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).

GOOD INTENTION-BAD PERFORMANCE

Rom. 7:14b-15 ... "I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate."

      This Scripture addresses one aspect of the human condition, the relation between one's intention to act and the actual performance of that act. People fall into three categories in the way they manage this relationship. There are those who intend to do good and then execute that good in their course of life. Second, there are those who intend to do good, but are not always able to accomplish it. Third, there are those who intend to do evil and are usually able to carry it out. Only one person on earth has ever fitted himself into the first category, and He was the Lord Jesus Christ. It says of Him in I Pet. 2:22-23, "[He] committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return." This perfect self-control in the face of severe opposition reveals a heart that was untainted with evil intentions. Furthermore, in Acts 10:38 Jesus is described a Man who "went about doing good." Jesus willed to avoid evil and do good as the invariable rule in His life, and it is evident He accomplished both.

      The third category mentioned above is crowded with people the world over. There is never a shortage of those who plan out evil deeds and then apply their energies and resources to enact the plan. The perfection of this black art was the prime reason why God resolved to send the great Flood upon the antediluvian world. We are told that in those days "the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," (Gen. 6:5). Evil must be recognized and resolutely resisted, or else it will take over a person's mind and pervert it to invent and execute evil. We are forewarned that as the present age progresses, this perversion will build in people and become prevalent in the world. We read in I Tim. 4:1-2, "The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron."

      Conscientious Christians are in the second category. By instruction in the gospel of Jesus we are enlightened as to what is good and then exhorted to fashion our behavior to model it in daily living. Then, like Paul, knowing what is good and sincerely willing to do it, we often fail to carry it out. Or, knowing what is evil and fervently willing to abstain from it, we often proceed to do it nevertheless. In either case sin is the result of our failure to perform what our intellect knows is right and what our will determines that we ought to do. This condition is the background to the apostle's declaration in I Jno. 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us." The difference between a Christian and one who isn't is not that the latter sins while former does not. No, indeed! Both the Christian and the worldly person sin. The difference is that the Christian wills not to sin and aims at doing good, while the worldly person is not particularly concerned about either, at least not as the guiding rule of his life. The Christian frequently fails to follow through with his noble intentions, but he never becomes comfortable in these failures. He daily appeals to God for pardon and rectification, (I Jno. 1:9), and continues his efforts to close the gap between what he wills and what he actually does. Rather than despair over shortcomings, he looks to a better future with the attitude expressed in Php. 3:13-14, "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

WHO IS YOUR MASTER?

Rom. 6:16-17 ... "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed."

      This Scripture involves three ideas which have become quite objectionable to contemporary thought. First is the idea of opposing absolutes. Second is the idea of being in subjection to an external authority. Third is the idea of being delivered from sin by obedience. In recent decades we have generally come to accept the philosophy of relativism, which denies the existence of absolutes and holds that in everything there is a spectrum of reality. For example, in the sphere of morality there is no supreme standard. Rather, there is a range of moral behavior that depends on the situation of those involved. For a specific case, in certain settings it might be justifiable to commit fornication, or lie, or kill. Or, because of one's particular station or vocational responsibility it could be moral for him to engage in acts that are usually taken to be immoral. But our text above presents only two opposing alternatives, sin and righteousness. There are no relative positions in between. A given behavior is Biblically classified either as sinful or righteous. One of the objectives of God's word is to provide us with the criteria for discerning the two. We are urged, therefore, in I Ths. 5:21 to "examine everything carefully" and "hold fast to that which is good."

      Our text also presents the idea that there are external authorities to which we are in subjection. We of the present generation rebel at the thought of having our liberties denied us. Our goal is unfettered freedom to do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it, and however we want to do it. Even when one's exercise of freedom intrudes into another's life to the extent it inflicts harm, or even causes death, we have a tendency to mitigate his action in all sorts of rationalizations. The featured text, however, proclaims that there are only two masters, sin and righteousness, which rule over the life of an individual. The choice we have is not whether to be absolutely free of all external authority, but rather to which of these two masters we will belong. Everyone is at liberty to choose whether he will be the servant of sin or the servant of righteousness, but no one can choose to be free of both. Those who think they can defy all authority and be "liberated people" are, in reality, enslaved to the lord of evil without realizing it.

