Romans 9: 17-2417 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” 18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.The Good Race YoutubeFacebookRomans 9 is a hard passage to understand.When we were kids we would debate aspects of the christian faith.God has always been able to choose his people.God Chose the Jews to be his people.Now God has chosen everyone, not just the Jews.It's not our place to question God on why he chose the Jews at first, nor why he eventually included the gentiles.God Chose to harden Pharaoh's heart.Dave asks, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”But paul says we should not ask this.Sometimes people get caught up with the content of an analogy and not the purpose of the analogy.The potter and clay analogy serves the purpose to show why we don't get to question God's judgement.Often times people read the potter and clay analogy to mean that God predestined modern day believers to be saved from their sins and that God predestined modern day non-believers for destruction.We suspect that this is an incorrect reading. Paul is saying that we don't get to question God. We suspect that Paul wants to convey to the Jews of the time, that God has the sole authority to choose whom he pleases, AND now God has chosen everyone, not just the Jews.The parts of calvinism seem to be good. Calvinism has a whole does not seem to be exclusively biblical.John Ephesians Dave prayed to God that he surrendered to God. He felt God rush into him.Dave felt like he needed make a decision to surrender. When you read Romans 9 everyone, especially believers can relate to sinning against God. If you can lose your salvation, you probably have, because you weren't good enough to be righteous in the first place, and you wouldn't be good enough to keep it in the second place.Foundational Ideas about God.God's in controlGod is JustGod is loving God did not create  you for destruction.He loves you and is trying to woo you to him.God put Job through a terrible trial to show satan how blameless Job was. Even then, Job had no right to question God.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thegoodraceshow/message