3789 — The Power of the Potter
By Editor
It is impossible for us to give full explanations of many of these passages. The "Question Corner" is insufficient to answer many of the questions which come to us for the question page, and we can therefore only give suggestive answers. The passage in question is simply showing God's right to do as He will with that which He Himself has made, just the same as the potter has the right over the clay to make one part to honor and another to dishonor. So much for verse 21. Now if the potter has that right, how much more has God the right to reject vessels which have fitted themselves for destruction! Really, the thought carries us back to verses 15, 16: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." And yet God has expressly told us on whom He will have mercy. For instance, we read in the second commandment of the Decalogue, "showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." It is very clear, then, that God has mercy upon those who will be obedient. But there is another class still. We read in Isa. 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Then it is the Lord's will to have mercy upon the wicked, isn't it? It is therefore His will to make of the clay under His hand every good thing that He can make. A helpful thought is expressed by the apostle in 2 Tim. 2:21: "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Verse 22 of Romans 9 clearly shows that God endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath, fitted of themselves for destruction. Men had themselves taken such a course against God's long-suffering as to make them only vessels which ought to be destroyed. Now if the potter had the right over his clay to make any kind of vessel which he wished, surely God had a right to destroy those that would not yield to His requirements, and were determined to resist His goodness and His love. The whole doctrine of election with God centers around character. The soul who will yield to Him will develop the character which God has marked out for him; but the soul which, under the constant mercy and long-suffering of God, will not yield, must of course meet the fate which it invites, and be lost.