‘The Healing Crew’ – I, the Clay, Surrender to the Potter

Hello friends and welcome back to The Book of Romans Series. Today we are exploring chapter nine. Yesterday we talked about the hope that we eagerly wait for and how nothing can separate us from God. Today let's just jump straight into it.

I speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. (Verses 1-5)

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned in other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was started: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” (Verses 6-9)

Thankfully, it is not by physical descent that we become children of God. But it is Spiritually predestined and chosen.

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twin were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls – she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

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.” (Verses 10-15)

God is all knowing. He knows who will come to Him and who will not. And He always knows exactly what He is doing even if it seems harsh to us. After all, we are the clay and He is the artist (or potter) and the clay doesn’t look up at the artist and say, “What are you doing?” He is the creator, and we are the creation, period.

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 those whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Verses 16-18)

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some common use? (Verses 19-21)

I forgot Paul told the analogy of the potter and the lump of clay in this chapter. But there you go. You’ve heard it twice! In case you were wondering, no I do not read ahead, but I do know the gist what is in each chapter because I have read this book before. I just like to go along and let the Holy Spirit talk to me without knowing the next words ahead.

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction. What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance in glory – even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (Verses 22-24)

What I’ve learned with my walk with Christ is that with God there are no coincidences. For God had given me this to put in this blog after I typed out the 9th verse:

The name of the Lord is good and gracious. It is full of power, yet full of love. Full of wrath, yet full of grace. You that are happiest with the Lord are so blessed, for you see the Lord’s goodness. You see His restrain and His pure love. You are treasured and not equal to those who only look upon Him for His wrath. Those are God fearing in a good sense, but not God loving. God is there for all His children and He does nothing but good for them. In every way, God has compassion on those who are His. Those who are God fearing and God loving and don’t obey Him out of fear but obey Him out of love; those servants are true followers of Jesus.

I did not know how I would work this into this blog, but God sure did!

As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ “

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been Gomorrah.” (Verses 25-29)

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Verses 30-33)

It only takes faith. There are billions of people on this earth, but only a portion of them will be saved. Not even half. That is why it is our job, as God’s children, to do our best to fix that. Though, I have not done this thing that I am telling you to do; God is teaching me how to do it. He is showing me how to be the mighty servant that I am supposed to be.

I want to share something with you; a memory that God gave me just yesterday morning. In elementary school, I hardly ever had anyone to play with. It wasn’t until, I believe, my fifth year that I made a friend on the playground. I wish I could remember his name; but this friend, he came up to me because I was crying and lonely, and we started playing together. We decided that we were going to be superheroes of the playground. We called ourselves ‘The Healing Crew’. Our purpose as ‘The Healing Crew’ was to find anyone on the playground that was sad or lonely, just as I was, and make them happy and play with them. We found a few in our time on the playground, though I cannot remember them in detail.

God gave me this long-forgotten memory yesterday morning and said, “I want you to be a part of ‘The Healing Crew’ again. I want you to go up to anyone who is lonely or sad and pray with them and share my gospel to them.” I’m inviting anyone who wants to be a part of the Healing Crew too, to join me. It’s hard to do this in this pandemic, I know. I don’t know when I will come across a sad or lonely stranger, but when I do, I pray that God gives me confidence that I lack, to be the mighty servant that I know I can be.

Smile my friends. We serve a good God. Today I surrender to the Potter for I am only the clay.