Romans 9:19-23 – The Potter and the Clay

Paul’s second point, in verses 16 and 18, is that God’s Word operates by mercy, not human effort or will. Israel’s tradition made them think their fleshly identity or religious works made them special recipients of God’s favour. Paul corrects this. Israel was chosen because of God’s mercy, and He gives mercy according to His will. If He wills to harden, He can harden. Their status was never earned; it was given. That’s what mercy is.

A third reason God’s Word has not failed is that God Himself formed the nation. He honoured them, judged them, preserved them, and will ultimately save them.
Israel’s unbelief does not mean God failed somehow; it shows their failure, not His. Everything that’s happened to Israel follows what God already revealed in Scripture. God will finish what He began.

In verse 19 (Romans 9:19), Paul anticipates another objection:
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Why does God still find fault? Who has resisted His will?
This comes from someone reacting to verse 18, where Paul says God shows mercy to whom He wills and hardens whom He wills. These questions are not Paul’s own questions; they’re the objections of someone who misunderstands God’s dealings and tries to justify himself. Romans 3 shows similar objections from those who twist Paul’s teaching.

The question assumes that if God hardens someone, then God’s to blame for their failure. Paul rejects this. The fault is always their own sin. God judges because people are sinners, not because He randomly forces them into hardness. Romans 3:6 says God judges the world in righteousness. Romans 3:9 says Jews and Gentiles alike are “all under sin.” That’s why God finds fault.
Hardening is a response to existing sin and pride.
A hardened heart is a heart that resists God. If God Himself created hardness without any prior sin, He’d be creating sin. But Scripture shows the opposite: God hardens where sin already exists. When God reproves a proud sinner, the sinner reacts by becoming more resistant. That further hardness is also additional sin. God wills to harden only where people already oppose Him. He’s not guilty for reproving or judging wickedness.
The fault lies with man, not God. God remains righteous, and His Word remains true.
Sin is always against what’s true, so the sinner’s the one at fault. It’s not unfair for a judge to list a criminal’s sins and declare him guilty. The criminal may protest, but the judge is dealing with him, not someone else. This is Paul’s point: God finds fault because He’s the Judge, and we’re the sinners. In the next versRomans 9:2, Paul will say God is the Maker and Former; therefore, He has the right to judge.

When the objection is raised, “Why does He yet find fault?” we must ask, with whom is God finding fault? Not with believing Israel or saved individuals, who are justified by faith. The objection concerns unbelieving, hardened Israel—those who rejected God’s Word.
Why does God find fault with them? Because they sinned and they hardened their hearts. The same question could be asked of Pharaoh: if God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, why did He judge him? Because Pharaoh’s hardened heart was sin, not obedience. Hardening is not God switching off a person’s ability to believe; it’s the sinner’s proud resistance being exposed by God’s reproof.
God can show mercy and plead with sinners, but mercy doesn’t in itself guarantee salvation; it provides a way, a method, a solution through which to receive salvation, and it only comes to those who believe, who have faith in that solution. This present age proves that grace abounds, yet many still refuse to believe.
By the same token, God’s hard response doesn’t guarantee damnation. Even when God deals firmly, people can still respond in faith.
The context of Romans 9 to 11 remains Israel.
Romans 9:3 shows Paul grieving over them. Romans 11:11 says Israel’s fall brought salvation to the Gentiles, but why did Israel fall? Their unbelief and hardness, not God knocking them down.
Jesus Himself showed mercy to some in Israel and spoke hard words to others, yet their response was their own responsibility.
So why does God find fault?
Because of their sin and pride. They didn’t listen, and so they didn’t understand, and didn’t receive the Scriptures, but God gave them repeated opportunities.

So, these objections raised in Romans 9:19: Why doth he yet find fault? and Who has resisted His will? are not deep theological questions from Paul but the ignorant objections from a self‑justifying man.
Paul will rebuke this thinking in the next verse, verse 20. The question assumes that if God wills to show mercy or to harden, no one can resist Him. This is similar to the Calvinist idea of irresistible grace, where nothing can oppose God’s decree. But Paul’s not teaching that.
Scripture shows that people can resist God’s will. Ezekiel 33:11 says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires them to turn and live. The wicked—here, it’s Israel—can repent and receive life. Not all Israel is the promised Israel; many were wicked and disobedient, yet God called them to turn. His sovereignty doesn’t mean He causes everything that happens. A sovereign ruler can have authority without causing every event.
People may be able to resist God’s will, but they can’t overcome it. Pharaoh resisted. Israel resisted. Humanity resists. God’s stated will is sometimes opposed by sinners, yet His ultimate purpose stands.

