A dear reader offered the following screenshots (assembled as an image, and attributed to N.T. Wright, "Paul for Everyone," pp. 12-13). All my characterizations in the following discussion are based on assuming that attribution is correct, and also are limited to interacting with the quoted material. So, for example, I say that the author does not address X, Y, and Z, but perhaps the author (presumably NT Wright) does address those things somewhere else.
The argument from the screenshots can be summarized this way:
1) Paul's potter/clay illustration is taken from Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9 (with "echoes" of Isaiah 64:8 and Jeremiah 18:1-6).
2) In Isaiah and Jeremiah, God is dealing with already-rebellious Israel. The author seems to suggest that the clay is somehow unresponsive to the potter's molding.
3) The author then suggests that it's not valid to treat Paul's comments as relevant to human beings generally, but that they must be understood of the nation of Israel specifically.
4) However, the author fails to consider other clay motifs from canonical and extracanonical literature. For example, the author fails to consider the canonical use in Job 10:9, 13:12, & 33:6 but also the extracanonical use in Sirach 33:13 ("As the clay is in the potter's hand, to fashion it at his pleasure: so man is in the hand of him that made him, to render to them as liketh him best.") and Wisdom of Solomon 15:7 ("For the potter, tempering soft earth, fashioneth every vessel with much labour for our service: yea, of the same clay he maketh both the vessels that serve for clean uses, and likewise also all such as serve to the contrary: but what is the use of either sort, the potter himself is the judge.") both of which are themselves dependent on the canonical use, especially Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9. Moreover, the canonical use (and the extracanonical use that depends from it) has literary connection to the story of the special creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 "the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground" and maintained in other canonical writings (e.g., Psalm 103:14 & Ecclesiastes 3:20 & 12:7)
5) Of course, the use in the extracanonical wisdom literature is not binding on Paul (nor on the author to whom we are responding), but it shows the conventional understanding of the Isaiah metaphor as having a more gnomic or general application: not an application limited to a particular nation or circumstance.
6) While Job is authoritative, Paul does not necessarily have Job's use in mind as he does Isaiah's. On the other hand, if one is to make reference to "echoes" of Jeremiah, one should certainly also see the "echoes" in Job. Job uses a similar potter/clay metaphor without the context of any reference to national Israel's rebellion.
7) Next, the idea that God is having some kind of difficulty molding Israel as God would like to do is irreconcilable with Paul's usage and the flow of Paul's argument. The "one lump" language, in particular, suggests that God is perfectly capable of molding the same lump in different ways, not that the lump somehow constrains the potter.
8) The author's contextualization, even limited to the verses he identifies, is still suspect. Isaiah 64:8 is in the context of repentant Israel. Isaiah 29:16 is prospective, pointing forward to a day that includes things like people coming to understanding and learning doctrine (Isaiah 29:24).
9) Even where woe is pronounced (in Isaiah 45) it is not accompanied by God expressing inability but the opposite: "all their host have I commanded" (vs. 13) and "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things" (vs. 7).
10) So, the author's conclusion seems to be premised on trying to read the specific context of Jeremiah 18 into Paul's use of the potter/clay metaphor. Even in that context, however, God's word to Jeremiah is not saying that the potter has any lack of ability brought about by the clay, but rather that God has absolute freedom to do what God likes, including to rework something He has previously worked. The human potter that Jeremiah saw produced a marred vessel first and then refashioned it into what he wanted. God doesn't err like a human potter: that's not the point of the metaphor. God has the freedom to do what he wants with mankind. That's the point.
