Romans chapter 9 verses 19 through 23, the potter and the clay. In the passage that follows, Paul enters into a long dialogue with his fictional Jewish opponent. This imagined debate primarily concerns Israel and the Gentiles, not individuals. Paul makes this clear in verse 24 and the verses that follow it. However, Augustine separated verses 19 through 23 from their larger context, and many modern commentators have followed suit.
Augustine also recast the opponent as a Christian who questions the doctrine of predestination, instead of a Jew who questions God's fairness. Verse 19," You will then say to me," Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"" No, O man, but who are you to answer back to God?" Why does He still find fault? Paul's fictional Jewish opponent persists in blaming God for the Jew's predicament. Addressing this opponent, Paul remarks," You will then say to me, why does he still find fault?
For who has resisted his will?" In other words, the opponent is saying," If the Jews have rejected Christ, it must be God's fault." After all, He is the sovereign of the universe. Who can resist His will?
Ambrosiaster writes," Here Paul takes on the role of the opponent who makes these assumptions." However, Paul's response to this impertinence is," No, O man, but who are you to answer back to God?" Chrysostom comments," Paul responds in this manner to take down the opponent's unseasonable inquisitiveness and excessive prying." He restrains the opponent's curiosity and teaches him to know who God is and how man contrasts with God. Paul explains that God's foreknowledge is incomprehensible and far above our reason.
Paul does not say it is impossible to answer questions of this kind, but that it is presumptuous to raise them. For our business is to obey what God says, not to question Him when we do not know the reason for His commands. Origen points out that when the Pharisees haughtily asked Jesus by what authority He was doing the things He did, Jesus refused to answer them. Matthew 21: 23.
Origen concludes, similarly in the present passage, we see the apostle comes against the one who asks impudent questions, verses 20 and 21. Will the thing formed say to him who formed it," Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay out of the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor." This passage was one of the favorite proof texts of the Gnostics. Later it became a favorite passage for Augustine, Luther, and Calvin.
Such men have tried to argue from this single passage that man has no free will and that God arbitrarily decides to make some humans wicked and others righteous. However, that is Gnostic doctrine. It is pagan thinking. It is not the gospel of Jesus. This kind of erroneous reading of Scripture comes from losing sight of the main point at which Paul is driving.
If Paul were saying that we are nothing but lumps of clay, that God molds into either vessels of honor or dishonor, what would have been the point of his writing Romans in the first place? There would be nothing his readers could do to change their situations. If God has arbitrarily fixed our eternal, unchangeable destinies before we were ever born, then why did Paul warn us? If you live after the flesh, you will die. We would have no choice whether we live after the flesh or not.
God would have already made that decision for us. When looking at how this passage can properly be applied to an individual, Origen points out that the key is found in Paul's second letter to Timothy. Here, Paul demonstrates that we ourselves play an essential role in determining whether we will end up as honorable or dishonorable vessels. Paul writes," Now in a large house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor and some for dishonor.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master's use, prepared for every good work." 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. So, with God's help, we can cleanse ourselves from dishonorable works and become a vessel for honor, sanctified and suitable for the Master's use.
Origen explains," He prepared these vessels for glory, not through any arbitrary or fortuitous grace, but because they had cleansed themselves from the aforementioned defilements." Chrysostom comments," Remember, God works nothing at random or haphazardly, even though we are ignorant of the secrets of His wisdom." Paul is not speaking about men's desires, nor about why some men are good and others are not. Otherwise, God Himself would be the sole cause of these things, and man would be free from all responsibility.
Furthermore, Paul would be guilty of contradicting himself, for he always bestows chief honor upon free will. Irenaeus writes," If it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason did the apostle have, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us commands to do some things and to abstain from others? It is because man possesses free will that admonition is continually given to him to hold fast to the good, which is done through obedience to God.
God has preserved the will of man free and under man's own control." This is not merely in works, but also in faith. Origen adds," The Scriptures emphasize the freedom of the will. They condemn those who sin, and they approve those who do right." We are responsible for our being good and for our being worthy to be called honorable vessels. Likewise, we are responsible for being bad and deserving to be cast outside. For it is not some inborn nature in us that is the cause of the evil.