Jesus shows plainly that people can resist God’s will.
In Luke 13:34, He cries this deeply, moving lament over Jerusalem, revealing the very heart of God:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Jesus willed and longed to gather them, but they refused.
This alone answers the question, “Who has resisted His will?” Jerusalem resisted. God desires to give grace and glory, but He created people with the ability to respond freely. Some believe; others reject. Peter and John received Christ, but the city as a whole did not.

Romans 13:2 gives another example. God’s the one who gives authority its power, yet Paul says,
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

People can resist God’s ordained power, though it brings judgment. The real question is not whether someone can resist God’s will, but whether resisting it will ever be good for them. It never is.

Paul himself experienced that resistance. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, he says he wanted to visit the believers, “but Satan hindered us.” Satan resists God’s will constantly, though he never overcomes it. Resisting and defeating are not the same. God’s will is ultimately fulfilled because He has the power and wisdom to accomplish His purpose, even while allowing human and angelic beings to exercise their will.

God’s stated will in 1 Timothy 2:4 is: “that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Yet many resist the gospel.
Universalism and strict determinism fail here: God desires salvation for all, but people refuse.
Universalism is the belief that everyone will eventually be saved, no matter what.
It teaches that no one will face final judgment, because God’s love guarantees salvation for all people.
Strict determinism is the belief that everything that happens is fixed by God’s decree, including every human choice.
In this view, no one can ever act differently than what God has already decided, and human will has no real freedom.

God’s larger purpose is the display of His manifold wisdom and glory in the restoration of all things, not merely the salvation of individuals. His glory stands with or without human response, though He graciously allows people to partake of it through Christ.

Scripture gives more examples of resisting God’s will. In 2 Timothy 3:8, Paul says that Janes and Jambres “withstood Moses,” resisting the truth.
Jannes and Jambres were two Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses in Exodus.
When Moses performed miracles by God’s power—like turning the rod into a serpent or turning water into blood—these magicians tried to copy the miracles to resist Moses and make Pharaoh ignore God’s command. Jannes and Jambres were exposed as frauds and became a lasting example of men who fight against God and lose.
God’s will is bigger than any individual, and His ultimate plan will be fulfilled. Those who resist His will receive judgment; those who align with His will—especially His will for salvation by grace—receive mercy.

This is why Paul insists God’s Word has not failed. His will is expressed in promise, in mercy, and in His sovereign right as Creator. Salvation offered through Christ is the effect of God’s Word to Israel, even through their fall.
If God fulfilled salvation through their unbelief, He’ll certainly fulfil His promises to them in the future.
Acts 7:51 also shows Israel resisting God directly.
Stephen rebukes them, saying,
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

“Stiff‑necked” is a biblical term for a hardened heart—unwilling to bow to God. They resisted Christ, resisted the Spirit, and rejected God’s repeated mercy.
Their uncircumcised hearts and ears showed resistance, not submission.
Stephen was preaching God’s message, urging repentance, yet they resisted the Holy Ghost, just as their fathers resisted the prophets. When they were “cut to the heart” in Acts 7:54, instead of repenting, they gnashed their teeth and killed Stephen. Gnashing their teeth means they showed fierce anger and hatred, like someone grinding their teeth in rage. This is hardened, unbelieving Israel resisting God’s will.
This’s why God found fault: their sin, their hardness, their refusal. They resisted His will, and they bore the consequences.

Returning to Romans 9, the question “Who hath resisted His will?” is in the context of God showing mercy or hardening. God’s “will” here is how He chooses to deal with sinners, whether He responds with mercy or hardness. It’s not about God deciding before creation how every person will respond.
God gave promises to Abraham, chose Jacob, and warned Pharaoh—all in time, within the dimension of time, not outside time in eternity before time existed. Hardening is God’s righteous stance toward a sinner who already resists Him. Mercy is His gracious stance toward a sinner He chooses to spare.

