God’s Wrath and Mercy

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”^{(A) 20} But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”^{(B) 21} Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?^{(C) 22} What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,^{(D) 23} and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles?