9:14 這樣，我們可說甚麼呢？難道上帝有甚麼不公平嗎？斷乎沒有！
9:15 因他對摩西說：我要憐憫誰就憐憫誰，要恩待誰就恩待誰。
9:16 據此看來，這不在乎那定意的，也不在乎那奔跑的，只在乎發憐憫的上帝。
9:17 因為經上有話向法老說：「我將你興起來，特要在你身上彰顯我的權能，並要使我的名傳遍天下。」
9:18 如此看來，上帝要憐憫誰就憐憫誰，要叫誰剛硬就叫誰剛硬。
9:19 這樣，你必對我說：「他為甚麼還指責人呢？有誰抗拒他的旨意呢？」
9:20 你這個人哪，你是誰，竟敢向上帝強嘴呢？受造之物豈能對造他的說：「你為甚麼這樣造我呢？」
9:21 窯匠難道沒有權柄從一團泥裡拿一塊做成貴重的器皿，又拿一塊做成卑賤的器皿嗎？
9:22 倘若上帝要顯明他的忿怒，彰顯他的權能，就多多忍耐寬容那可怒、預備遭毀滅的器皿，
9:23 又要將他豐盛的榮耀彰顯在那蒙憐憫、早預備得榮耀的器皿上。
9:24 這器皿就是我們被上帝所召的，不但是從猶太人中，也是從外邦人中。這有甚麼不可呢？
9:25 就像上帝在何西阿書上說：那本來不是我子民的，我要稱為「我的子民」；本來不是蒙愛的，我要稱為「蒙愛的」。
9:26 從前在甚麼地方對他們說：你們不是我的子民，將來就在那裡稱他們為「永生上帝的兒子」。
9:27 以賽亞指著以色列人喊著說：「以色列人雖多如海沙，得救的不過是剩下的餘數；
9:28 因為主要在世上施行他的話，叫他的話都成全，速速地完結。」
9:29 又如以賽亞先前說過：若不是萬軍之主給我們存留餘種，我們早已像所多瑪、蛾摩拉的樣子了。
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[f]
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[h] 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?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea:
“I
will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved
one,”[i]
26 and,
“In
the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living
God.’”[j]
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though
the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[k]
29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless
the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”
**************
相信反對「預定論」者讀了保羅這段文字之後，內心必定有許多掙扎，甚至會說：「上帝不是愛世人嗎？怎麼可以一些人得憐憫而被上帝拯救，而一些遭上帝憤怒而滅亡呢？上帝不應該是這樣！
如果你有這樣的想法，就是在代替上帝做上帝，代替上帝做決定，這是與上帝主權相衝突，是撒但的作為，下場就是滅亡！你不覺得不接受保羅所得的啟示而寫出的話語，就是在反抗上帝嗎？
也因為如此，我們不要做上面的想法與上帝的主權相爭，我們反倒要因保羅這樣說來感謝上帝，因為要不是上帝的憐憫我們怎會接受耶穌基督為救主？怎會成為上帝的兒女呢？這一切都是上帝的恩典，我們一定要為此感謝與讚美上帝，將榮耀歸給他都來不及，還與祂有甚麼相爭的呢？
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