The Potter's Promise: A Biblical Defense of Traditional Soteriology

by Leighton Flowers

Omnipotence without love is impotent. Omniscience apart from love is worthless. And even benevolent gifts, like the provisions of rain and sunlight, apart from love are nothing. We know that God is omnipotent, omniscient and graciously benevolent to all humanity, but we also know that these characteristics do not necessarily reflect the true nature of love.

God’s inability to be unloving is not a short coming of God’s strength and power, but the greatest most glorifying characteristic of His eternal nature! To declare God’s universal self-sacrificial love to the entire world reveals God for what makes Him so abundantly glorious! His love.

The church must come to understand God’s purpose in electing the nation of Israel to send out His invitation is distinct from His choice to save whosoever willingly responds to that invitation, otherwise this doctrine will continue to be a point of confusion and contention.

Traditionalists believe this means that it pleased God to give man a certain level of “autonomy” or “libertarian freedom.” It is just a game of question begging for the Calvinist to presume God is pleased to create a world under His meticulous deterministic control (i.e. “sovereignty”).

In short, the Calvinist denies God's eternal attribute (omnipotence) in his effort to protect the temporal one (sovereignty).

Arguing that God’s nature demands that He remains in meticulous deterministic control over every dust particle and all our moral sinful desires is not an argument in defense of His sovereign freedom, but a repudiation of it.[30]

Passages throughout the bible teach that there are “authorities” and “powers” which are yet to be destroyed, but have been given limited control.

But, when one considers the revelation of God’s holiness (Ezek. 36:23), His unwillingness to even tempt men to sin (James 1:13), His absolute perfect nature and separateness from sin (Is. 48:17; Hab. 1:13), it certainly appears to suggest that our linear, logical constructs should not be used to limit His creative abilities only to the height of our finite imaginations (Is. 55:9).

To us the past is unchangeable -- water under the bridge. The future, however, is as uncertain as the forecast of rain and impossible for us to fully predict or know. The only point where the “changeable” meets “certainty” for us is in the present. But, is that also true of our infinite Creator? What if the past, present and future remains both certain and changeable to God? As some have put it, “God is in the eternal now.”

C.S. Lewis aptly wrote in his book Mere Christianity, “If you picture time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn.” He argues that all times are the present to God insomuch as His knowledge is concerned.

No man will stand before the Father and be able to give the excuse, “I was born unloved by my Creator (Jn. 3:16). I was born un-chosen and without the hope of salvation (Titus 2:11). I was born unable to see, hear or understand God’s revelation of Himself (Acts

28:27-28).” No! They will stand wholly and completely “without excuse” (Rm. 1:20), because God loved them (Jn. 3:16), called them to salvation (2 Cor. 5:20), revealed Himself to them (Titus 2:11), and provided the means by which their sins would be atoned (1 Jn. 2:2). No man has any excuse for unbelief (Rm. 1:20).

The Messianic secret, if rightly understood, is not Jesus’ attempt to permanently keep people from knowing, believing in, and following Him. Instead, it is the temporary strategy Jesus employed to accomplish redemption on Calvary so that all may be saved through faith in Him after His plan was fulfilled.

Clearly, Jesus used riddles, or parables, to keep the Jewish leaders in the dark for a time so as to accomplish a greater redemptive good. This completely undermines Calvinism’s doctrine of “Total Inability.” There is no practical or theological reason for God to put a blind fold on those born totally and completely blind from birth.

James 1:13 teaches, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.” Yet, would Calvinists have us believe that God refrains from tempting, but somehow determines the very desires of the temper and the tempted so as to necessitate the sinful action in every circumstance? This theory simply cannot be supported from the whole counsel of Scripture. Please allow me to propose another theory.[44]

What many Calvinists seem to miss is that compatibilism, the philosophical system adopted by most notable scholars leading in the resurgence of Calvinism today, is a form of hard determinism. It is the belief that God’s determinism of all things (sometimes referenced as “sovereignty” or “meticulous providence”) is compatible with “creaturely freedom” (defined as creatures acting in accordance with their divinely decreed nature/desires).

So God is not said to have caused or enticed anyone. He simply lets a man continue down his self-hardened path and ensures that no revelation is clear enough to convince him to repent prior to the sovereign redemptive purpose being served by his free acts of rebellion (like when the Jews cried out “crucify Him!”).

