ACC ~ Romans 9 v14 - 21

OVERVIEW:

The fact that God punishes some and not others is hard to understand, but it is not unjust. Here we meet the problem of the baptized who do not follow Christ in later life. As far as Augustine was concerned, such people had no claim to inherit eternal life, though he could not explain why God allows such apostasy to happen. God is free to show mercy to whomever he wishes, and his decisions are never unjust. God’s choosing is not based on human merit. Ultimately it is a mystery understood by God alone.

God can use even the hardest heart to serve his purposes, as was the case with Pharaoh. The idea that the Egyptian monarch might have repented is dismissed by saying that he was so far gone in sin that it would have been inconceivable. God’s approach to Pharaoh was not unjust, because Pharaoh was a sinner. Mercy is never automatic and cannot be taken for granted by anyone. God’s will can never be resisted, but it is always holy and just whether we understand it or not. Few passages in the New Testament are more strongly predestinarian than Romans 9:19-21, and we can sense that some Fathers were uncomfortable with them. Once more it is Augustine who draws the logical conclusion and says that since the entire clay of the human race was corrupted in Adam, it is only by the mercy of God that any of us can be redeemed. Adam’s exercise of his free will effectively removes ours. These selections differ as to the voice of the speaker, whether Paul’s or a rhetorical opponent’s, and as to the extent to which the metaphor of the vessel allows for free will.

9:14 | God Is Just

THE CASE OF BAPTIZED CHILDREN WHO LATER BECOME APOSTATES. AUGUSTINE: What is to be said of infants who receive the sacrament of Christian grace, as is usual at that age, and thus undoubtedly have a claim to eternal life and the kingdom of heaven if they die at once, whereas if they are allowed to grow up, some become even apostates? Why is this, except that they are not included in that predestination and calling according to his purpose which is without repentance? Why some are included and others are not can be for a hidden reason but not for an unjust one. LETTER 149.

WHETHER GOD MAKES SOME PEOPLE EVIL. PELAGIUS: Paul was afraid that because he had argued that racial privilege is of no consequence in God’s sight, or in case the Jews understood him to be saying that already at that time it was indicated that later people would be better people, they might think that he meant that God makes some people good and others evil, because, in the judgment of the Jews, it was unjust to punish those who had not voluntarily sinned, Paul also calls to mind the contrary texts which they usually used to support this view, and after replying to these examples with brief objections he shows that they should not be understood as they understand them. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: Why does God not scourge all men mercifully in such a way so as not to allow anyone to be hardened against him? Either this is to be ascribed to the wickedness of those who have deserved to become hardened, or it is to be referred to the inscrutable judg-ments of God, which are often hidden but are never unjust. SERMON 101.5.

9:15 | God Dispenses Mercy and Compassion

MERCY NOT DISPENSED ACCORDING TO HUMAN STANDARDS. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: It is not unjust for God to have mercy on those he wishes to have mercy on but not on others. For, as Paul says, God demonstrates through Moses what his mercy was like. He does not dispense mercy according to human standards, but according to the wisdom of God. For we are shown mercy not because of our own works but because of God, who has the power to show mercy. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

FOREKNOWLEDGE AND MERCY. AMBROSIASTER: This means that God will have mercy on those whom he knows will be converted and remain with him. … He will show mercy to those who, after they have sinned, return to him with a right heart. It is God’s to give or to not give. He calls the ones whom he knows will obey and does not call those whom he knows will not obey. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: God was telling Moses that it was not his to know who was deserving of God’s love towards man; rather, Moses was to leave that up to God. If that was true for him, how much more is it true for us! HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I WILL HAVE COMPASSION. AUGUSTINE: God was merciful to us in the first place in that he called us while we were still sinners … and he continues to have mercy on us now that we believe. How does God have mercy a second time? He gives his Holy Spirit to the man who believes and asks for him. And having given the Spirit God will then have compassion on those to whom he has already shown compassion. That is to say, he will make the believer compassionate so that he may do good works through love. Let no one take the credit for acting compassionately, since it was by the Holy Spirit that God gave him this love, without which no one can be compassionate.

