Ponder with me a few questions.
What if God had left the future—individually and ultimately—to the will of fallen men? In other words, what if God could exercise no power to accomplish how His glory would be shown or His purposes accomplished in individuals and collectively as a display of His glory in eternity?
What if His glory was tied inextricably to the decisiveness and indecisiveness of fallen creatures? In other words, what if the glory of God—the ultimate manifestation of His being as the highest good and greatest worth in the universe—depended upon the fickleness of men to cooperate with His purpose for the ages?
What if even those who are justified could not look upon God’s glory except as dictated by the ways and wishes of fallen men? In other words, what if God’s “hands were tied” by the will of fallen creatures in accomplishing the noblest purposes for His creation?
Do you see the predicament that is posed by these questions? At issue is the weightiness of God’s glory, and the necessity and rightness of its full display. God is glorious. His glory is displayed by the manifestations of His attributes and actions. If “the heavens are telling of the glory of God” by the display of His creative power in the brilliance and beauty of nature, then how much more does God display His glory by the active work He accomplishes in mercy and judgment in mankind (Psa. 19:1). In the first instance, one can see something in a picture of the beauty and majesty of a brilliant orange sunset over the peak of snow covered mountains. The one looking at the picture senses something, at least to a degree, of the magnificence of the scene. But the picture, even with its masterful touch, cannot compare with the experience of being there in person, soaking up the scene, feeling the diminishing of the sun’s warmth as it nestles behind the mountains, and relishing the display of colors as no canvas could ever contain. One is glory on the artist’s canvas; the other is the experience of glory in person.
This brings us to Paul’s intention in Romans 9. How do we understand the divine glory displayed in mercy shown to sinners by the electing grace of God, calling by the gospel through the Spirit, and the justifying work of Jesus Christ? We can read a description of it and find that helpful. Yet unless we have something with which to compare, we have difficulty grasping just how glorious His mercy really is and how utterly worthy He is of worship. But when we see firsthand the mercy of God, knowing it experientially, against the backdrop of the judgment of God, then God’s mercy takes on a whole new meaning. As we see sovereign mercy in light of sovereign judgment we truly begin to understand the wonder and awesomeness of the riches of God’s glory shown to believers. The Apostle Paul insists on both mercy and wrath as displays of divine glory, though especially mercy as the ultimate manifestation of glory to sinners. As we grasp more of the shocking reality that the Lord displays the glory of mercy toward those deserving wrath against the backdrop of vessels prepared beforehand for wrath, we are humbled and brought to worship as never before. As John Piper explains, “The acts of God come forth…from a unified, sovereign purpose. They cohere to achieve one great end—the magnification of God’s great glory for the eternal enjoyment of his chosen people” [The Justification of God: An Exegetical & Theological Study of Romans 9:1-23, 189]. Do you recognize that God’s sovereign displays of mercy and wrath make His glory known to us?
I want us to investigate this passage by considering questions raised by the “objector” and the Apostle Paul. Keep in mind that Paul had just concluded that God acts sovereignly both in showing mercy to whom He desires and hardening in judgment whom He desires (9:18). He used Pharaoh as an example of the latter and His declaration to Moses for the former. The Apostle had already set forth that God cannot act with injustice—it is contrary to His nature. Any such accusation against God is a false perception on the part of the accuser. Divine election—and the totality of salvation as shown in Paul’s argument—“does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (9:16). In other words, while not diminishing man’s responsibility to respond in faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ, as shown at the end of this chapter and into the next, ultimately, salvation depends upon God’s sovereign mercy shown to sinners. No person has the capacity to hear and respond to the gospel apart from the kindness of God in choosing to show us mercy even though we deserve wrath.
While such conversation may cause uneasiness and discomfort to us because it totally uproots any dependence upon personal merit or ability, it points all glory to God. And that, in the end, is our highest calling. We exist for the glory of God. That glory can be shown in the greatness of His mercy to undeserving sinners and it can be shown in the awfulness of His wrath toward deserving sinners. Let’s consider this in more detail.
The objector is imaginary though likely he is one of many that Paul faced throughout his ministry. His reasoning sounds very much like that of Pharisees who placed such prominence upon man’s abilities while seeing so little of the need for mercy. One need only take a look at Jesus’ telling of the story of the Pharisee and tax collector in the temple to feel something of this kind of arrogance in the face of God.
