Romans 9:22-30

22What does that teach us about God? Some people are like pots that are ready for God to destroy. God is angry with people like that. He is ready to show his power against them. But he has chosen to wait patiently. He keeps his anger for later.

23Other people are like valuable pots that God has chosen to make. God wants to be kind to people like that. He wants to use them to show people how great he is. He has prepared them to be with him for a special party in heaven.

24We are those people! God has chosen us to be his people. It is not only Jews that he has chosen. He has also chosen Gentiles.

25God says this in the book of Hosea: ‘I will say to people who were not my people, “Now you are my people.” I will say to people that I did not love, “I love you.” ’

26‘God had said to them, “You are not my people.” In the same place where he said that, people will now call them “Children of God, who lives for ever.” ’

27Also, Isaiah, God's prophet, said this about Israel's people: ‘There are so many of Israel's people, nobody can count them. They are as many as the bits of sand on the shore of the sea. But God will save only a few of them.

28The Lord God will finish his work quickly. He has warned his people what he will do. And he will punish them completely.’

29Isaiah had already said this: ‘The Lord of great power has let some of our children live. If he had not done that, no descendants would remain. We would have become like the people in Sodom and Gomorrah.’

30So, we must think about what all this means. The Gentiles were not trying to become right with God. But some of them have now become right with him. God has accepted them as right, because they have believed in Jesus Christ.