The Potter and the Clay

"I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit" that he has great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart for his brothers, his relatives according to the flesh, who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises. Of them are the fathers, and from them is Christ as concerning the flesh, "who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen."

"But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing." Not all who descend from Abraham are counted his children; the children of the promise are counted as heirs. The promise was through Isaac. Before the twins of Rebekah were born, and before they had done anything good or bad, it was said that the elder would serve the younger, so that God's purpose would stand, not by works, but by him who calls.

Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! God said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." Paul uses the picture of a potter who has a right over the clay to make vessels from the same lump. God has shown patience, and makes known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

Paul points to Hosea, where God calls those who were not his people his people. Isaiah also says a remnant will be saved. Paul says some who did not seek righteousness attained the righteousness which is of faith, while some who pursued a law of righteousness did not arrive at it because they sought it by works and not by faith. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written. "No one who believes in him will be disappointed."