⁶ “For ^(A)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(B)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(C)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(D)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

^37 (A)All that ^(B)the Father gives me will come to me, and ^(C)whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me ^(A)draws him. And ^(B)I will raise him up on the last day.

⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you ^(A)that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁹ I am praying for them. ^(A)I am not praying for the world but for those ^(B)whom you have given me, for ^(C)they are yours.

God's Sovereign Choice

9 ^(A)I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For ^(B)I could wish that I myself were ^(C)accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,^[a] my kinsmen ^(D)according to the flesh.

¹⁰ And not only so, but ^(A)also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, ¹¹ though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of ^(B)him who calls— ¹² she was told, ^(C)“The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written, ^(D)“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What shall we say then? ^(E)Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses, ^(F)“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it depends not on human will or exertion,^[a] but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ^(G)“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For ^(H)who can resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, O man, ^(I)to answer back to God? ^(J)Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ^21 (K)Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump ^(L)one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ²² What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience ^(M)vessels of wrath ^(N)prepared for destruction, ²³ in order to make known ^(O)the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he ^(P)has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ even us whom he ^(Q)has called, ^(R)not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As indeed he says in Hosea,

⁹ because, if ^(A)you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and ^(B)believe in your heart ^(C)that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.