Yet having said that, we must recognize that the objector grasped the implications of what Paul had argued. He saw that the Apostle explained that God is sovereign in showing mercy and in hardening. Or else he would not have posed his objections. We understand Paul’s doctrine by the stated objections. “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’” Though he understood exactly what Paul stated in the previous paragraph, he unfortunately drew the wrong conclusions. He may have even wanted a sovereign God but just not one quite that sovereign! He did not want God to really be God.
The objector understood that while one might resist God’s commands, such as those uttered to Pharaoh (e.g., “Let My people go!”), no one resists God’s decrees. “For who resists His will?” Decrees imply the determined purpose and will of God by which He will accomplish what He desires for His own glory. Nothing stands between God and His decrees. The objector saw this clearly. So he reacted as though personal responsibility then did not matter in light of God’s sovereignty. If God acted sovereignly to show mercy and sovereignly to harden in order to show His wrath, then God had no cause, he reasoned, to find fault with his actions. If salvation depends on God alone then how can God hold anyone responsible who does not embrace the gospel?
Had that been a question it would be legitimate to pose to God. But the language suggests something much stronger, more of an accusation against God and a personal defense [tapokrinomenos or “answers back,” “denotes disputation and resistance, not merely an attempt to procure an answer to a difficult question,” Tom Schreiner, ECNT: Romans, 515]. He sought to blame God for his sin and rebellion. Piper explains, “Therefore, what the objector correctly sees is that God, not man, holds final sway even in the lives of unbelievers. But his premise is that, unless man has the power of self-determination over against God, his evil acts cannot justly be faulted, i.e., he cannot be judged as a sinner” [192]. For the objector, God cannot be just unless He looses the bonds of sovereignty and allows mankind to determine how, if, or when God can display His glory and accomplish His intention with humanity. But God does not turn His glory over to men.
Yet Paul, while affirming God’s absolute sovereignty in determining all things [cf. Schreiner, 515], also insists on personal responsibility in one’s decisions and actions. Men resist at this point. John Calvin rightly stated, “They make God guilty instead of themselves; and then after having devolved on him the blame of their own condemnation, they become indignant against his great powers” [Calvin’s Commentaries, XIX, 363]. What Paul has shown is that the righteousness of God’s preordained wrath is manifested in the sinful behavior and disposition of those destined for wrath. Pharaoh was his case-in-point. So, while rightly perceiving God’s sovereignty, the objector wrongly sought to use that as a theological excuse for his own rebellion against God. He sounds like a few people I’ve encountered over the years that try to twist God’s sovereignty into an irresponsible world of fatalism, excusing themselves from sin.
Paul begins by reminding the objector of his place as a mere man and not the Creator. Or as my friend Ray Pritchard often puts it, “He’s God and we’re not.” That may seem obvious but the attitude of most people demonstrates that it is not only not obvious, but a common fallacy of humanity. “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” There’s an intentional contrast between “man” and “God.” How dare man attempt to talk back to God! Assuming himself in a position of superior wisdom over God, the objector, along with the many walking in his steps, talks back to God. His perspective was earthbound yet that did not bother him in the least since he considered it superior to God’s view. But Paul will not countenance such arrogance. He shows that “no cause is adduced higher than the will of God,” so battling against His will is both futile and foolish [Calvin, 364]. How absurd to reprimand and correct God!
We would think it folly for a three-year old to try to correct a skilled engineer in his design for a bridge to span the Mississippi River or a middle school science student trying to tell a heart surgeon how to do a heart transplant. Yet how much more when men try to correct and instruct God! It is the height of arrogance to think that a mere creature sees more clearly than the Creator, and that a depraved sinner understands justice better than the holy and righteous God. Admire His sovereignty rather than judge it [Calvin 365]. We can freely ask questions when earnestly seeking answers from God. His ways remain mysterious to us so we should seek to understand more. But let us never think that this gives us liberty to question His sovereign ways. We should admire and worship Him for each sovereign act, knowing that each flows out of His glorious attributes and accomplishes His right purpose of fully displaying His glory.
If anyone thinks that God’s sovereignty is easily understood and fathomed then he has not taken a good look at it! Plenty of mystery shrouds sovereignty for in it we attempt to probe the eternal purposes of the infinite God. Finite minds with our puny reasoning cannot plumb the depths of eternal purposes in the Godhead. Yet the more we try the more cause we have for worship, the more we admire sovereignty, and the less we depend upon ourselves for standing with God. But we need help in making sure that we keep in mind our place in this investigation in the mysterious work of God’s sovereign mercy in election. Paul has just the picture for us.