      It is commonly taught that obedience has nothing to do with deliverance from sin. Eph. 2:8 is often quoted: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." That is, when a person puts his faith in Christ, He bestows salvation upon that person as a gift. Thus, obedience is not an operable factor, for Eph. 2:9 continues: "Not as a result of works, that no one should boast." And yet, the same apostle who wrote those statements also wrote the words, "You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness," (Rom. 6:17-18). Freedom from sin came after their obedience to what they were taught (the Gospel). Salvation is indeed by the grace of God and comes through faith, but it also involves obedience. This obedience, however, is not a work that merits one's salvation; it does not obligate God to save its performer. It is God's will that a person should respond to His grace by faith and obedience. The ability to respond constitutes the essence of responsibility, and everyone bears responsibility in his salvation. One who will not accept that responsibility will deny himself the benefit of God's grace and continue his journey through life as a servant of sin.

ADAM AND CHRIST

Rom. 5:19 ... "As through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous."

      In this important statement Paul by inspiration is talking about two men, two acts they committed, and the consequences of those acts in the lives of other people. The first man was Adam, whom God made from the dust of the ground in the beginning. Placing him to live in the paradise of Eden, God commanded him, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die," (Gen. 2:16-17). In the course of time Adam and Eve, his wife, violated this commandment at the instigation of Satan, disguised as a serpent, and thus became sinners. The penalty of death for sin was executed upon them, though they did not actually die for quite a number of years. In this act Adam lost his innocence and introduced sin as a present reality into the world. All future human beings were thus subjected to the influence of sin. Something also happened to man's moral constitution, producing a weakened spiritual nature which we refer to as "fallen man." Not only was man subjected to the daily presence of sin in his environment, but he hitherto lacked the spiritual power to stand up against it. Thus Rom. 3:23 proclaims that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

      The second Man in Rom. 5:19 is Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, who left His place in heaven to dwell for a while on earth among men. He, too, was given a commandment by God to govern His life, for He stated in Heb. 10:9, "Behold, I have come to do Your will." But unlike Adam, Jesus never violated the commandment given Him. Although Satan tempted Him in every way he had tempted Adam, Jesus never succumbed to his enticements. It is affirmed in Heb. 4:15 that Jesus was "tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." Having never sinned, Jesus was not under the penalty of death. Then came about the most wonderful event in all human experience. Jesus took upon Himself the totality of sin of all other people and paid its penalty, death, even death by crucifixion, the most humiliating death of all. Therefore, whereas Adam introduced sin and death into human experience, Jesus established righteousness and eternal life for us.

      Contrary to the application many make of this Scripture, it does not teach that when Adam sinned, the entire lot of humanity sinned likewise, since all were genetically present in him. It no more teaches this than it teaches everyone is made righteous in Christ through His perfect life and vicarious death. In spite of Jesus' sacrifice, many people are presently sinners, will continue in that sin until death, and will then be eternally lost. Adam introduced sin and its penalty of death into the world; Jesus introduced righteousness and eternal life. No one is born with Adam's sin and bears its guilt from birth. We enter into sin when we ourselves commit sin, for we are told in Ezek. 18:20 that "the person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity." It is true we inherit Adam's weak nature, a result of his having sinned, just as a child will suffer from the drug abuse of its mother. In that weakened nature, we surrender on many occasions to temptation and commit sin. Jesus' perfect life and atoning death, however, will free us from those sins and avert the penalty which is their due. It is necessary that we put our faith in Christ and obey His gospel. Without this response His work will not avail us. We will continue to suffer the weakness that leads to sin, and practice the sin that leads to eternal death.

FAITH RECKONED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Rom. 4:20-21 ... "With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform."

      For many years after Christianity was launched in the world at Jerusalem in 33 A.D. it had a very strong Jewish identity. Within the church the influence of Jewish thought and customs was indeed powerful and posed no little challenge to Gentiles who came into the church without this mental and cultural baggage. One of these challenges specifically centered on the doctrine of justification. Jews thought that because they were genetically descended from Abraham justification was their birthright. Abraham was their spiritual hero, being the "father of the faithful" and having the distinction of being called "the friend of God," (Jas. 2:23). His faith was the epitome of human response to divine promise, so much so that Gen. 15:6 reports that "he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness," (quoted by Paul in v.3). Since all of Israel were genetically in Abraham, (cf. Heb. 7:9-10), when righteousness was conferred upon him in reward for his faith, it was conferred upon every unborn Jew as well. To be born, therefore, in descent from Abraham was to be justified from the day of one's birth. The Jews also thought they accumulated righteousness through the scrupulous performance of the rituals and other religious acts taught in the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees carried this doctrine to the ultimate, hedging the Law about with endless deductions from Mosaic statutes to ensure that everything would be done that could be to increase one's righteousness by participation.

