19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 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? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (Romans 9:19-21 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Here Apostle Paul brings in the unbelieving and rejected Jews making an objection against God: “If the case be thus, that God does sometimes, and that justly, leave abdurate sinners to harden themselves, why is he offended at it, and complains of it? If God hardeneth us because he will, why does he find fault with us for our hardness of heart? For who has at any time resisted his will? How is it in our power to avoid being hardened, if it be his will that we should be hardened?”
Learn hence, That guilty sinners are full of hard thoughts of God, and very prone to think the divine dispensations unreasonable, if not unrighteous; but upon false and mistaken grounds: Why doth he find fault? Who hath resisted his will? To this objection the apostle returns a very smart answer, saying, Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall, &c.
In which answer, Observe, 1. A vehement objurgation or reproof.
2. A substantial vindication of the righteousness and wisdom of God in his proceedings with men.
Note, 1. The objurgation or reproof, drawn up in an interrogative form, which argues great intenseness of mind in the person speaking: Nay but, O man, who art thou?
As if the apostle had said, “What bold and unheard-of presumption is this, that man, blind and ignorant man, guilty, sinful man, obnoxious to wrath and eternal death, that he should undertake to reprove and censure, to judge and condemn the actions and dispensations of the most high and holy God, as if they were crooked and perverse, defective either in justice or wisdom!”
Learn hence, that it is no less than horrid and horrible presumption for so weak, sinful, and worthless a creature, as man is, to contest or dispute with the most high God about the wisdom or righteousness of any of his ways: O man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Note, 2. How the apostle vindicates the wisdom and righteousness of God in his proceedings with men in general, and against the Jews in particular; showing that there is no more cause to make this objection against God for rejecting the unbelieving Jews, and showing favour to the believing Gentiles, than for the pitcher to contend with him that formed it, why he made it of such a shape and not of another figure; or for the clay, when it is marred and broken, to complain of the potter for making of one part of it a vessel unto honour and the other unto dishonour.
Learn hence, That men who have made themselves obnoxious to the justice of God by a long-continued course of sin and disobedience against God, (as the unbelieving Jews here spoken of evidently did,) have no cause either to complain of God’s severe proceedings against themselves, or of his favourable dispensations towards others. What just cause had the Jews, rejected for their own unbelief and hardness of heart, to murmur against God for showing mercy to the Gentiles, who submitted to the terms of mercy?