“The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”
Paul begins with an absurdity. The thing molded tries to question the molder. The inanimate, talks back to the animate. The powerless reproves the one with absolute power over it. One who ultimately has no power to mold, shape, or change questions the sovereign hand that is shaping it. But consider this. What does the clay know in comparison to the potter? Clay has no ability to think on the level with the potter! What value does the clay have compared with the potter? The gulf between the clay’s value and the value of the potter cannot be bridged! Does the potter not have every right over the clay to do as he desires? Clay has no value until the potter sovereignly shapes it into whatever vessel or shape pleases him. It is merely an inanimate lump of material without shape, form, or value until the potter grasps it and begins to kneed it, and then form it as he pleases.
Paul was not the first in Israel to use this illustration. It was common, dating at least as far back to the late 8th century prophet Isaiah and the 6th century prophet Jeremiah. Isaiah explained that Israel’s attempt at personal sovereignty against God held no substance. “You turn things around!” he told them. They were looking in just the opposite direction that they should have looked. “Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made would say to its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” (29:15-16). And later, to those questioning God’s wisdom in decreeing the Persian King Cyrus as a chosen instrument to carry out His purposes, even though Cyrus did not know the Lord (45:4), “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?” (45:9).
While the two passages in Isaiah seem more of the background, with Paul even adopting similar language, the passage most familiar to us is that in Jeremiah 18. The prophet was instructed to go down to the house of the potter where God would announce His words. He watched as the potter shaped a vessel but it did not turn out as the potter desired, “so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make” (18:4). Then the Lord probed, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does? …Behold, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel” (18:5-6).
What do we learn from these Old Testament examples of the potter and the clay? (1) The clay has no power or even input toward the potter. (2) The potter is not only sovereign over the clay but he does as he pleases for his own glory as he shapes the clay. (3) Ultimately, the clay reflects the glory of the potter as the skill of his hands and the design of his mind find its way into the shape and purpose of the vessel formed from the clay. (4) The clay only has value and purpose when given such by the potter. (5) The clay has no ground for complaint against or objection to the potter’s sovereign design. (6) What matters is not the honorable or dishonorable use of the vessel formed from the clay but the rather the glory of the potter in his wisdom, power, and purpose shown through the vessel.
The potter has different purposes for the various vessels made “from the same lump” of clay. One has “honorable use” while another “common use” or dishonorable use. So the potter might make a vessel for drinking water or serving food or storing produce. He might also make vessels for dishonorable use such as collecting table scraps or for human waste. Both uses were by the potter’s sovereign design. The clay had no voice or even right to instruct the potter in how it was to be shaped.
Paul’s example insists in the propriety and wisdom of the potter in the sovereign exercise of his ability to shape from the same lump of clay, vessels for both honorable and dishonorable use. He leaves no wiggle room. God’s sovereign purpose, whether shown in sovereign mercy or sovereign wrath, is entirely just and appropriate. But why does God harden some while showing mercy to others? Remember, “There is no injustice with God.” So we do not start from the premise that questions the wisdom or righteousness of God. Rather we attempt to understand something of the mind and ways of God (which are higher than the heavens from the earth above our ways and thoughts, as Isaiah 55:8-9 declares). For this, the Apostle pulls back the curtain so that we might glimpse for a moment at the veiled mystery of God’s glory, to the end that we might magnify Him for His mercy.
Can we talk back to God? It is one thing to ask questions—that is appropriate. It is a totally different matter to make accusations toward God or to question His justice as the objector was doing. God’s ways are not our ways. Our way of viewing everything is bordered by time, experience, and flawed desires. We can only see accurately (and that is a stretch!) as far as the present moment. We judge everything by our own experiences—again so limited—and personal desires—even though deeply flawed by sin. Our desires naturally feed our egos and pursue our comfort. Only by the new birth can we begin to stretch beyond those desires for a moment and contemplate the infinite and eternal glory of God. Unless God reveals glory to us, though we see it we reject it, desiring instead the corruptible and material (Romans 1:18-23). “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” They know the glory of God but do not treasure it as ultimate and glorious [John Piper, “God’s Ultimate Purpose: Vessels of Mercy Knowing the Riches of His Glory,” Feb. 23, 2003, www.desiringGod.org].
