You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?
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?
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?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
-- Romans 9:19-24No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
--John 6:44a
I prefer Paul’s explanation, too. The “what if” seems to twist the knife a little deeper even! As if to say “What if God is as ‘unfair’ as you say? It’s His right!” I always get a lift in my spirit when God’s sovereignty is preached. Puts me in the place of being needy of His kindness, as without it I’m lost.
Jer 18:5-12 Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 'Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.' "But they say, 'That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'