Instead we see Christ telling His disciples to keep things quiet until the right time (Matt. 16:20). We see Him hiding the truth in parables (Mark 4:11). Why? If all people are born corpse-like dead, deaf, blind and unable to understand the truth, as Calvinism’s doctrine of Total Inability suggests, why would Christ need to do this?

He did it because He knew revealing Himself could lead some to believe and He did not want them to come to repentance yet (not until after He is crucified and raised up does He draw all men to Himself, Jn. 12:32). This demonstrates that Jesus knew the truth was more than sufficient to draw the lost to repentance. He had a bigger redemptive purpose to accomplish through them first, so He “judicially hardened” them from seeing the otherwise enabling truth of God’s Word.

Non-Calvinists can and should affirm with our Calvinistic brethren that all men are born enemies of God (or at least born under the inevitable curse to become His enemy). Where we differ is in relation to the sufficiency of the gospel appeal sent by God Himself to invite all His enemies to be reconciled (2 Cor. 5:20). Is the “power of God unto Salvation” (Rom. 1:16) sufficient to enable those who hear it to respond willingly?

We can all agree that mankind is born sinful, but we disagree as to whether or not mankind is able to recognize and admit their sinfulness in light of God’s clear and merciful revelation.

We affirm with our Calvinistic brethren that all people are born enslaved, but we differ regarding whether or not the Holy Spirit wrought truth of God is sufficient to enable those in bondage to humb...

There is no reason to suggest God determines the desires of the brothers any more so than there is to suggest the police officer determines the desires of the speeder. The Potter sinlessly used a sinful will to accomplish His promise.

The text never suggests that God refused Pharaoh the ability to refrain or not refrain from his morally evil actions. Like the police officer hid his presence from the speeders, so too God hid His presence from Pharaoh. The Potter sinlessly used a sinful will to accomplish His promise.

We cannot and should not attempt to avoid the clear biblical teaching of God’s use of these Judicial means to accomplish His redemptive plan. After all, these issues are the ACTUAL objections being addressed in the controversial diatribe questions presented by Paul’s interlocutor in Romans chapter 3 and chapter 9.

Whosoever believes in Him is predestined to become “holy and blameless in His sight,” (vs. 4) which parallels Paul’s teaching in Rom. 8:29, which says, “he also predestined (those who love God, Rom. 8:28) to be conformed to the imagine of His Son.” Paul is referring to the sanctification of all who come to be in Him through faith. Every believer, regardless of their nationality, will be “conformed to the image of Christ” by being made “holy and blameless.”

Believers in Christ can know they will be sanctified and glorified because God has marked them “in Him” and given them His Spirit as a guarantee of what He has purposed for all who believe.

God has invited all to come to Christ and enter into His rest (Matt. 28:19; 11:28; Mark 16:15; John 12:32; 2 Cor. 5:19–21; Col. 1:23) and He genuinely desires all to come (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4; Ezek. 18:30–32; Matt. 23:37; Rom. 10:21). All who come will be trained (sanctified, conformed to His image, Rom. 8:29) and guaranteed a place (adopted, glorified, Rom. 8:23), because that is what God has predetermined for all who are in Him.

Paul seems to be saying “we have observed” and “therefore we know.” The context and grammar appear to indicate a reference not to an intuitive knowledge of Paul’s readers, but to that which comes from observation of the past, or a remembrance.[73]

The point is not that God causes everything for a good purpose, but that God redeems occurrences of evil for a good purpose in the lives of those who love Him.

Clearly, this word can be understood simply as knowing someone or something in the past, as in those known previously (i.e. the saints of old).

If Paul intended to use the word proginōskō in this sense, then he meant simply that because we have seen how God worked all things to the good for those whom He knew before, we know that He will do the same for those who love and are called by Him now.

In verse 28-29a, Paul provides comfort to lovers of God in his audience by reminding them of God’s trustworthiness for those who have loved Him throughout the generations.

Paul is reflecting on God’s redemptive purpose being accomplished through those who loved God in former generations. That redemptive purpose included bringing the Messiah into this world through Israel (Rom. 9:4-5), or those Israelites set apart for that noble purpose (Rom. 9:21). This was God’s predestined plan of redemption, which was brought to pass through those who loved God and were called according to His purpose.

knowledge of someone before they were conceived. The verb προεγνω is the word for ‘know’ (in an intimate sense) with the preposition προ (before) prefixed to it. It refers to having an intimate relationship with someone in the past…

The past tense suggests that Paul is referring to former generations of those who have loved God and were called to fulfill His redemptive purpose. They were known in the past generations and predestined by God to be made in the very image of the One to come, “the firstborn among many brothers and sisters,” which is something already completed in the past through the working of God in former generations.