God did not elect those who had done good works, but those who believed, so that he might enable them to do good works. It is our part to believe and to will and his part to give to those who believe and will the ability to do good works through the Holy Spirit, by whom the love of God is poured out in our hearts in order to make us compassionate. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 61.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: God says this to Moses. Referring to the passage the apostle shows that God’s compassion will be shown to those who believe in Christ. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: This means: “I will have mercy on him whom I have foreknown will be able to deserve compassion, so that I have already had mercy on him.” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:16 | Not by Human Will or Exertion

UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS. ORIGEN: This must be understood in the light of what David says in the psalm: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” From this we learn that it is not because the builder sits idly by that God builds the house for him but because he works and expends as much labor and care as lies within human power, but yet it belongs to God to remove all the obstacles and bring the work to completion. Thus, man is called to work as hard as he can, but God will crown the work with success. Therefore it is godly and right for a man to leave the completion of his work to God and not to another human being. Likewise, Paul sowed and Apollos watered but God gave the increase, “so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” In the same way, we can say that “it depends not upon man’s will or exertion but upon God’s mercy.” COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

DIODORE: God is not unjust simply because he does not give everyone what they deserve. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE EXAMPLE OF SAUL AND DAVID. AMBROSIASTER: When Saul asked forgiveness for his sin he did not receive it, but David, when he confessed his sin, did receive forgiveness. However, it cannot be said on this basis that God judged unjustly by granting forgiveness to the one and withholding it from the other. For the one who looks on the heart knows in what spirit the penitent is making his request and whether it de-serves to be heard. And although it is dangerous to try to figure out God’s judgment, yet in the case of unbelievers, who reap the reward of their own minds, it cannot be said that God’s judgment is unjust.

Look at the stories of Saul and David and ask yourself what happened to them after God’s judgment. Did Saul do what was right after he was refused mercy? Did he prove that God’s judgment was unjust? Did David after receiving mercy turn his back on God? Or did he remain in him from whom he received mercy? COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

MAN’S WILL AND RUNNING. JEROME: It is clear from this passage that the willing and running are ours, but the fulfillment of our willing and running belongs to the mercy of God. So it is that free will is preserved as far as our willing and running is concerned and that everything depends on the power of God as far as the fulfillment of our willing and running is concerned. AGAINST THE PELAGIANS 1.5.

IT DEPENDS UPON GOD’S MERCY. AUGUSTINE: Paul does not take away the freedom of the will but says that our will is not sufficient unless God helps us, making us compassionate so that we might do good works by the gift of the Holy Spirit. … We cannot will unless we are called, and when we will after our calling neither our will nor our striving is enough unless God gives strength to our striving and leads us where he calls. It is therefore clear that it is not by willing nor by striving but by the mercy of God that we do good works, even though our will (which by itself can do nothing) is also present. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: From here to [verse 19] the apostle Paul assumes the role of devil’s advocate, saying that we do not have it in us to do either good or evil, but that this is found only in the will of God. The actual words of the devil’s advocate are taken from Isaiah. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: The Jewish argument here goes like this: “It does not depend on the one who wills or on the one who runs; God has mercy on whomever he wills and hardens whomever he wills.” The apostle, though, does not take away what we possess in our own will. … For if the Jewish argument is correct, why does Paul run, as when he says: “I have finished the race,” and why does he urge others to run? For this reason it is understood that here Paul takes the role of the one who questions (and refutes), not of the one who denies. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:17 | Human Intent Shows God’s Power

GOD’S KNOWING AND FOREKNOWING OF HUMAN INTENTIONALITY. ORIGEN: It is certain that God not only knows everyone’s intention and will but that he foreknows them as well. Thus knowing and foreknowing, the good and just dispenser uses the motives and intention of each one in order to accomplish the works which the mind and will of each person has chosen. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

