Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

Romans 9:21 

Authority

Who are we to argue with God or find fault in God’s activity? It’s a common question many people ask, but the answer is clear: when it’s clear to God and a mystery to us, we trust God.

C.S. Lewis once said, “The ancient man approached God … as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock.” Instead of fearing judgment, we question God and ask why the world has so much pain, famine, and suffering. We put God in the dock and become the judge and jury, forgetting that it is God who gave us the very ability to argue. As C.S. Lewis said, “When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

Paul compares God to a potter, who has the right to mold and shape the clay as he sees fit, making one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor. In this passage of Romans 9, Paul gives six questions about God’s sovereign activity, power, and purposes and how they’re at work here on Earth. We must remember that we’re not the customer; we’re the clay, and God can form and mold what He wants to do in our lives. Our life belongs to Him, and we should trust Him with it. We may not understand everything that God does, but we can trust Him through it all.

Who has authority? Too often, we think we do. To answer this question, we need to understand what authority is all about in the first place. Consider two definitions of the word authority from The Concise Oxford Dictionary: (1) “The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience” and (2) “the power to influence others, especially because of one’s commanding manner or one’s recognized knowledge about something.”

God’s authority over his creature, is greater than that of a potter over his clay. The potter made not his clay; but both clay and potter are made by God. Here is something implied, that as there is no difference in the matter or lump out of which the potter framed diversity of vessels, so there is no difference in mankind; all men are alike by nature, and in the same corrupt state; both those who are elected, and those who are rejected, that are made vessels of mercy, or vessels of wrath. -Bible Hub

• Potter – One whose occupation it is to make earthen vessels.
• Power – This word denotes here not merely “physical power,” but authority, right; see Matthew 7:29, translated authority;” Matthew 21:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; Mark 2:10; Luke 5:24, “The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, etc.”
• Lump – Mass. It denotes anything that is reduced to a fine consistency, and mixed, and made soft by water; either clay, as in this place, or the mass produced of grain pounded and mixed with water; Romans 11:16, “If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy;” 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
• One vessel – A cup, or other utensil, made of clay.
• Unto honour – Fitted to an honorable use, or designed for a more useful and refined purpose.
• Unto dishonour – To a meaner service, or more common use. This is a common mode of expression among the Hebrews. The lump here denotes the mass of people, sinners, having no claim on God. The potter illustrates God’s right over that mass, to dispose of it as seems good in his sight. The doctrine of the passage is, that people have no right to complain if God bestows his blessings where and when he chooses.

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. Romans 9:14-18

We must face the fact that God is a sovereign being. He is not answerable to anyone. We don’t like that, because to us sovereignty is always connected with tyranny. To trust anyone with that kind of power is to put ourselves into the hands of someone who might destroy us. We fight that in our national life, we fight it in our family life and we fight it in our individual relationships. We do not trust anyone with absolute power over us. It is no wonder that when we are confronted by a God with absolute power, we are troubled by this. But if God had to give an answer to anyone, that person to whom God had to account would really be God. The very core of God’s nature is that he does what he pleases. What we must do is get rid of the idea that his sovereignty will be destructive to us. As we will see, his sovereignty is our only hope!

It is the Lord alone who made us to differ; we should adore his pardoning mercy and new-creating grace, and give diligence to make our calling and election sure.

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