for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,
having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:
But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened: