Romans 9:19
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”
1. God’s actions are consistent with His Rights.
Romans 9:20-21
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Isaiah 29:16
Surely you have turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Isaiah 45:9
“Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making? Or shall your handiwork Say, ‘He had no hands?
2. God’s actions are consistent with His Reputation.
Romans 9:22-23
What if God wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and the He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Luke 22:22
And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but who to that man by whom He is betrayed!”
3. God’s actions are consistent with His Revelation.
Romans 9:24-29
…even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentile? As he says in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who not beloved.” And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been like Gomorrah.
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Hosea and the Gentiles
1 Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light; “who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
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Isaiah and the Jewish Remnant
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God’s actions are consistent with His Redemptive plan
Romans 9:30-33
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.
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God’s plan provided righteousness for Gentiles who weren’t looking for it
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God’s plan prohibited righteousness from Jews who were looking for it
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God’s plan produced righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ
1 Corinthians 1:23
…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness…