Acts 9:6

¹⁰I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’

¹⁴The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. ¹⁶However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.

¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will reveal to you;

¹³He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying to him, ‘Send to Joppa and get Simon, who is called Peter, ¹⁴who will speak to you words by which you will be saved, you and all your house.’

¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,

³For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

²⁰Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”

¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel. ¹⁶For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

¹²So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹⁵For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”¹⁸So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”²¹Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²²What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?