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Romans 9:25–26
And He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved” (Rom. 9:25).
Let’s take a moment to reorient ourselves. Verse 24 of Romans 9 essentially brought Paul back to the point where he began in verse 6, asserting that all whom God chooses and calls, Jew or gentile, will be saved. This ended the first of seven arguments the apostle makes in chapters 9–11 to show that the Jews’ rejection of Jesus does not mean God’s redemptive purposes have failed. In making this point, Paul took us through some deep teaching on election, reprobation, and God’s purposes in both. But in verses 25–29, he returns to his central purpose in these chapters and presents his second argument. Dr. James M. Boice sums it up this way: “God’s purposes toward the Jews (and Gentiles) have not failed, because God had previously revealed that not all Israel would be saved and that some Gentiles would be.”
Paul makes his case by the use of four quotations from the Old Testament, two from Hosea (which we will study today) and two from Isaiah (which we will examine tomorrow). The two passages from Hosea are designed to show that God always intended to save Gentiles. God instructed Hosea the prophet to marry a “wife of harlotry” to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. God then gave Hosea names for the children who came from his marriage to Gomer. The third child, a son, was to be named Lo-Ammi, which means “Not-My-People,” for God was about to exile the northern kingdom of Israel and treat them as if they no longer were His people. But God also allowed Hosea to prophesy the reversal of this judgment, and these are the words Paul quotes: “ ‘I will call them My people, who were not My people’ ” (Hosea 2:23) and “ ‘ . . . in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they shall be called sons of the living God’ ” (Hosea 1:10). But if these are promises of restoration to Jews, how can Paul apply them to Gentiles?
He can do so because the Jews had ceased to be God’s special people; by their rejection of God, they had joined the ranks of Gentiles. As a result, when God began to reconstitute His people, He drew from all Gentiles. “It is from these Gentiles, both ethnic Gentiles and ethnic Jews who have thus actually become ‘Gentiles,’ that the new people of God is formed,” Boice writes. By Paul’s time, this prophecy is being fulfilled; God is adopting both Jews and Gentiles as His people.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
This passage offers yet another picture of what God has done for us. He has made us who were not His people to be the people of His own possession. As such, we can now properly be called “sons [and daughters] of the living God.” But this is more than a title; we really have been adopted by the Father. Live, therefore, as those who are His.
For Further Study
- Psalm 103:13
- 2 Corinthians 6:18
- Galatians 4:4–5
- Ephesians 2:12–13