Even further, the human inclination is to mold God into our image. God’s purposes and actions are so far removed from us that instead of enjoying the grace of revelation that stretches us to delight in God’s glorious sovereignty, we claw and fuss and clamor to remake God into a docile, human-like creature. Our perception of justice, goodness, and righteousness is so colored by depraved thinking that we find fault with a sovereign God who exercises His sovereignty without consulting with us!
So Paul helps us out. He tells us why God prepares some vessels for wrath. He offers no rationale beyond that for I suppose it remained a mystery to him as well. “What if God, …willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory” [the NASB adds “although” even though it is not in the Greek, so note that it is dropped; see Piper, “How God makes Known the Riches of His Glory to Vessels of Mercy,” Feb. 16, 2003].
What does this passage declare? First, it tells us that God was willing to make His wrath and power known—that is, power in judgment. The reason is that His wrath and power are not antithetical to Him being God but rather being God demands that He demonstrate wrath and power toward those deserving it. Second, we see that though “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” deserved the immediate demonstration of God’s wrath, instead He endured them with much patience. Some state that this means that God gives more time for undeserving sinners, of which we all are, to repent of their sins. At minimum here is mercy shown in a general rather than a saving way. Third, he tells us that God does prepare vessels of wrath for destruction, just as Pharaoh was raised up for the very same reason in Moses’ day, in order to display something glorious about God. It is not done without the clear, glorious, God-honoring purpose of God. Fourth, the reason for the “vessels of wrath” is found in connection with God making known the riches of His glory “upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.” The vessels of mercy are intended for glory. That either means, tasting and containing the glory of God, or for the glory of God, or both. Fifth, God is making known “the riches of His glory” upon those elected before the foundation of the world, whom Paul calls “vessels of mercy.” What do these things imply? John Piper states it clearly. “In other words, the final and deepest argument Paul gives for why God acts in sovereign freedom is that this way of acting displays most fully the glory of God, including his wrath against sin and his power in judgment, so that the vessels of mercy can know him most completely and worship him with the greatest intensity for all eternity” [“How God makes Known the Riches of His Glory…,” p. 5].
So what if God did indeed prepare vessels for destruction? Is that incompatible with His wisdom, justice, righteousness, and eternal purpose? Might His choice elude our earthbound, time-bordered, ego-centered minds?
God knew that it was necessary to prepare vessels for destruction as objects of His just wrath so that [hina] He might make proper display of His mercy toward the elect, who deserve His wrath just as much as those prepared for destruction. In this case, “God’s wrath is put into the service of his mercy” [K. Mueller, in Piper, Justification of God, 214]. Or as Tom Schreiner expressed it, “When the vessels of mercy perceive the fearsome wrath of God upon the disobedient and reflect on the fact that they deserve the same, then they appreciate in a deeper way the riches of God’s glory…and the grace lavished upon them. The mercy of God is set forth in clarity against the backdrop of his wrath” [523]. Daniel Fuller adds another note of clarification. “For God not to prepare vessels of wrath would mean that He could not fully reveal Himself as the merciful God. Thus creation could not honor Him for what He really is, and God would then have been unrighteous, for in the act of creation he would have done something inconsistent with the full delight He has in His own glory” [quoted in Piper, Justification, 216].
We are not ultimate in the universe. Our desires and wishes are not ultimate. Otherwise, we would be objects of worship. Instead, we exist for the ultimate: God’s glory. No higher purpose takes place than the full display of divine glory. Against the backdrop of sovereign wrath God displays the glory—the eternal, radiant, magnificence—of sovereign mercy. Do any deserve mercy? No, certainly not. Do any deserve wrath? Yes, all of us do. If all deserved mercy there would be no true mercy nor would there be any sense of glory in mercy. But since none deserve mercy, yet God in sovereign action shows mercy to “vessels of mercy,” and displays the glory of His mercy against the backdrop of “vessels of wrath,” what are we left to do? We are left to fall upon our faces and cry, “GLORY! Glory to the God who shows mercy in electing undeserving sinners for His own! Glory to God who shows mercy by calling sinners through the gospel! Glory to God who shows mercy by justifying sinners through the God-satisfying death of His Son! Glory to the God who shows mercy by preparing vessels of mercy for future glory!”
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