In the light of what Paul has just said someone might say that it is all up to God, therefore we do not have any responsibility. The first point of Paul's answer is that clay does not have the right to complain to the potter. The potter has the perfect right to do what he likes with the clay. The fundamental point of man's rebellion against God is denying God the right to be God, insisting that we have the right to be God. We need to recognise who we are and who God is.
We also assume that when it says "he hardens whom He wants to harden" (Rom 9:18) that absolves the man being hardened of all responsibility. But in Romans 1:18-32 Paul talks of God giving men over to their sinful desires and depraved minds because they had rejected the knowledge of God in the first place. Man sinned first, then God gave them over to a hard heart.
So the situation is not that we do not have responsibility, but rather it is like this. All have sinned (Rom 3:23), and to some God hows mercy. The whole point of what Paul is saying is that salvation is entirely a result of God's mercy. Ancestry or tradition (ie being a Jew) do not give the right to salvation. Paul backs this up with several quotes from the Old Testament prophets. No one deserves to be saved, but God is full of mercy and saves all sorts of people, showing no regard for who we think should and should not be saved.
We need to be careful that we do not share in the attitude that the religious leaders of Israel had. For we are all prone to putting people into categories of those who deserver to be saved and those who do not. If we look at the life of Jesus we see that He constantly caused offence by the people He showed mercy to (prostitutes, tax collectors etc).
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