PHARAOH RAISED UP TO SHOW GOD’S POWER. AMBROSIASTER: This Pharaoh (this was a royal title among the Egyptians and not a personal name, just as the rulers of Rome are called Caesars), was guilty of a great many crimes and unfit to live. He would never repent or in any way earn the right to live with God. But if anyone thought that God had made a mistake or that he was unable to take revenge on Pharaoh, let him listen to what God says. … Pharaoh was used by God in order that many signs and plagues might be revealed through him. Even though he was really dead, he appeared to be alive for a short while so that all those who were without God might be frightened by the punishment and the torments which they saw being inflicted on him and confess the one true God, by whom this revenge was being wreaked. In the same way the ancient physicians used to open up the bodies of people who deserved to die, while they were still alive, in order to find out what the causes of their disease might be and thus by punishing the dying bring saving health to the living. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

GOD’S PATIENCE WITH PHAROAH. CHRYSOSTOM: God endured Pharaoh for long time in the hope that he might repent, but even when he did not do so God was patient with him in order to display his own goodness and power, even if Pharaoh gained nothing from it. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

WHETHER PHAROAH’S HARDNESS OF HEART WAS UNWILLED. AUGUSTINE: We read in Exodus [10:1] that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, so that he was not moved even by clear signs. Therefore, because Pharaoh did not obey the commands of God he was punished. No one can say that this hardness of heart came upon Pharaoh undeservedly; it came by the judgment of God who was giving him just punishment for his unbelief. Nor should it be thought that Pharaoh did not obey because he could not, on the ground that his heart had already been hardened. On the contrary, Pharaoh had deserved his hardness of heart by his earlier unbelief.

For in those whom God has chosen it is not works but faith which is the beginning of merit, so that they might do good works by the gift of God. And in those whom he condemns unbelief and unfaithfulness are the beginning of punishment, so that by that very punishment they are permitted to do what is evil. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

PELAGIUS: The Jews explain this passage in the wrong way as well. It is expounded by Christian interpreters in one of two ways. First, there are those who say that since each one will be punished when the measure and degree of his sins is complete … and Pharaoh had exceeded his limit, God desired to make an example of him for the benefit of others … so that God’s people might come to know his justice and power and neither dare to sin nor fear their enemies. The same thing that happened to Pharaoh happens when a doctor, seeking the cure for an illness, discovers a remedy in the course of torturing someone who has already been condemned to death for committing many crimes or when a judge, although he could punish a guilty man immediately, afflicts him first with various torments in order to rouse everyone’s fear.

Second, there are those who say that Pharaoh was hardened by God’s patience, for after a plague from God was over Pharaoh became harder, and although God knew that Pharaoh had not repented he nevertheless wanted to show his forbearance even toward him. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

OECUMENIUS: God’s power is patience, and it is a very great power indeed. For who would not be overawed by the enormous patience of God? For he says that it is for this reason that he has agreed to let Pharaoh rule, that it may be shown how patient he is. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

9:18 | God’s Mercy and Human Unbelief

WHETHER PHAROAH’S HEART WAS HARDENED APART FROM HIS OWN RECALCITRANCE. ORIGEN: Pharaoh’s heart was hardened in the following way: God did not want to punish him immediately and completely. Although Pharaoh’s wickedness was enormous, God in his patience did not withdraw the possibility of conversion from him. Instead he struck him lightly at first and then gradually increased the blows. But although God acted with patience, Pharaoh was hardened by that very thing and became even more angry with God and contemptuous of him. … Therefore it is not that God hardens whom he wills, but rather that whoever is not softened by his patience is thereby automatically hardened. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: Someone may object that Pharaoh cannot have been hardened, nor can anyone else who falls into sin, since in that case they would not be guilty of the hardening which has come upon them. But in saying this, O Man, you are going beyond yourself and seeking the secret reason for this inequality in God. There is no injustice here, the apostle said, because the refusal to show mercy on a sinner is due to the foreknowledge of the divine wisdom and not to some judicial reward. In this respect the apostle goes on to say that it is not up to men to sound the hidden depths of God, for the message of salvation is properly administered to all, whether mercy is shown to them or not. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

