Predestined to Choose

Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, “Stop, you’re doing it wrong!”                       (Isaiah 45:9 NLT). 

Perhaps you heard the story of the Calvinist who dreamed he died and went to heaven. He found himself standing before two doors; one marked “Those Who Are Predestined Enter Here” and the other “Those Who Freely Choose Enter Here.” Naturally, the Calvinist went to the first door. An angel asked why he had come. “I chose to,” he said. Frowning, the angel directed him to the other door. There, another angel asked why he had come. “I had no choice,” he said. With a scowl, the angel sent him back to the first door. In his nightmare, the Calvinist envisioned himself stuck between these two doors for all eternity, shuffling back and forth.

A silly story is a good way to ease into a theological controversy that has raged for centuries: how to reconcile God’s ultimate control over all things (sovereignty) with humanity’s capacity for genuine choice (free will). You can be sure that Calvinists are not the only ones tossing on their beds at night! All of us, at some level, struggle to understand what is perhaps the greatest mystery of life. If God is sovereign, how can I be free? If I am free, how can God be sovereign?

No passage of Scripture addresses this mystery with greater astuteness than Jeremiah 18. The message God gave to his prophet is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet its profundity has confounded theologians ever since it was first written.

The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the Lord gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay?... (Jer. 18:1-6a NLT).

The potter can do anything he wants with the clay. Right? After all, it’s his clay. He chose it and has a predetermined plan for what he wants to do with it. And if he’s not happy with how his project is turning out, he can just start over. So, can’t God do that with his people? This is the question God is asking Jeremiah. But before the prophet has time to formulate a response, God takes the conversation to a deeper level, exploring the mystery of how divine sovereignty interacts with human freedom.

If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would. Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, “This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.” (Jer. 18:7-11 NLT).

God is revealing his thoughts to his people in the hopes that he will not do what he says he is going to do. (You might want to reread that sentence). He is urging the clay to cooperate with the Potter! God is sovereign. Humans are free. The mystery is both profoundly simple and simply profound. Let’s summarize what God is saying in three short statements: 

The Potter has a plan. 

Before you were born, God envisioned a marvelous purpose for your life (see Jer. 1:5). And he is ready to do whatever it takes to ensure that this predestined plan is realized. The process may be long and even painful but all that crushing and spinning, forming and re-forming, is for a good purpose, a very good purpose! The divine Potter is not only a technician, making containers that serve a pragmatic function. He is also an artist, making vessels of beauty, giving them unique shape, texture, and color (see Eph. 2:10). As long as the clay remains on the wheel, cooperating with the Potter’s plan, we know that the finished product will be a thing of beauty and blessing.

The Potter has a problem. 

As Jeremiah watches the potter at work, he realizes that something is wrong. The clay is not turning out as the potter had hoped. We don’t know the exact nature of the problem, but we do know that the potter is unhappy. Rather than angrily throwing the clay away and giving up in despair, he adds more water, scoops up the clay, and starts again.

There is one crucial difference between an inert lump of clay on a potter’s wheel and the living lump of clay that we call a human person (see Gen. 2:7). Human clay has a mind of its own! Yes, you and I have the terrifying capacity to resist God’s predetermined purpose for our lives! We may climb off the potter’s wheel and stop the process entirely. Or we may harden into a shape that the Potter never intended. Jeremiah 19 is a sober reminder of what happens to such vessels.

As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash the jar you brought. Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair.’ (Jer. 19:10-11 NLT).

The Potter has a question.

God is sovereign. So, theoretically, he could have said, “O Israel, I am going to do to you what this potter has done. I’m going to reshape you so that you become what I predestined you to be!”  No. The divine Potter respects the freedom of the clay. Rather than imposing his will, God asks a question: “Can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay?” (Jer. 18:6). The question is not rhetorical because the answer is not obvious. How will Israel respond? Unfortunately, in Jeremiah’s day, the answer was not what the Potter was hoping to hear. “We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires” (Jer. 18:12 NLT). With these words, the rebels sealed their own fate.

Dear friend, God is asking you the same question he asked Israel. Can he form and re-form your life like the potter does the clay? He asks the question because you are the only one who can answer it. But here’s the deal. Your answer will seal your fate forever. 

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

(Adelaide A. Pollard, 1902).

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