Biblical Unitarians, like many other non-Calvinist evangelicals, read Romans 9:18-21 as affirming God's sovereign authority and prerogative while maintaining that human beings retain genuine moral agency. They argue that Paul's statement 'he has mercy on whom he wills' does not entail that God arbitrarily damns some individuals before the foundation of the world. Rather, God's sovereignty is compatible with human freedom: God knows the future choices of all people and acts accordingly, but does not compel individual persons to sin or believe.

The passage is understood in its immediate context as addressing corporate privilege and national election (Israel's privileged status), not as teaching individual predestination to damnation. Paul's rhetorical use of the potter metaphor emphasizes God's absolute authority and the appropriateness of human submission to God's will, but not necessarily the predetermined damnation of individuals. Biblical Unitarians reject Calvinist determinism while affirming that God's will and plan ultimately prevail, and that genuine human choice and divine sovereignty can be coherently held together.