AMBROSIASTER: Here Paul assumes the role of an objector who makes these assumptions. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

HOW GOD’S MERCY IS RELATED TO ONE’S WILLED FAITH OR UNFAITH. AUGUSTINE: He enables the one on whom he has mercy to do good, and he leaves the one whom he hardens to do evil. But that mercy is the result of the prior merit of faith, and that hardening is the fruit of prior unbelief, so that we do good deeds by the gift of God and evil deeds because of his punishment. Yet in either case free will is not taken away from man, whether it is to believe in God, so that mercy on us might follow, or to disbelieve in him, so that punishment on us might be the result. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

AUGUSTINE: Why does the Father not teach all people in order that they might come to Christ, unless it is that all those whom he teaches, he teaches because of mercy, but those whom he does not teach, he does not teach because of judgment? PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 8. 14.

AUGUSTINE: You must believe that the man whom God permits to go astray and to become hardened has deserved this evil, while in the case of the man upon whom he has mercy, you must acknowledge with an unswerving faith that this is a case of the grace of God, who is rendering not evil for evil but good for evil. GRACE AND FREE WILL 23.45.

WHETHER GOD CAUSES WICKEDNESS. PELAGIUS: If this is understood to mean that God has mercy on whom he wills and hardens whom he wills because there is enough wickedness, then your argument will be lost, viz., the argument that not you but the will of the Lord, to which there can be no opposition, is the cause of your sins. The very nature of God’s justice opposes this reasoning. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:19 | Resisting God’s Will

WHO CAN RESIST HIS WILL? ORIGEN: It is certain that no one can resist God’s will, but it is good for us to remember that his will is just and right. Whether we are good or bad depends on our will, but it is God’s will that the bad person is destined to punishment and the good person is destined to glory. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: Paul teaches us first that nobody can resist God’s will because he is more powerful than anyone else. Next he teaches us that God is the Father of all and therefore does not want anyone to suffer evil. What God has made he wants to remain unharmed. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

PAUL’S PERSISTENT WAY OF PRESSING QUESTIONS. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul does everything he can to embarrass the questioner. He does not answer him right away either, but prefers to shut him up with a further question. … This is what a good teacher does. He does not follow his pupils’ fancy everywhere but leads them to his own mind and pulls up the thorns, and then puts the seed in and does not immediately answer all the questions put to him. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

AUGUSTINE: Having given his conclusion [in the last verse] Paul plays devil’s advocate by asking a rhetorical question. … He responds to this question in a sensible way so that we might understand that the basic rewards of faith and of unbelief are made plain only to spiritual people and not to those who live according to the earthly man. Likewise with the way God in his foreknowledge elects those who will believe and condemns unbelievers. He neither elects the ones because of their works nor condemns the others because of theirs, but he grants to the faith of the ones the ability to do good works and hardens the unbelief of the others by deserting them, so that they do evil. This understanding, as I have said, is given only to spiritual people and is very different from the wisdom of the flesh. Thus Paul counters his inquirer so that he may understand that he first must put away the man of clay in order to be worthy to investigate these things by the Spirit. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

9:20 | Answering Back to God

WHO ARE YOU TO ANSWER GOD? ORIGEN: I do not think that, if you are a faithful and discreet servant of God and want to understand and admire the wisdom of the Lord, he will say to you: “Who are you?” … If we want to know something of the secret and hidden things of God and if we are not people of lusts and contentions, then let us inquire faithfully and humbly into the judgments of God which are contained more secretly in holy Scripture. For even the Lord said: “Search the Scriptures,” knowing that these things are applicable not to those who are busy with other matters and only hear or read the Bible from time to time, but to those who with a pure and simple heart endeavor to open up the holy Scriptures by their labor and constant attention. I know well enough that I am not one of them! But anyone who is, let him seek and he will find. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

ORIGEN: Such a rebuke does not refer to one who is faithful and lives a good and righteous life and has confidence towards God. … This rebuke is not for the faithful and the saints but for the unfaithful and the ungodly. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.22.

