Romans 9:19
Romans 9:18-20
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 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?
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer,writes: “The clay has no right to question the potter.” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.171, emphasis mine)
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians explains: “The way I respond to Calvinists who say, ‘the clay cannot judge the potter,’ is this: I am not judging the potter. I am judging another lump of clay who presumes to believe it understands the potter better than the potter’s own self-revelation.” (SEA)
The clay has no right to question the Potter, especially since the Potter warned the clay to “turn back” (Jeremiah 18:1-13), and what He said that He was going to do if they refused.
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians explains: “I have always thought that the Jeremiaic potter/clay metaphor is so thoroughly against the Calvinist worldview that the only way for Calvinists to justify their interpretation of Romans 9 is to distance Paul’s view from Jeremiah’s.” (SEA)
Often Calvinists will insist that you cannot cite Jeremiah 18 because at Romans 9, the Holy Spirit is revealing a “new truth.” Calvinists have clever ways to get out of tight spots.
Walls and Dongell writes: “...the chief objectors to Paul likely are Jews!” (Why I am Not a Calvinist, p.90, emphasis mine)
The Jews were the ones hardened, and the context of Romans chapters 9-11 specifically deals with the Jews and Gentiles. Thus, it stands to reason that Paul’s statement anticipates the reaction of the hardened, legalistic Jew. Of course, Calvinists envision that Paul is rebuking pre-Arminians.
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer, writes: “If Arminianism were correct, we should expect Paul to answer ‘God finds fault because men have a free will and therefore could have chosen to be obedient.’ Here is the opportunity to set the record straight. But Paul said nothing about free will. Rather, he said, ‘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? (v.20) The potter has power over the clay to make one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor. God’s purposes in salvation history are being fulfilled.” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.214, emphasis mine)
This reminds me of John 21:21-23: “So Peter seeing him [John] said to Jesus, ‘Lord, and what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!’ Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, ‘If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?’”
It’s a mistake for Calvinists to think that because God can unilaterally harden someone, that He does. The context of Romans chapters 9 through 11 is of a Jewish hardening, and although a sovereign God the Potter could have unilaterally hardened Israel, the reality is that the hardening was explicitly conditional, as prophesied by Jeremiah: “‘Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.’”’” (Jeremiah 18:6-11)
So the hardening flows from their persistent state of unrepentance. Additionally, God had also said concerning Israel: “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts.” (Isaiah 65:2) So God had reached out to them, throughout their entire history. So this is the basis of the Jewish hardening at Isaiah 6:9-10.
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians explains: “In Jeremiah, he clearly presents the idea of clay as ‘going its own way.’ With a potter’s wheel, a potter doesn’t just simply make a pot exactly how he wants it. The clay spins, and the potter shapes it as the centripetal forces pull the pot apart. The potter then shapes the pot using these very forces which are attempting to rip them apart. However, often the air in the clay, or the lack/abundance of moisture, or just the wrong shape, will make the pot form incorrectly, and the potter will collapse the clay back into a lump and start over again. A potter may do this three to four times per pot. In fact, it is this idea of restarting the clay that Jeremiah is using. Israel isn’t quite shaping the way God wants it to, so He is going to collapse it and start again with a remnant (note: it is not a different piece of clay, but restarting from the same clay). This makes no real sense in the Calvinist view, for if they were right, then way did the clay go astray to begin with? If we then take this to Romans, then we see God collapsing Judea down, and starting with another new remnant (the apostles), and will build His people back up.” (SEA)
Question: Who does Paul suppose will object to God’s hardening? In other words, who is the “you, O man” that Paul anticipates will answer back to God?
Answer: Unbelieving Jews. The “you, O man” is the “you” who “bear the name Jew.” (Romans 2:17) Romans chapter 9 is focused on Paul’s plea to Jewish unbelievers, which fits within the overall theme of the book of Romans which is Paul’s message on how to reach the Jew for Jesus. Romans 9:1-3 begins with a prayer for Jews, and continues with examples of historical Jews, which every Jew could identify with. The fact is that the Jews were hardened (Isaiah 6:9-10), which is what God warned that He would do (Jeremiah 18:1-13), but Paul clarifies that the Jewish hardening is both partial and temporary: “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’” (Romans 11:25-26)
Question: Can the Jew be blamed for his actions, after having been hardened?
Answer: Yes, because their hardened state was the result of God’s judgment upon them for the sake of their persistent state of unrepentance. God the Potter warned them through the prophet Jeremiah, what He was going to fashion them into, if they continued to refuse to “turn back.” (Jeremiah 18:1-13)
Question: Where in Scripture do we similarly hear: “O man, who answers back to God?”
Answer: Job, who found fault with God: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!’” (Job 38:1-3) Although recognizing God’s right over him (Job 9:33), Job couldn’t see what was going on in Heaven, in terms of how God had been defending him. (Job 2:3) When God called Job to account, God deferred to His omniscience, and Job’s lack of it.
Calvinists can be hypocrites when it comes to Romans 9:20. For when Arminians object to the Moderate Calvinist doctrine of Preterition (which teaches that God passes by people, when dealing out grace), the Moderates employ Romans 9:20: “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” But when the same Moderate Calvinists object to the High Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Reprobation (which teaches that God decreed the Fall and rendered it certain), the High Calvinists rebuke the Moderate Calvinists by similarly employing Romans 9:20: “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” But when the Arminians object to the Moderate Calvinists, holding that although God is sovereign enough to deal with mankind in the exact manner described in Preterition, He will not do so on the basis that it contradicts God’s Word, the Moderate Calvinists show the Arminians the Grouper Face: “Nope, who are you O man?” And then these same Moderate Calvinists have the audacity to complain when they are rebuffed by the High Calvinists after using the same explanation given by the Arminians.
