“Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” – ROMANS 9:21 (NKJV)
Over the years, I’ve always been troubled by this scripture (and the verses surrounding it). We know from Isaiah 64:8 that we are the clay and that God is the Potter; it clearly states that “we all are the work of Your hand.” But it seemed that in every translation I read, God was picking and choosing who He loved. But that’s not the case!
As you study Romans 9, you realize that God is pouring out His mercy on everyone; what determines our use is how we respond to that mercy.
Have you ever gone up to someone and sincerely apologized for something you had said or done, and the person responds by looking at you almost mad that you said you were sorry and acknowledged your failure? Sure you have. And you’ve also had situations we’re you’ve sincerely said “I’m sorry” to someone else and their response was, “Don’t think a thing about it…it’s okay; it’s already passed!”
You approached people with the same heart, but that heart was responded to in two different ways. God approaches everyone with the same heart of mercy; the question becomes, “How will you respond to it?”
Let’s look into this a bit deeper.
“God’s mercy is not a reward for good behavior; it is not a wreath given to the fastest athlete. God employed Pharaoh as a prophetic figure to demonstrate the drama of mankind’s salvation from their slavery to an inferior identity…” – ROMANS 9:16-17a (MIRROR)
Just as the Israelites were brought out of slavery from Pharaoh (see in the book of Exodus), God has brought all people out of slavery; He has a better plan for them, but some people still can’t get past seeing themselves as slaves.
“Scripture records God’s conversation with Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16), ‘But to show you My power working in you, I raised you up so that My Name might be declared throughout all the earth.’ The same act of mercy that He willingly bestows on everyone may bless the one and harden the heart of the other. This just doesn’t sound reasonable at all! What gives God the right then to still blame anyone? Who can resist His will? Who can dispute with God? The mod dictates the shape. (There is only one true mold of mankind’s design: the image and likeness of God.)” – ROMANS 9:17b-20
“There is only one true mold of mankind’s design: the image and likeness of God.”
Father God says, “Here I am…you’ve seen My Son Jesus. He’s the exact representation of Me. That’s Who I want you to be like!” That mold is something that we have to deal with all day long because it requires us being flexible, moldable, pliable.
Don’t Move! You Need an EMT
When I was a teen, I was the first person to arrive at the scene of an auto accident: Two teens were racing their cars on Garvin St. and wrecked. Both cars flipped over and slid, and bodies were thrown onto the road.
One of the teens kept trying to get up, but he obviously had a fractured leg, a broken arm and a disconnected shoulder. After watching his futile attempts to get up, I put my finger on his forehead and held him where he couldn’t get up. I told him, “You can’t move yet…there are too many pieces that are wrong. You need to lay there and let this get straightened out by an EMT.”
The boy was trying to move, but there was no way he could do it on his own…he needed to realize that.
My point is this: A lot of times, when people come to Christ, they start trying to move on their own to “clean up their act.” But their efforts won’t get them anywhere! God wants them to come to a place of finally saying, “I can’t do this on my own! I can’t make the changes that are necessary for me to be successful. Only You can do it, God!”
Being flexible means coming to a place of realization that in order for us to successfully live out the life God intends for us, we need to come to the end of ourselves. When we get to that spot, good things start happening in our lives! The greatest moment in my life was when I realized that God is smarter than I am. When we really get a revelation of this fact, it changes everything.
Let’s go back to Romans 9 and see the key verse I started off with, verse 21:
“The Potter sets the pace; same Potter, same clay. One vessel understands its value and another not. one realizes that it is priceless; the other seems worthless to itself.” – ROMANS 9:21 (MIRROR)
The mold for each piece of clay is the same: the image and likeness of God. What determines how that piece of clay is used isn’t God, but how each person sees themselves by God: Do you see yourself worthless or priceless?
The start of your victorious life is to grab hold of the fact that God views you as priceless!
Remember, there is one mold for all of us: Jesus Christ. Does that mean we’re all going to look alike or have the same mission or assignment? No. But we’re going to have the same heart and God wants it. Our giving is our response from our heart, not from our thinking something out.
When we learn to give from the heart, we’re going to see things change in our lives. There are things that have been held back that will be broken free.
To watch or listen to the Feb. 21, 2021 message on which this post is based, click here.
