Ceramics 101

Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)

The prophet Isaiah often compares God to a potter and us, His creation, to clay in the potter's hands. Just like potters shape the clay to their will, God does the same with us. However, sin has made us rebellious and without the Holy Spirit, we naturally reject God's design. Rather, our sinful nature is to establish our own design for what our lives should look like and for what is true and untrue. Imagine this - suppose a potter were seeking to make a bowl but the clay became uncooperative. Instead of taking shape as a bowl, it kept taking other shapes. The potter may try several times to correct the clay and bring it back into the appropriate shape. But eventually, once the clay loses its plasticity, if it has not yet become the bowl the potter intended, it will be discarded.

Much like the clay, we will be discarded if we do not allow God to transform us. Unfortunately, there are many people, including self-professed Christians, that choose not to accept God as the potter. Rather, they make it clear by their actions that they are their own potter and/or that God is their clay. Isaiah writes...

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? (Isaiah 29:13-16)

Motivated by selfish desires, "God-fearing" men and women establish their own ideologies and understanding of who God is and what does and doesn't please Him. God becomes their clay and they mold Him to fit their lifestyle and agenda. I believe this is a very prevalent problem throughout Western/U.S. churches today. Speaking generally, if you look at the church in the U.S. you see this idea growing that God's grace is unbeatable. What does that actually mean?! Is God full of grace and mercy? Well, of course He is - the Son of God gave Himself up on the Cross for us! Would I then be wrong to say not everyone receives God's grace unless they actually repent and change? No, I wouldn't be! But many believers today might feel differently because they have been taught God's grace is a powerful force that just cancels debt freely. But that's not true - that's not what the Bible teaches. God's Word teaches that we are saved by grace - meaning we don't deserve it. But there is also a process of sanctification that must occur - this means actual life transformation. And even though sanctification alone doesn't save, there's no salvation without it.

No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. (Luke 6:43-45)

Jesus teaches that bad fruit doesn't grow on good trees. If we have been made new by Christ, our former way of living must pass away. We cannot continue to grow bad fruit. This isn't some magical spiritual concept - He's referring to tangible things we might have to do to change. Our actions and what we do is a reflection of what we believe. And if we believe that Christ is the Son of God and that He takes away our sins, then we must repent and change. We need to allow God our Father, the potter, to shape us into a new creation. This will involve sacrifice and it will involve changing the way we think. Our worldview cannot remain the same. We should no longer be able to blend in easily with the rest of society.

Last week I wrote how following Christ is not going to earn many "likes" on social media. That's because Western civilization has idolized power, money, sex, careers, possessions, and tolerance. These idols have bled into churches today, corrupting the Gospel and other teaching. What's terrifying is that many Christians end up developing a false sense of salvation because of it, believing they have been following God when in reality they have merely been following the god of their own selves, living lives of resurrected self-interest and fulfillment.

One easy way to test whether or not you have been a potter and not clay is to evaluate your prayer life. What are you praying for? Are your prayers focused on self? Self-improvement? Your own empowerment? Or do your prayers focus on what God wants? Are you taking interest in His greater plan and the needs of others? Are you actually surrendering to what He is doing or just saying you are?

I'll leave you with an excerpt from the Book of Jeremiah. Even if we sinfully assume the role of the potter, we will never actually be the potter. We are always at His mercy and under His judgment.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ’ ” (Jeremiah 18:1-11)