Instead of introducing a complex concept of divine prescience, unconditional election, and effectual salvation never once clearly expounded upon in the Scriptures, could it be that Paul may intend simply to communicate that those who were previously loved and known by God were also predestined to be conformed to the image of the One to come?

Nothing in this or any other text supports the concept of God in eternity past preselecting certain individuals out of the mass of humanity for effectual salvation. It would be difficult to substantiate this meaning of the term foreknow in reference to the Israelites who were in covenant with God. It is best interpreted in reference to those known by God in former times.

The fact that the “Calvinistic” interpretations of Paul’s writings do not appear until the fifth century with Augustine should be of considerable concern, especially given that Augustine did not speak Greek and was known to be former Manichean Gnostic,[98] a group that promoted deterministic philosophy and was notorious for its fights with the early church fathers.[99]

When interpreting Romans 9, Calvinists are forced to change their hermeneutical approach from an individual application of salvation to a corporate application somewhere before they get to the end of the chapter and into the following two chapters. Otherwise, they have the dilemma of explaining why the same individually-hardened Israelites who are stumbling have not stumbled beyond recovery or the hope of being grafted back in for salvation (Rom. 11:11–23).

The typical Calvinistic interpretation appears to take Romans 9 literally to suggest that the son (Ishmael) of the slave woman (Hagar) is condemned under the law before being born and doing anything sinful.[109] This may have been a valid interpretation had the apostle Paul not clearly explained his teaching as being figurative or allegorical.

Calvinists interpret vs. 15 to mean that God can choose to save whomever He wishes, which is not a point any Traditionalist would deny. Whom God desires to save is no secret, however. Scripture declares plainly, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6, 1 Pet. 5:5–6). God saves anyone He wishes to save and He wishes to save weak, humble, and repentant believers, regardless of their nationality (Ps. 18:27).

If the clay represents all of humanity from birth, in accordance with His eternal decree, then it would imply that the Potter did the spoiling and the remaking. But if the clay is understood to represent Israel, then it is clear that the spoiling (or callousing) is a direct result of their own rebellious choices, not the molding of the Potter.

Paul is not attempting to distinguish between those vessels blessed with effectual salvation and those vessels cursed with reprobation, as the Calvinists contend.[130] Instead, he is drawing a distinction between those vessels blessed to carry out the noble purpose of fulfilling God’s promise and those vessels hardened in their rebellion in order to ensure the fulfillment of that same promise. In other words, it is all about the Potter’s promise.

Israel, having grown calloused in their rebellion (Rom. 9:1-3; Acts 28:27), missed their own Messiah (Rom. 9:4-5), which certainly would lead one to ask, Has God’s Word failed (Rom. 9:6)? But even their stumbling was used in God’s sovereign and redemptive plan, as Paul proves by pointing to the prophecy in Isa. 28:16, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

The fellow kinsmen for whom Paul desperately pleads in Romans 9 are not without hope. Those hardened have hope of being provoked by envy and saved. Those stumbling have not stumbled beyond the hope of recovery (Rom. 11:11). Paul desperately holds out hope for those cut off to leave their unbelief and be grafted back in (Rom. 11:23). Hope does not remain for the reprobate of Calvinism, but it most certainly remains for those whom the apostle addresses in this text.

God has cut us all off in our sin by giving us the inherence to squander as prodigals and a forbidden fruit from which to take our own rebellious bite. He has allowed us all to go our own way. Why? To show off His meticulous deterministic power by predestining most

to eternal torment from before creation? By no means! That is not what Paul is shouting from his rooftop.

We can rest assured that the Potter’s plan is to show mercy to all, because that was His original promise made to Abraham…“all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). The promise is not for a few preselected families, or some particular group elected before creation, but for every single family of the earth!

He is a Potter with a redemptive purpose, a purpose He fulfills through molding unfaithful vessels for both noble and common uses (9:21). He is a Potter who weeps over His hardened clay while longing to reconcile them from their rebellious ways (Lk. 19:42, Matt. 23:37, Rom. 10:21, 2 Cor. 5:20). He is a Potter you would want to tell your friends all about, every single detail.