Divine Sovereignty and the Apostolic Law

For what does he say, why does he question the Creator? The potter knows how to use the clay and what kind of vessels are to be made for dishonor and what kind for honor. But the clay, being clay, must not judge the art of the Creator; for even if you seem to have rational perception, O man, you are left so far removed from the plan and work of God as to be an unfeeling clay to the potter's will.

Therefore, do not dare to accuse God, nor suppose that he happens to show mercy to one and harden the other, but rather that according to the power of foreknowledge he bestows upon each according to his worth. Thus, it is not the one foreknowing who is the cause, but those who are foreknown, upon which it is for them to be evil or not. For he teaches that this is in us, through others; for speaking of vessels of gold, silver, and earthenware, he says: if anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified. So we provide the cause, but God bestows according to worth.

Therefore, if God manages something according to foreknowledge, whether he raised up Pharaoh or hated Esau and loved Jacob, let no one suppose because of these things that nothing is upon us, but rather that our autonomy is being cut away. Some have spoken this, not as a reproach, but to say: 'Nevertheless, O man, who are you to answer back to God?' For they say it is absurd to have sought such great questions, unsettling the listener's mind without resolving any of them, but only rebuking those who seek to simply flee from the things sought, while also appearing to strip us of autonomy by the image of the potter, as if the potter fashions the vessels as he wills, while the rest remains as it has become from the beginning. They say these things unworthy of the apostolic grace and teaching.

The word is not spoken as a reproach, but the mind holds it thus: if from which, he says, he raised up Pharaoh and hated Esau and loved Jacob, and before their birth gave all things in the will of God, and nothing is upon us, then in short: who are you, O man, and how do you answer back to God? And how do you have the authority to speak and to accuse him as if he reproaches us unjustly, saying, 'Why is he still reproaching?' For against his will, who...

Has he risen? How then do you charge God, if nothing lies in our power as you say? For if nothing is up to us, neither is it in your power to complain or to answer back to God. 'Not the things of the potter,' he says, 'the vessels, since they lack sensation; they complain against the maker even if they become dishonorable, or even if they become honorable according to the maker's power' (Rom 9:21). But you complain, so you have sensation and power, as having a will that is free. And he who has the power to complain, it is evident that he is also master of himself in all other things, to say and to do what he wills. For he is not a master of himself only in complaining to God, but in other things he is deprived of mastery.

This saying came into effect through the blessed apostles, who, having written the great cycle of the old law, were leading the nations into a short path of citizenship, writing as it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to impose no more burden upon you than these necessary things: to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from sexual immorality, and from things strangled (Rom 9:27-28). For having observed many things regarding these, they prepared a way of life easy for righteousness, which also the divine apostle teaches, saying: having abolished the law of commandments in dogmas, and having again wiped out the handwriting of what is against us by the dogmas (Col 2:14). Since the law commanded many things concerning foods, the apostles only commanded to keep away from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and instead of keeping circumcision, they opposed keeping away from sexual immorality; for circumcision, even though it was a sign and a reminder of the faith of Abraham, was also given as an evident symbol of temperance, showing how one must cut away unchastity.

Since it has been said in the things before, that the nation of the Jews is cast off by the part that prevails, while the nations are contending for the status of adoption, it follows by seeking the cause for which those who are not practicing in the law have fallen away, while those who have grasped the law were justified (Rom 9:29-31). He then concludes by explaining that the Jews fell away from running toward faith just as the nations did; for they desired to be justified by works of law, not believing in the law which invited them.