Potter and clay explained simply. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? 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, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory. “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” The Calvinist stresses that God makes the clay into whatever He wishes, some vessels of honor and some of dishonor. While this is true, their error is in assuming that the clay has no choice as to which he will be. If we look up the Potter and the clay in the Old Testament to see what passage Paul is referring to, we wind up in Jeremiah 18, where God tells Jeremiah to watch and learn from the potter at the wheel. There we see that when the clay becomes “marred” in God’s hand, He reserves the right to start over so that He can still bring glory to Himself despite the rebellion of the clay. In other words, He has every right to be glorified by our lives, and will be glorified by our lives, whether by our obedience or by our rebellion. He also declares that if a nation or kingdom (the clay) repents, then He also will repent of the evil He is planning to bring on that nation or kingdom. God clearly teaches through Jeremiah 18 that the “clay” has a choice! (Don’t take my word for it; read it for yourself!) Further, there is another passage of Scripture that affirms that we have a choice in whether we will be a vessel of honor or dishonor in the Lord’s hand: But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Tim. 2:20-21) If a man “purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor”! He has a choice! If he does not purge himself from the deeds of dishonor, God will use him as a vessel of dishonor, just as He used Pharaoh’s rebellion to make a name for Himself in the earth. Now, we must relate the Potter and the clay back to Paul’s original topic.– If the physical nation of Israel had become “marred” in God’s hands though unbelief and disobedience, did not the Potter have the right to pour out on them a spirit of deep sleep (Isa. 29:10), and use even their unbelief for His glory? As it is written in Rom. 11:11, “through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Does this mean that ALL national Israelites are automatically elected to damnation? Paul answers, “Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” (Rom. 11:1) Paul goes on to say that he hopes to “save some of them [his Jewish countrymen]” (Rom. 11:14), and that they can still be saved “if they do not continue in unbelief ” (Rom. 11:23). Much is often made of the phrase “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” in vs. 22. Again, the Calvinist wrongly assumes that vessels of wrath have no choice in how they are being prepared. If a man submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, he will receive mercy. If he “purges himself from these,” he too can be “prepared unto every good work,” according to the promise in 2 Tim. 2:20-21. If he does not, he is being prepared for destruction even now– He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 17:10:49 +0000
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