You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
There is an element in here of God’s will. Paul anticipates people asking, who can resist his will? Paul says it is God who decides who is going to be used for great purposes and others for “dishonorable” or common purposes. God does not make everyone the same.
And who are we to question God? The Creator God has his purposes and reasons when he makes us.
But it never gives man an excuse to do evil. That’s the basis of this question. If we are created for lesser purposes, why not live a lesser life? Do evil? Live in mediocrity?
That is never the answer. Just because God uses one person one way and another differently, we are both vessels of the Creator, created for his purposes.
This is not unlike a similar teaching of Paul where he describes His people as the body. He does not make all of them the same. Some are for honorable roles and some less honorable from a visible perspective. But God gives honor to all.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
God creates everyone with equal value but with different purposes. We are not all the same. We have different roles. Man treats them differently. But gives honor to all in different ways.
The point of Paul’s teaching here is this. God is God. He is the Creator. He chooses what vessels to make and for what purpose. All are of God. Men are still without excuse.