul had taken the previous eight chapters proving this had never been God’s way, and it does not work.
God wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He doesn’t just passively invite people to trust in Him; He is actively involved in our lives. God loves us and chooses us. This doesn’t mean that we have no responsibility; it means it is a relationship. For this relationship to work, God chooses us, and we accept and choose Him. He initiates, we respond. God will never reject us. What a powerful experience it is when we love the One who loves us, when we choose the One who has chosen us.
How do you deal with the fact that so many do not follow the way of the Lord? How is the Holy Spirit inviting you into a deeper relationship with God?
