QUESTIONING THE MASTER POTTER

Rom. 9:20-21 ... "On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? 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?"

      The gospel declaration that God in Christ had called the Gentiles unto grace and mercy was a stumbling block to the Jews. Having been taught for dozens of generations they were God's chosen people, they drew a circle that shut all others out. They refused to fathom the idea that God might have changed his policies to embrace the varied nations. The sermons of Jesus, the appeals of the apostles, and the ministry of the Spirit did not persuade the Jews to widen their circle of fellowship to include Gentiles. Even Peter, subject to Jesus' influence and teaching for three years, required a vision directly from God to be forced to the conclusion that Gentiles were now eligible for salvation and citizenship in the elect nation, (Acts 10). As Paul preached the gospel, he ran headlong into resistance over this new concept. And so here in Romans 9 he is debating a typical Jewish teacher about it.

      Paul informs this opponent that in the debate he is not calling the Christian teacher into question, but rather God, who commissioned the teacher. Then he reaches back to Isa. 29:16 to illustrate how absurd it is to criticize God. When the potter sat down at his wheel to turn a vessel, the clay in his hands was powerless to resist his will. If he wanted to fashion a delicate vase to grace a queen's bedroom, he could do it. If he chose instead to make a common pot for boiling lentils, he could do that. The clay being formed into a functional object could never protest that it should be made instead into an objet d'art. And so it is with man. We read in Isa. 64:8, "But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand." It is just as absurd for a human to question God's will and policies as it is for a lump of river bank clay to contend with the potter over its future design.

      The wisest decision any of us can make is to yield ourselves into the brilliant hands of the Master Potter to be fashioned into the kind of living vessel that He would have us to be. The ancient potter was never perfect, though he might have been a highly skilled artisan. In spite of his best efforts, some vessels just did not turn out well. They would be broken up and used to fill holes or gullies. Archaeologists excavating the ruins of Palestinian cities dig up countless tons of the potsherds. But God is the Perfect Potter! With quality clay in His hands He never fails to fashion a living vessel that is graceful and precious. The person who yields himself to God to be transformed into a new creature is this quality clay. It says in II Tim. 2:21, "If a man cleanses himself from these things (wickedness, v. 19), he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work." To purge yourself of lust, the unholy desires that are the breeding ground of sin, (Jas. 1:14-15), turns you into the sort of living clay that God will make into an honorable vessel, set apart from mundane things, fully fitted out for the Master's service. How badly we fail ourselves and abuse our potential when we question God about the meaning of life, the use of life, and the value of life. Humanistic philosophies, which dominate the thinking of the majority, not only criticize the divine scheme for the optimum human condition but proceed even further to doubt the existence of God. Consequently, in the masses of mankind we see only the vessels of human lives misshapen by human will in the pitiful, doomed effort to outdo the Master Potter, who not only designed the perfect archetype but also created the raw material of clay from which we are made.

   

OUR FAILURE AND GOD'S MERCY

Rom. 8:32 ... "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"

      It is the fate of people in this life to be participants in the war between good and evil. In every circumstance of our daily experience we must make a choice whether we will take the side of good and oppose evil, or embrace evil and oppose good. Jesus once said, "He who is not with Me is against Me," and also, "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree rotten, and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit, (Mat. 12:30,33). These statements yield no middle position between good and evil, or between Christ and Satan. The evil presents itself to us as temptations which entice us with appealing rewards for accepting them. We are never free of these temptations, since evil is always present about us. Furthermore, it is a fact that everyone falls victim to some of these temptations and thus involves himself in evil, and with this sin in our lives we know that we incur the wrath of God. 

      It is very discouraging to realize that sin corrupts us in spite of our best efforts to prevent it and that God is daily offended at our failures. There are people who hold back from Christian profession because they are aware of this discouragement and unwilling to experience its tension. Others, who make a start in the Christian life, eventually forsake it when this problem begins to build. In Matthew 13 in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus described the disciple who "when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately falls away," (v.21). It is indeed depressing to declare by one's faith and obedience that he is taking the side of righteousness when he knows from the outset he will often fail.

      The eighth chapter of Romans addresses this problem with a strong message of encouragement for the Christian who wants to live true to his Lord. Although God condemns sin and will judge the sinner, He nevertheless still loves those whose lives are colored by sin. His justice demands that sin be punished, but His mercy appeals for patience. And so we find in II Pet. 3:9, "The Lord ... is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." In infinite wisdom possessed only by God, He found a way to meet the demands of divine justice and yet extend mercy. This way is presented most succinctly in the initial text above. First, "He ... did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." Jesus took the place of everyone who lives in this world when He went to the crucifixion and paid the ultimate price for our sins. As the prophet said, "He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed," (Isa. 53:5). Second, God shows us great mercy in our sins, for as the lead text above says, "How will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" That is, just as the Father supplied His Son with everything He needed to complete His mission of human redemption, He will likewise give us everything we need to be recipients of that redemption in the end. 

      God did not sacrifice His Son for nothing; He gave Him up to a cruel death to save us from the same fate for our sins. He knows our struggle against evil and our frequent defeats, but He wills that, though we lose many battles, we should not lose the war and suffer our souls to be destroyed. He will daily supply us with "all things" by which we can recover from our failures and be saved. We are assured in Rom. 5:21 that "as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." In short, God will remit our sins day by day if we continue to repent and keep up the struggle against sin, and if we never cease to "keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God," (Col. 3:1).