Every sinner resists God’s will.
God’s not determining their response; He is responding to their sin. Sometimes His hard response awakens a sinner to reality, like a criminal who finally repents after punishment. Other times hardness increases. All people resist God at times, which is why believers should constantly encourage one another to remain soft toward God’s Word. Even today, God dispenses grace, yet many still refuse to believe. God’s position—mercy or hardness—never guarantees a person’s response.

Hardening occurs when resistant man meets the immovable God. We can’t move God. He stands firm, and when a sinner resists, it produces hardness. To some, God moves with compassion; to others, He stands in righteous judgment. He owes no one mercy. He’s righteous, and sinners bear the consequences of resisting Him.

Paul answers the objections in Romans 9:19 with Romans 9:20-21:
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

God finds fault because He made them; they sinned, and they resisted Him.
Israel owed God gratitude for His covenants, promises, and glory, yet they sinned against Him. Stephen said, “You always resist the Holy Ghost,” and instead of repenting, they stoned Stephen to death.

Paul’s rebuke—“Who art thou, O man?”—reminds us of Job.
In Job 40:2, God confronts Job:
Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job immediately recognises his place in Job 40:4:
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Job stops speaking because he realises he spoke without knowledge. God’s not obligated to explain Himself. He’s God; man is dust.

Today, believers have the privilege of knowing God’s revealed will through Scripture; we have the complete Word of God, something Job didn’t possess. But the lesson remains: God is righteous, man is sinful, and any objection that blames God for human hardness misunderstands both God’s nature and man’s responsibility.

Christians often try to figure out things God has not revealed. Sometimes God withholds knowledge because He doesn’t intend us to know it. Job shows the right response in suffering. In Job 13:15, he says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.”
Job had lost nearly everything, yet he remained a man of faith. He acknowledged God as Maker and himself as servant. Job spoke in ignorance because he had no Scripture, but his submission shows the right response toward God’s will. Today, unlike Job, believers have God’s revealed Word and can know His will.

Paul’s rebuke in Romans 9:20-21 echoes Job’s lesson:
“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”

Israel’s objection—“Why does He find fault?”—forgets their place. They sinned, resisted, and hardened their hearts. God had given them covenants, promises, and glory, yet they repaid Him with unbelief. Stephen said, “You always resist the Holy Ghost,” and instead of repenting, they killed him. God’s not at fault; they are.

Paul quotes prophecy from Isaiah 29 in the next part of the verse: “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?”
Isaiah 29 is a chapter about Israel’s blindness.
Isaiah addresses Jerusalem (Ariel) in Isaiah 29:13, describing people who honour God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him.
It shows God withdrawing wisdom from Israel because they’d already resisted Him.
Their blindness was not God randomly shutting their eyes; it was His righteous response to their unbelief. They’d turned things upside down, blaming God for their condition. Isaiah warns against saying, “He made me this way,” or accusing God of lacking understanding. God made things good; sin corrupted them. Israel’s blindness was the result of their own rebellion, not God’s injustice.
Isaiah 30:1-2 continues the theme, calling Israel “rebellious children” who don’t take counsel from God, add sin to sin, and trust in Egypt instead of the Lord. They even told prophets, in Isaiah 30:10,
…say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
This beggars belief, but they actually told the false seers and prophets not to tell them the truth. They wanted pleasant messages, not truth and then in the next verse they even speak against Christ: “Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”
This is a prophecy of Israel rejecting and crucifying Jesus. Their hardness was foretold.
Isaiah 45:9 warns, “Woe unto him that striveth with his maker.” Israel was striving against God, questioning His actions, and blaming Him for their condition. The potter‑clay imagery appears again in this verse: clay cannot accuse the potter of ignorance. God made Israel, gave them covenants, and sent prophets, yet they resisted Him. Their blindness and judgment were the result of their own rebellion.

Paul uses this prophetic background to correct the objector in Romans 9.
The questioner is turning things upside down—blaming God for Israel’s hardness instead of acknowledging Israel’s sin. The issue’s not God’s fairness but man’s rebellion. God’s mercy is never owed, and His withholding of mercy is never unjust. Israel resisted God’s will repeatedly, and God responded righteously.