      In Romans 4 Paul refutes the entire Jewish doctrine of justification. He points out that Abraham was not saved by works, but rather through his faith which prevented him from "wavering" as he considered "the promise of God." Even the works that he did, in response to God's commandments, were not the works of the Mosaic Law, for that law was still some four hundred years in the future after Abraham. In the previous chapter (vs. 28-29) Paul had argued that being a Jew genetically was unimportant. What mattered was being a Jew spiritually, an identity available to anyone through faith in Christ and obedience to His gospel.  The same logic applies to being a "child" of Abraham. There is no distinction in being lineally descended from Abraham; his righteousness is not inherited by his offspring. It is only when, like that patriarch, we put our faith in God who "raised Jesus our Lord from the dead," that our own faith is reckoned to us for righteousness, (see vs. 23-24). Although this faith involves obedience (Rom. 1:5), it is not meritorious obedience that obligates God to save.

      The lesson we must learn from this is that we cannot construct a doctrine of justification to suit ourselves. We must study the Scriptures to see what is taught there about the problem of human sin and how it may be forgiven. As our text says, what God has promised, He is also able to perform. But the crucial point is "what God has promised." It is not for me or anyone else to speak for God and demand that others accept my word about justification. God has already spoken clearly and has given us the intelligence to understand what He has said. He will be pleased if, like Abraham, we respond in simple faith to the gospel. When we have done that, just as He has promised, He will reckon our faith unto us for righteousness, and we will be justified in the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE REALITY OF SIN

Rom. 3:23 ... "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

      One of the arts cultivated by people of the twentieth century is that of denial. We have become masters of the ability to deny the existence or the active influence of certain things that people in former times readily, though often painfully, confessed. Our sophistication, our pride in humanity's advances in certain areas, and our feeling that we have been liberated from old superstitions have together blinded us to realities. And when some rather persistent entities refuse to disappear through our denial, we just hide them behind a cover of redefinition. One of these entities is sin.

      Although there is abundant evidence that people have always tended to deny the existence of sin in their own lives, generally they admitted that sin itself was a reality in human life. Sermons from the pulpit were often devoted in their entirety to the subject of sin. Specific attitudes and behaviors were identified as sin. People who held those attitudes, or who practiced those behaviors, were said plainly to be sinners. There was public consciousness of sin, even among those who did not profess religion or attend church. In recent decades, however,  this awareness and understanding has changed. An attitude has been established that sin, in the traditional sense, is a bogus concept. Few are willing to admit that sin is resident in their lives. It has become publicly offensive to apply the label of "sin" to any attitude or behavior, and to call someone a "sinner" is considered a terrible insult, almost, in fact, sufficient grounds for a lawsuit. Today we hide the reality of sin behind a cover of redefinition. Instead of being a sin, the action is an "error in judgment," a "social malfunction," a "disease," an "inherited trait," a "syndrome," or any other of multiple terms current in our lexicon.

      To deny a sin is also to deny the Bible, for it explicitly declares both that sin is a reality and that it is universal in human experience. So, it is not unexpected that the Bible is another thing which a great many people have also come to deny. And to deny the Bible as truth and authority in human life is to deny God who gave us the Bible. Ultimately, therefore, to deny the reality of sin is to deny the reality of God. Through His wisdom revealed in the Bible, God has repeatedly declared that certain attitudes and behaviors in people are sin. Furthermore, He has stated that every person holds some of these attitudes and frequently engages in various of these illicit behaviors. Such is the message of Rom. 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

      It does a person no good to deny that sin exists in his life and that he is a sinner. To admit guilt of sin does not harm the psyche; much the rather, it is the first step to the salvation, reclamation, and reconstruction of a healthy soul. God has a perfect cure for sin, but He will apply it only to the person who confesses his sin and seeks that cure. We are assured in I Jno. 1:9 that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Sin is truly an insult to a person, and to be declared a sinner is disturbing. But a person insults himself far more by denying the reality of sin in his life and not seeking God's help in removing it. Sin is our greatest enemy, for its impact upon our souls is eternally destructive. The wisest thing anyone can do is to confront his sin and then appeal to God for salvation by obedience in faith to His gospel, (Rom. 1:6,16).