“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?”
(Romans 9:21, ESV)
to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
(Romans 9:21, ESV)
Augustine here argues that
all humanity are contaminated by sin,
with the result that salvation is a human impossibility. In his grace, God
chose to save some from this “mass of
perdition.” [A doctrine that I’m still struggling with and of course
this (and many other statements by Augustine) contributed to The Augustine & the Pelagian Controversy].
Note the appeal below to the analogy of the potter and the clay (Romans 9:21),
which becomes a frequent element in Augustinian and Reformed discussions of
election and predestination. He said,
“There are lump of perdition (massa perditionis) out of Adam to which
only punishment was due; from this same lump, vessels were made which are
destined for honour. For the potter has authority over the same lump of clay
(Romans 9:21). What lump? The lump that had already perished, and whose just
damnation was already assured. So be thankful that you have escaped! You have escaped the death certainly due to
you, and found life, which was not due to you. The potter has authority over
the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honour and another for
contempt. But, you say, why has He made me to honour and another to
contempt? What shall I answer? Will you listen to Augustine, if you will not
listen to the Apostle [Paul] when he says, ‘O man, who art you who
argues with God’? (Romans 11:33). Two little children are born. If you
ask what is due to them, the answer is that they both belong to the lump of
perdition. But why does its mother carry the one to grace, while the other is
suffocated by its mother in her sleep? Will you tell me what was deserved by
the one whom its sleeping mother suffocated? Both have deserved nothing good;
but the potter has authority over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
for honour, and the other for contempt.”
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
References:
1) Sermo 26, xii, 13; in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, 38.177A-B.
2) The Christian Theology Reader, edited by Alister E. McGrath (Oxford
UK: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1995), p.217
No comments:
Post a Comment