Jesus also quoted this same passage in Mark 7, rebuking Israel for replacing God’s commands with human traditions.
In Mark 7:13, Jesus says Israel made, quote, “the word of God of none effect through your tradition.”
Their worship was vain because their hearts weren’t submitted to God. These were Israelites who honoured God with their lips but whose hearts were far from Him. They followed religious traditions that they invented, not God’s commands. Because of this, the Word of God had no effect in them.
Jesus and Isaiah both separate believing Israel from unbelieving Israel.
This is exactly the issue Paul addresses in Romans 9: God’s Word has not failed, but it had no effect in unbelieving Israel, who replaced God’s truth with human commandments.
Paul draws directly from these passages in Romans 9:19–21. When the objector asks, “Why hast thou made me thus? Paul quotes Isaiah to show the foolishness of blaming God. God is the potter; Israel is the clay. He has the right to shape the nation, to honour or to judge, to show mercy or to harden. The context is Israel, not individual predestination. God can take the same lump of clay—Israel—and make vessels of honour (believing Israel) and vessels of dishonour (unbelieving Israel). He can destroy or restore. He is the Maker.

Isaiah 64:8 shows the right response:
But now, O LORD , thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Israel acknowledges their sin, asks God not to be exceedingly angry, and pleads for mercy. Their cities are desolate, their temple burned, and they cry out for God to remember His people. This is the posture Paul applauds: recognising God’s righteousness, confessing sin, and seeking mercy.

This prophetic background explains Paul’s argument.
Unbelieving Israel hardened their hearts, resisted God’s Word, rejected Christ, and made the Word of God of none effect.
God responded as the righteous potter.
God is the potter, and Israel is the clay. As the potter, He has full authority to save a vessel or to destroy it.
Believing Israel received mercy; unbelieving Israel received judgment. God remains just, and His Word remains true.

Jeremiah 18 illustrates this clearly.
God sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house, where a vessel becomes marred. The potter decides whether to remake it or discard it. God applies the lesson directly to Israel in Jeremiah 18:6:
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD . Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

Israel is the clay in His hand. When He formed Israel, it was in time—bringing them out of Egypt, giving them the law, nurturing them in the wilderness. He found flaws in the nation, and He had the right either to destroy or to show mercy. At times He spared them, as in Moses’ day; at other times He judged them, as when the unbelieving generation died in the wilderness.

Jeremiah 18:7–10 explains God’s dealings: if a nation repents, He’ll turn from the judgment He intended; if it does evil, He’ll withdraw the good He planned. This answers the Romans 9 question: Why have God’s promised benefits not come to Israel? Because Israel resisted, hardened, and refused to repent. God, the potter, can make a vessel of mercy or a vessel of destruction from the same lump.

Unbelieving Israel complained that Gentiles were receiving salvation and the remnant was receiving the kingdom. But Jesus, Paul, and the prophets all answer the same way: Israel rejected God’s Word. Their traditions were not the works God required. Salvation comes by promise, faith, and grace—not by fleshly identity or religious performance.

Then Jeremiah 18:11–12 shows Israel’s stubbornness: they chose their own devices and the imagination of their evil hearts. God responded by framing evil against them, sending Babylon to destroy Jerusalem. Yet even then, a remnant remained. Israel’s destruction was never total; God preserved a faithful few.

Romans 9:19-21 draws directly from this picture. Every Old Testament use of the potter‑clay picture refers to God and Israel, not individual predestination. The “same lump” is Israel. God can make from Israel a vessel of destruction (unbelieving Israel) and a vessel of mercy (believing Israel). Fleshly Israel does not automatically receive the promises. Believing Israel—the remnant—receives them.

Paul’s grief for his kinsmen shows his desire that broken Israel repent and believe, so the Word of God may have its intended effect in them through Christ.

Now to Romans 9:22-23, which asks:
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

These vessels of wrath are the same broken, unbelieving Israel described in Jeremiah and Isaiah—Israel that repeatedly resisted God, rejected His commandments, and hardened their hearts.
God does not prepare vessels of wrath for destruction, but He does prepare vessels of mercy for glory.
Now, we need to see something important about the words, “which he had afore prepared unto glory” in this passage, so we’ll deal with this in the next episode.

God endured Israel’srebellion for centuries.
He sent prophets, pleaded with them, warned them, and showed both mercy and judgment. Hosea 8 describes this long history: Israel transgressed the covenant, but they cried, “My God, we know thee,” yet God said He didn’t know them because their worship was false.
They set up kings without Him, built idols, and sowed the wind. Hosea 8:8 says, “Israel is swallowed up… as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.” This is the vessel of wrath—Israel hardened and scattered among the Gentiles.

