LISTEN NOW
Tune in and listen to us live online
You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’
But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;
and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory
including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call "my people", and her who was not beloved I will call "beloved". ’
‘And in the very place where it was said to them, "You are not my people", there they shall be called children of the living God.’
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;
for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’
And as Isaiah predicted, ‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.’
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’
Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.
Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ And they argued with one another, ‘If we say, "From heaven", he will say to us, "Why then did you not believe him?"
But if we say, "Of human origin", we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’
So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.