But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
Truth to Learn
We have no right to tell God who should be saved and who shouldn’t.
Behind the Words
This verse starts of with an unusual Greek word. It is menounge, which is a compound word made up of men, meaning “indeed,” oun, meaning “but, now, or therefore,” and ge which is an emphatic particle, making this an emphatic exclamation which basically means, “but indeed!” In today’s vernacular we might say, “Now wait just a minute!”
The Greek word translated “reply” is antapokrinomai, which is a compound of anti, meaning “against” and krinomai, meaning “to reply or to answer.” This word means “to make an argumentative reply against someone” or “to dispute a statement just made.”
“The thing formed” is translated from plasma, which is the noun form of the verb plassÅ, meaning “to shape or form something as with clay or wax.”
Meaning Explained
What Paul is saying is, “Now wait a minute! Who are you to argue with God?” Do we have the right to tell our maker that He made a mistake? Do we who are imperfect and sinful have the right to tell the perfect, eternal, sinless, all knowing, all powerful God that He is wrong? I don’t think so.
In this verse Paul is quoting from Isaiah who says,
Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, "He did not make me"? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? (Isaiah 29:16)
Isaiah is chastening the Jews for making themselves and their actions more important than God. He says, “You turn the order of things upside down, putting yourselves in place of God.” That is the same message that Paul is declaring to the Jewish Christians in Rome. They had made their desires and intentions to be of more importance than God’s; they had accepted a little God, big man theology just as many Christians have today.
Similarly, who are we to tell God who is to be saved and who isn’t? It’s His choice, not ours! He chooses us, we don’t choose Him. Wait just a minute! We have no right to tell God that He can’t decide who is to be forgiven their sins and declared righteous and who should suffer the agony of Hell.
As we discussed a few verses back, God is righteous, which means that He always does what is right, and He is holy, which means that He is without sin. Therefore, He always does the right thing without even a hint of sinfulness in it. If He chose to allow most of humankind to go to Hell because of their sinfulness and chose to save some of mankind from that fate by declaring us righteous, then we have no right to question Him in doing so. He is God!
Application
In the final analysis it really is fair for God to allow most of mankind to go to Hell and save a few from that fate. It is fair for Him to make that choice! After all, God did it that way and He is sinless and He is always right!
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved