Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?
Paul has just answered the objector who asks why God still finds fault. Now he takes a picture from the workshop — a potter, one lump of clay, two very different vessels — and it raises the sharpest question in the chapter: does God make people for ruin?
One writer states the objection behind the verse, and shows where Paul's answer starts.
Man complains about God's righteousness when it touches him. He dislikes just as much the grace that justifies others freely and absolutely. This is what the question comes down to: is God to judge man, or is man to judge God? The apostle's answer has three parts. First, he maintains in all its strength the right of the sovereign God — the authority He has to do just as He will with His creatures.
One writer weighs how far this bold language goes, and how seldom people think God has rights at all.
The language is holy and bold, yet it never leans to one side or the other... The apostle does not say that God has used the right which He clearly has; but God's title stays whole... How seldom do those who talk about rights seem to think that God has any! They are taken up with themselves, with man: God is in none of their thoughts. Yet if any rights deserve respect, surely His come first — His sovereign will gave us our being and everything we have.
Much confusion comes from reading the verse as a report of what God has already done. One writer points to the form of the words.
Notice, it is not a statement, but a question — "Has the potter no right over the clay?" and so on. Is God not sovereign? It does not say that He has made some for dishonour.
Another writer draws the same line between what the picture proves and what it does not.
While the illustration of the potter asserts in the strongest way God's absolute right to do as He pleases, it does not teach that God has made any vessel to dishonour. The illustration simply asserts and maintains God's prerogatives.
Both vessels come out of the same lump. So the clay itself cannot explain why they differ.
Nothing can surpass the power and grandeur of the words of Romans 9. They lay all human pride low. They show how completely man depends for blessing on God's sovereign mercy. The illustration of the potter makes plain that everything depends on sovereign power. Out of the very same lump that supplies vessels to dishonour, He chooses to produce vessels to honour.
One writer traces the picture back to the prophet Jeremiah, and applies it to individuals.
In Jeremiah 18 we see God's ways with the nations. In Romans 9 we learn something of His ways with individuals. Every individual, like every nation, is a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter. We have all become marred by sin, and by taking our own evil way. Some, like Israel, will not listen to the word of God through His servants, the word of mercy proclaimed in the gospel. God has the power to make these marred vessels into vessels of wrath. Others, like the people of Nineveh, listen to God's message and turn from their evil ways to Him, and God makes them vessels of mercy.
The next verses show God exercising this authority — and the wording is not symmetrical.
Further on in chapter 9 we read of the potter's power over the clay to make vessels to honour and to dishonour. It speaks of God's patience with vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction. But it never says God fitted them for destruction. It says only that He endured them with much patience. Yet in the next verse, where it speaks of vessels of mercy, it says plainly that God prepared them beforehand for glory.
If God did not fit them for destruction, who did? One writer answers.
The vessels of wrath fitted themselves for wrath, by their own sins. But God prepared the vessels of mercy, for in truth no man prepares himself for glory. Grace alone does His work for those He has chosen.
The same image appears again in Paul's second letter to Timothy. There it serves a different purpose.
In Romans 9:21 Paul asked whether the potter has power over the clay. In 2 Timothy 2:20-21 we have the other side of the matter. There Paul sets out not the sovereignty of God, but the responsibility of the Christian.
- Right — the verse upholds God's title to do as He wills with His creatures. Is God to judge man, or man to judge God?
- Question — Paul asks; he does not assert. Scripture never says God made anyone for dishonour. The picture guards God's right and stops there.
- Lump — both vessels come from one mass, so the clay explains nothing. All of it is marred; only sovereign mercy makes a vessel of honour.
- Asymmetry — sin fits the vessels of wrath for destruction; God Himself prepares the vessels of mercy for glory.
- Response — sovereignty here, responsibility in 2 Timothy 2. Those who refuse the word of mercy become vessels of wrath; those who listen become vessels of mercy.
And if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction;
Paul has silenced the objector with the potter's right over the clay. Now he turns from what God may do to what He has actually done — and everything turns on who did the "fitting."
Verse 22 is the second of three steps in Paul's reply to the objector. One writer sets out all three:
In the entire answer there are three propositions. First, the apostle maintains, in all its strength, the right of the sovereign God — the authority He has to do just as He will with His creatures. Does the potter not have power over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honour and another for dishonour? Next, he comes to the facts. He shows us that God, even when He meant to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction — vessels which He did not fit, but had long endured. Thirdly, there is the revelation that He had prepared vessels of mercy beforehand for glory.
God's stated aim is to show His wrath and make His power known. The way He goes about it answers anyone who thinks Him hasty or harsh. (Where the ESV says "much patience" and "prepared for destruction," the older wording used below is "much longsuffering" and "fitted for destruction.")
God's purpose was to display His wrath in this evil world and to make known His power where men easily and willingly forget Him. But the way He chose was admirable and worthy of His nature. There was nothing arbitrary about it, but "much long-suffering."… Could man then fairly charge God with having no compassion for him, or with being quick to mark his sins? It is impossible for a holy God to share in evil or be indifferent to it! But He does not quickly blot these rebellious creatures out of this life, though they make the world a field of constant war against what they know of God. Instead, the whole history of the world since nations began is the fullest proof that God endures.
One writer shows where that power appears, and names a nation God waited on:
He made His power known, not by fitting the vessels of wrath for destruction, but by enduring them with much longsuffering.… God endured the Amorites of old with much longsuffering until their sins came to the "full" and they had fitted themselves for destruction. Then the judgment fell (Gen. 15:16).
The verse calls them vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. It never says who fitted them. Set beside the next verse, that silence is deliberate.
