The Bible uses the language of potter and clay in several places, dealing with God's sovereignty over man. Unfortunately, we have taken this idea and made it sort of an optional program, something we might want to try as we gain spiritual maturity. "God, I have finally decided that I will be your clay and you can be my Potter. Go ahead, I give you my permission to mold me and make me after your will."However, in Jeremiah 18:6 (to which Paul strongly alludes in Romans 9), God tells Israel, "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." He does not say, "You are my clay— if you freely choose to be." Nor does he tell them that if they achieve full surrender and the deeper life they can be like clay. No, the image of potter and clay is one of complete and sovereign control. In fact, God says through Isaiah, "You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, 'He did not make me'; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?" (Isa 29:16).
Being clay in the hands of the Potter is not a choice, it is reality. Paul calls attention to the right of the Potter over the clay in Romans 9:21: "Has the potter no right over the clay?" God is completely sovereign over man. He is not waiting for us, wringing his hands, hoping that we will accede to his commands. God is the sovereign Potter; we are just clay.
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