AMBROSIASTER: It is a great indignity and presumption for a man to answer back to God—the unjust to the just, the evil to the good, the imperfect to the perfect, the weak to the strong, the corruptible to the incorrupt, the mortal to the immortal, the servant to the Lord, the creature to the Creator! COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE FAITHFUL FREELY YIELD TO THE POTTER’S HANDS. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul says this in order not to do away with free will but rather to show to what extent we ought to obey God. We should be as little inclined to call God to account as a piece of clay is. We ought to abstain not only from complaining or questioning but from even speaking or thinking about it at all, and instead we should become like that lifeless matter which follows the potter’s hands and lets itself be shaped in whatever way the potter wills. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

AUGUSTINE: As long as you are just a creature, says Paul, like this lump of clay, and you have not been led to spiritual things, so that as a spiritual man you might judge all things and be judged by no one, it is right for you to hold back from this kind of inquiry and not to answer back to God. For everyone who wants to know God’s plan ought first to be received into his friendship, and this is only possible for spiritual people who already bear the image of the heavenly. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

PELAGIUS: Some people say that Paul is still speaking here in the role of those who object, because to say that nobody can oppose the will of God, who has mercy on one and who hardens another, and to add that nobody should criticize God amounts to the same thing. But others say that from here on the apostle replies that, even if there were a reason for them to make an accusation, they ought not to talk back to their Creator, for in comparison with God, we are like a piece of pottery in the hands of the potter. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THIS VESSEL CANNOT RIGHTLY SCOLD THIS POTTER. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Now the apostle lunges out at the man who was contradicting him [in the above verses], showing that it is of God’s own will and decision. … There is no difference in the clay which the potter molds in his hand. He can make whatever kind of vessel he wants to, and the vessel cannot answer back and say how it would prefer to be made. But here, in words like “resist” and “find fault with God’s will,” he shows the free will of the one who dares to draw back from the will of God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: How can the thing which is made blame its Maker for the construction of its own nature? Everything must be content with its own nature, whatever that may be. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WHY HAVE YOU MADE ME THUS? THEODORET OF CYR: If you did not have your own independence, and if you did not choose what you do by your own free will, you would have to be quiet in the way that inanimate objects are and simply acquiesce in what is given to you. But as it is you have reason, and you can both describe and do the things which are shown to you. Instead you do not like what has happened and are trying to investigate the causes of the divine plan. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

9:21 | The Potter’s Right Over the Clay

NATURE OF THE VESSEL. TERTULLIAN: The vessel is the flesh, because it was made of clay by the breath of God, and only afterward was it clothed with the coat of skin. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 8.

FIT ONLY FOR MENIAL USE. ORIGEN: Remember the incident in Jeremiah when the prophet went down to the potter’s house and found him reworking a clay vessel which was spoiled, as it seemed good to him to do. Then the Lord said: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” It seems to me that no more need be said on the subject. . . .

Someone who does not cleanse himself and does not wash away his sins by repentance is a vessel fit only for menial use. If he goes on and increases in wickedness so that his mind is hardened and his impenitent heart ends up despising everything God commands, then he will no longer be fit even for menial use but will become a vessel fit only for destruction. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

ORIGEN: If both the saved and the lost come from one lump of clay, then the nature of their souls will be not different but the same. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.1.23.

