If God’s election were based on what we do, no one would raise a voice of protest or accuse God of being unfair. Our view of fairness stems from our belief that people should be judged according to their behavior, so Paul knew that people would struggle with the teaching that in the case of Jacob and Esau, their respective destinies were planned from the foundation of the world by God according to His sovereign counsel, without any respect to anything either one of them ever did or would do.
