¹⁷ So if God gave them the same gift^(A) he gave us^(B) who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water.^(A) They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”^(B)

²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(A) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(B) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[a](C) 21} Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(D)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(E) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^{(F) 23} What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(G) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(H)— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called,^(I) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^{(J) 25} As he says in Hosea:

²⁶ and,

¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^(B)

⁸ God, who knows the heart,^(A) showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them,^(B) just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them,^(C) for he purified their hearts by faith.^(D)

¹⁵ “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on^(A) them as he had come on us at the beginning.^(B)