Romans 9:14-18
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
God chooses the ones He shows grace to. Moses asked, “Please, show me Your glory.” God replied that He chose the ones He shows Himself to, and He alone sets the terms. He is right and just to do so, for we all come short of His righteousness, and deserve only judgment anyway. It is His right, therefore, to choose to show mercy or harden the sinful further. It is not up to our desire or effort, but His will alone. So those as Pharaoh were brought up with a heart chosen by God to be hardened to show God’s power and deliverance for His glory, and not according to our sense of fairness. He chooses the whosoever who will believe in His love to not perish as we ought, but be delivered to life forever with Him. This is a hard saying, but true.
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