Rather, it is the voluntary choice that works evil, verses 22 and 23. What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known endured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath made fit for destruction, and so that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, whom he had prepared beforehand for glory. Pharaoh was one of the vessels of wrath of whom Paul is speaking. God exercised a tremendous amount of long-suffering toward Pharaoh, allowing him time to repent.
However, instead of repenting, Pharaoh continued to break his promises and to oppress God's people. Thereby, Pharaoh made himself deserving of destruction. We should note that Paul does not say that it was God who made the vessels of wrath fit for destruction. Rather, he only says that God put up with them with much long-suffering. Chrysostom comments," Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath. That is, a man who, by his own hard-heartedness, had kindled the wrath of God.
For after receiving much long-suffering from God, he became no better. Rather, he remained unimproved. Accordingly, Paul calls him not only a vessel of wrath, but also one fit for destruction. That is, made ready indeed, but by his own very self. Chrysostom continues," If Pharaoh was not saved, it was the result of his own will. As to God's part, he did as much for Pharaoh as he did for those who were saved." In the end, since Pharaoh would not repent, God made an example of him to instruct other people.
Others saw the demonstration of God's power, and realized the folly of fighting against God. So, in the end, all still turns on our obedient response to God. For example, the ancient Israelites prepared themselves to become vessels of mercy by following Moses. As a result, they were delivered from the hand of Pharaoh. Yet most of those same Israelites never made it to the Promised Land, as they later proved to be unfaithful and disobedient.
So they themselves played the decisive role as to what kind of vessels they finally ended up being. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. The ancient sermon known as Second Clement admonishes us," As long as we are on earth, let us continue to practice repentance. For we are like clay in the hands of the potter. If the potter makes a vessel and it becomes distorted or broken in his hands, he fashions it over again. However, once he is casted into the furnace of fire, there is no longer any remedy for it.
Likewise, while we are still in this world, let us repent with our whole heart for any evil deeds we have done in the flesh, so that the Lord may save us while we can still repent. For after we have gone out of this world, no further power of confessing or repenting will belong to us. Therefore, brethren, we shall obtain eternal life by doing the will of the Father, keeping our flesh holy, and observing the commandments of the Lord. The vessels of mercy, whom he had prepared beforehand for glory.
When it comes to the future glory we will receive, God does most of the work. Nevertheless, as Paul told Timothy, the vessels of mercy have cleansed themselves from various defilements. God does not do everything for us. We have our role to play as well. Chrysostom comments," Paul does not mean that everything is God's doing, for if this were so, there would be nothing to hinder all men from being saved." 1 Timothy 2:4.
Rather, Paul is again asserting God's foreknowledge, and he is again erasing the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. Just as Pharaoh became a vessel of wrath by his own lawlessness, so believers likewise become vessels of mercy by their own readiness to obey. For although the greater part is from God, they have contributed their part as well. The scriptures tell us that God desires all men to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4.
So if everything was of God's doing and nothing of our own, then all men would be saved, since that is God's desire. However, God has no interest in populating heaven with automatons who believe and obey only because God has programmed them to do so. God has endowed humans with free will, so they can choose their own response to His love and mercy. Clement of Alexandria sums it up in this manner. To save the unwilling is the part of one exercising compulsion.
But to save the willing is the part of one showing grace, the potter in Jeremiah. Paul no doubt is basing his analogy of the potter and the clay on the passage in Jeremiah about the potter. Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1 through 12. Jeremiah writes," Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying,' House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter,' says the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 5 and 6.
If we read those verses by themselves, it might sound as if God deals with people and nations arbitrarily with their having no control over their own destinies. However, when we continue to read this passage in Jeremiah, we see that this is not the case. For God says," The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy it. If that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
At the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it. If they do that which is evil in my sight, and they do not obey my voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said I would benefit them. Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 7 through 10. So although God is the potter and we are the clay, how He deals with us turns largely upon our own conduct.
Even when He has pronounced judgment against a person or a nation, He will relent in His pronouncement if that person or nation repents. This was demonstrated by the city of Nineveh after Jonah preached to it. They repented, and God relented of the judgment he had pronounced against it. Concerning individuals, we have the example of King Manasseh, whom God punished for his wickedness. He was sent as a captive to Babylon.
However, when Manasseh repented, God permitted him to return to Jerusalem and even restored His kingdom to him.