The vessels of wrath are said to be "fitted for destruction." But it is neither said nor implied here, or anywhere else, that God fitted them for it. They were fitted by their sins, and most of all by their unbelief and rebelliousness against God. But when we hear of the faithful, the wording is completely different: "vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory." The evil is man's, never God's. The good is His and not our own.
The Greek word behind "fitted" points the same way:
The word katartizo (Rom. 9:22) means to correct, repair, mend; then in its participial form, fitted, prepared. The word does not suppose a decree of God, but a work of man.
The same care shows up elsewhere, so it is no accident. One writer sets Romans 9 beside the judgment scene of Matthew 25, and rules out reprobation — the idea that God appoints some people to ruin:
Look at Matthew 25:34. Here the King says to those on His right hand, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Now contrast the words to those on His left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed." He does not say "of my Father." Then comes "into the eternal fire prepared" — not for you, but — "for the devil and his angels." Romans 9 speaks the same way… The grand truth of election is fully established. The repulsive error of reprobation is carefully avoided.
Paul is not satisfying curiosity about the lost. He is breaking the claim that blessing belongs to anyone by birth:
Once you allow that all blessing rests on the sovereignty of God, the Gentile must come into the blessing as well as the Jew.
- Endured, not engineered. God shows His power here not by fitting anyone for ruin, but by holding back. The verse names His way: "much patience."
- Endured how long. God bore with the Amorites until their sin was full (Genesis 15:16). The waiting has a limit, and then judgment falls.
- Endured, self-fitted. Vessels of wrath are "fitted" by their own sins; vessels of mercy God "prepared beforehand." The evil is man's; the good is His.
- Endured, never doomed. In Matthew 25 the fire is prepared for the devil and his angels — not for those on the King's left. Scripture holds election firmly and never turns it into a decree of ruin.
- Endured, so the door is open. If blessing rests wholly on God's mercy, no one holds it by birth. The Gentile comes in with the Jew.
and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory,
Just before this, Paul spoke of vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. Here the sentence turns to a second group — vessels of mercy — and to what God means to show through them.
Paul's wording changes between verse 22 and verse 23. One group is fitted for destruction. God prepared the other beforehand for glory.
There is a difference here, small but very real, and no reader should overlook it. Of the vessels of wrath it says "fitted for destruction." But it is neither said nor implied here, or anywhere else, that God fitted them for it. Their own sins fitted them, and most of all their unbelief and rebellion against God. When we hear of the faithful, the wording is quite different: "vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory." The evil is man's, and in no case is it from God. The good is His and not our own.
Another writer finds the same care in the words of Jesus. It rules out reprobation — the idea that God made some people on purpose for ruin.
It is striking to see how Scripture guards against the repulsive doctrine of reprobation. Look, for example, at Matthew 25:34. There the King says to those on His right hand, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Contrast with this the address to those on His left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed" — He does not say "of my Father" — "into the eternal fire prepared" — not for you, but — "for the devil and his angels." So also in Romans 9. The grand truth of election is fully established; the repulsive error of reprobation is carefully avoided.
The name Paul gives believers points to what they received, not to anything in them.
He picks up and fashions vessels of mercy, in which He will display His riches of glory. Vessels of mercy! Poor, wretched sinners, who could do nothing but own their guilt and shame, and be debtors to mercy alone. Oh, to think that He prepares such — by His grace — for glory!
The verse speaks of the riches of God's glory, not simply His glory.
In connection with His redeemed saints, called "vessels of mercy," God will make known "the riches of His glory." This is not simply a single attribute of God. It is a term so broad and full that time and space would not allow us to list such riches. In these riches the vessels of mercy receive an eternal inheritance, and its wonder and joy will never fade. What comfort and peace it brings our souls to know His supreme majesty at work in counsels so glorious — counsels in which we, poor redeemed sinners, have such a part.
When did this preparing happen?
Not the saints, but God prepared the vessels of mercy for glory. More exactly, He prepared them beforehand with glory in view. It was not their own preparing while on earth, with God's part starting only when the glory arrives. It was His doing. No one doubts that by grace they became obedient and holy, and so morally like Him. But the Holy Spirit saw fit to speak here only of God's preparing of the vessels of mercy beforehand for glory.
God is also at work now, shaping what will be shown later.
God's own power forms and fits these vessels for His presence, and makes them fit to be the companions of His own dear Son. Even now, as they pass through this world, the saints of God carry a wonderful heavenly treasure in their earthen vessels... but soon what God has worked within them will be enshrined in a "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." ... Among the ruins of the old creation God is working in new creation. He is forming and shaping the vessels that will display His glory and the surpassing riches of His grace in the ages to come.
This mercy is not kept for one nation.
From the moment God falls back on His own sovereignty the ground is as open for a Gentile as for a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. If He is sovereign, then it is only natural that His sovereignty should show itself where it would stand out most. The call of the Gentiles gives that occasion. If they were the worst — and they certainly were utterly degraded — then for that very reason they were the fittest objects for God to show His sovereign grace upon.
- Mercy, not merit. God names believers vessels of mercy — poor sinners who could only own their guilt and be debtors to mercy alone.
- Mercy prepares. The ruin is man's own doing. The preparing for glory is God's, done beforehand, and it was His doing alone.
- Mercy displays riches. God shows on these vessels not one attribute but the riches of His glory — an eternal inheritance whose joy never fades.
- Mercy reaches furthest. Because God acts as sovereign, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew. His grace shows brightest where the need was worst.
- Mercy ends in glory. God is shaping these earthen vessels now. Soon His work in them will be enshrined in a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.