Could God make a vessel of pleasure and a vessel of no pleasure from the same lump? Scripture repeatedly says yes.
Israel had covenants and promises, but unbelieving Israel rejected them. Believing Israel receives glory; unbelieving Israel receives destruction. The Word of God has effect, but only in those who believe.

Isaiah 8:14 says Israel “forgot his maker.”
This is the same issue Paul addresses: Israel resisted God’s will, and now asks why God finds fault. Paul answers: because they forgot the Maker, resisted His Word, and hardened themselves.
Romans 9:22 shows God’s longsuffering toward these vessels of wrath. His final wrath hasn’t come yet, but it will. Revelation 6:17 speaks of the coming “day of His wrath,” still future. Meanwhile, God patiently endures unbelief.

Peter teaches the same truth. In 2 Peter 3:9, people ask why God’s promised kingdom hasn’t arrived. Peter answers: “The Lord is not slack… but is longsuffering… not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God delays judgment so sinners—including unbelieving Israel—may repent. Paul says the Word of God has not failed; Peter says God’s longsuffering is salvation.

Peter even connects his teaching to Paul’s in 2 Peter 3:15, saying: “Account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul hath written unto you.”
Paul’s Romans 9–11 explains Israel’s condition: God is longsuffering, offering salvation now, even though Israel once experienced hardness under Christ’s earthly ministry.

God’s default position is longsuffering. Though Scripture records moments of judgment, they occur within a vast history of patience. Peter reminds us that God was longsuffering even in Noah’s day—warning for a hundred years before the flood. Judgment came suddenly, but only after extended mercy.

Jesus taught the same thing in the parable of the tares in Matthew 13. The kingdom was preached, yet not immediately received. Two groups emerged: those who believed and those who resisted. God allowed both to grow until the time of separation.
In Matthew 13:24–30, Jesus explains that while the sower planted good seed, an enemy sowed tares among the wheat. A “tare” is a weed that grows among good plants and looks like the real thing, but isn’t.
God created Israel as His good field, but the corruption within the nation came from the enemy and from Israel’s own sin—not from God. When the servants ask whether they should remove the tares, the Lord says no, lest the wheat be harmed. Both must grow together until the harvest, when the tares will be burned and the wheat gathered into the barn. The barn is the kingdom; the burning is judgment. Until Christ returns, Israel contains both believing and unbelieving people—two vessels from the same lump.

Paul’s point in Romans 9 matches Jesus’ parable. God, the Maker, can form from Israel a vessel of honour and a vessel of dishonour. Faith is the difference. And though the parable uses plants, people can repent. A “tare” can become “wheat” if it turns to God, and God will repent of the judgment He intended.

Jesus showed this as well. To unbelieving Israel He spoke woe, warning of coming destruction. Yet He also prayed, “Father, forgive them,” and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that God was “not imputing their trespasses” during Christ’s earthly ministry. God endured their unbelief with longsuffering. Christ could have destroyed the nation instantly, yet He suffered on the cross instead. This is exactly what Paul means when he says, “What if God… endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath?”

Paul’s the greatest example of this mercy. In 1 Timothy 1:16, he says he obtained mercy so Christ might show “all longsuffering” as a pattern. Paul was an unbelieving Jew, a vessel of wrath, yet God saved him. This is why Paul can explain how God will save all who believe—including unbelieving Israel once they believe.

Romans 2 shows Paul applying Israel’s own covenants to them.
He warns that possessing the law doesn’t exempt them from judgment. God’s goodness and longsuffering should lead them to repentance, but their hardness stores up wrath for the day of judgment. These are the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.

Jesus spoke differently to believing Israel—the “wheat.” To the little flock He said, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see.” He promised the disciples, the believers, thrones in the kingdom in Matthew 19:28 and told them it was the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom in Luke 12:32. But to the scribes and Pharisees, the unbelievers, He said, “Woe unto you… how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” They understood He spoke of them and sought to kill Him.

So, to summarise Romans 9:22–23, it describes two vessels from the same lump—Israel. Unbelieving Israel is the vessel of wrath, hardened through persistent rebellion. Believing Israel is the vessel of mercy, prepared for glory. Paul’s grief for his kinsmen reflects his desire that the vessels of wrath repent and become vessels of mercy.

Until the next episode, we’ll cover the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory, what that means and who it applies to. Until then, may God bless you richly.