Romans 9:19-21

One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists His will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'Why did You make me like this' "[Isaiah 29:16; 45:9]? Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

V19 – Why does God still blame an unbeliever, since He’s the one who hardens that unbeliever? No one resists the will of God to be saved or to perish. One of the fundamental differences between those who have been able to accept what the Bible teaches about election and those who have not comes at this point: those who accept it have come to understand two things: that God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability are fully compatible, and God is the Creator and man is merely a created being. Those who have rejected what the Bible says about election have almost uniformly come to the conclusion that if God is sovereign, then man cannot be accountable, that if God chooses then man’s choice is irrelevant and meaningless. And there’s no place better in Scripture to dwell on this topic than here. Paul turns to the next objection (which addresses typical Arminian theology): If God’s choice is the determining factor in who believes and who rejects the Gospel, then how can God hold a person responsible? If God chooses, then our choices don’t matter! That’s the objection Paul perceives, and again, this objection proves that he is indeed teaching the doctrine of unconditional election.

The objector says to Paul, “You’re ultimately saying that the difference between Moses and Pharaoh was the choice of God. How can God condemn anybody, since you’ve just asserted that it all boils down to the choice of God?” The modern day objector puts it this way: “How can God hold anyone who rejects the Gospel responsible for rejecting the Gospel, since God Himself denied that person the gifts of willingness and ability to receive the Gospel?” And again, if that’s your objection to the Reformed or Calvinist or Biblical doctrine of election, then that’s proof that you are objecting, not to me or John Calvin, but to Paul’s teaching, to the teaching of God from His Word. Nobody would make an objection like the one Paul addresses if Paul was saying, “It all boils down to man’s choice.” If Paul was saying that, nobody would say to him, “How then can anyone resist His will to be saved or to perish?”

V20-21 – Who are you to demand an answer from God. The pot has no right to question the potter. The potter can do as He pleases, as He’s always in the right, because He’s the potter. Once again, the question put another way is this: How can God condemn if no one can resist His will? Paul offers a couple answers. First, he says that God is not the One on trial here. Paul is making sure when he says, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God,” that we take care not to transgress the proper boundaries of our humilities in this area. Paul is not trying to stifle the discussion here. It’s not like an embarrassing question has been addressed to Paul and he doesn’t have an answer for it so he just comes back and he presses raw authority. That’s not what’s happening. Rather, he’s reminding us of two vitally important realities. The first one is that we are mere creatures and the very fact of our finitude should warn us to be careful about our deductions and our conclusions and our presuppositions in the realm of the infinite and sovereign. Who are we to say what the Sovereign One who is above heaven and earth can and cannot do? Let’s be reminded that we are creatures and He is Creator. The second one is this: no one has a right to question God’s mercy. Jesus Christ hung on the cross. Don’t question God’s mercy.

Paul declares that all of Scripture shows God’s prerogatives as Sovereign Creator. And Paul gives a common illustration – one found in Isaiah 29:16, 45:9, 64:8, and Jeremiah 18:1-6 – the potter and the clay. The potter does not answer to the clay. The potter does what he wants to the clay. Paul elaborates with this illustration in the next series of verses, which we'll look at, Lord willing, tomorrow.