WHETHER THIS POTTER FOREKNEW WHAT THIS VESSEL WOULD DO. DIODORE: Do not dare to condemn God or imagine that he showed mercy on one and hardened another by accident, for it was according to the power of his foreknowledge that he gave each one his due. Nor is he guilty because he knew in advance what would happen, but rather each of those who was foreknown in this way is responsible for his own actions, whether good or evil. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE LIMITS OF THE POTTER ANALOGY. AMBROSIASTER: The substance of the clay is the same, but the will of the potter is different. Likewise God made us all of the same substance and we all became sinners, but he had mercy on one and rejected another, not without justice. The potter has only a will, but God has a will and justice to go with it. For he knows who ought to be shown mercy, as I have already said. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE SAME LUMP. CHRYSOSTOM: God does nothing at random or by mere chance, even if you do not understand the secrets of his wisdom. You allow the potter to make different things from the same lump of clay and find no fault with him, but you do not grant the same freedom to God! … How monstrous this is. It is not on the potter that the honor or dishonor of the vessel depends but rather on those who make use of it. It is the same way with people—it all depends on their own free choice. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.46.

HAS THE POTTER NO RIGHT OVER THE CLAY? AUGUSTINE: As long as you are a potter’s vessel, you must first be broken by the iron rod of which it was said: “You will rule them with a rod of iron, and you will break them as a potter’s vessel.” Then, when the outer man is destroyed and the inner man is renewed, you will be able, rooted and grounded in love, to understand what is the length and breadth and height and depth, to know even the overwhelming knowledge of the love of God. So because from the same lump of clay God has made some vessels for noble use and others for ignoble, it is not for you, whoever you are who still lives according to this lump (that is, who are wise by the standards of earthly sense and the flesh), to dispute what God has decreed. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 62.

AUGUSTINE: First comes the clay which is fit only to be thrown away. We must begin with this but need not remain in it. Afterward comes what is fit for use, into which we can be gradually molded and in which, once molded, we can remain. This does not mean that everyone who is wicked will become good but that no one becomes good who was not once wicked. What is true is that the sooner a man makes a change in himself for the better, the sooner he has a right to be called what he has become. THE CITY OF GOD 15.1.

AUGUSTINE: Given that our nature sinned in paradise, we are now formed through a mortal begetting by the same divine providence, not according to heaven but according to earth, i. e., not according to the spirit but according to the flesh, and we have all become one mass of clay, i.e., a mass of sin. QUESTIONS 68.3.

THE FREE WILL OF THE FIRST MAN. AUGUSTINE: If this lump of clay were of such indifferent value that it deserved nothing good any more than it deserved anything evil, there would be reason to see injustice in making of it a vessel unto dishonor. But when through the free will of the first man alone, condemnation extended to the whole lump of clay, it is undoubtedly true that if vessels are made of it unto honor, it is a question not of justice not forestalling grace, but of God’s mercy. If however, vessels are made of it unto dishonor, this is to be attributed to God’s justice, not to his injustice—a concept which can hardly exist with God! LETTER 186.

AUGUSTINE: It would seem unjust that vessels of wrath should be made unto destruction if the whole lump of clay has not been condemned in Adam. The fact that men become vessels of wrath at birth is due to the penalty they deserve, but that they become vessels of mercy at their second birth is due to an undeserved grace. LETTER 190.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Whoever heard of a clay pot made for menial use blaming the potter for the way it was made and demanding to be remolded for some better purpose? PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: It is not possible to say on the basis of this [verse] that there are different types of human nature, nor does holy Scripture claim that some people have been made cruel or obdurate or even vessels of honor and wickedness, nor does it attribute this kind of nature to them. Rather, it should be understood to mean that some men are made like clay vessels and that we use them either for honor or for dishonor. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

THE MENIAL PATH CHOSEN. THEODORET OF CYR: Those who are called vessels for menial use have chosen this path for themselves. … This is clear from what Paul says to Timothy: “If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.” INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.