us, whom he has also called, not only from amongst [the] Jews, but also from amongst [the] nations?
God has just spoken of vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory. Now He names them: people He has called from both Jews and Gentiles. How can the God who made promises to Israel be free to save those who never had them?
Chapters 9 to 11 answer one problem. God chose Israel, so how can He now call whomever He pleases? The answer moves the ground from birth to God's own choice.
The apostle now begins a new section of the letter, Romans 9-11. Its main aim is to show how God's call of Gentiles and Jews together fits with the special promises made to Israel. In doing this he tears down the empty pride of those who rested on nothing but a line of natural descent from Abraham. He proves that special promise has been God's principle from the first. He points to sovereign mercy as the only hope for a people such as even Israel had shown themselves to be.
Their own family history forces the choice. If descent is the rule, then the descendants of Ishmael and Esau must be let in too.
He is sovereign in Himself, preparing for glory "even us," says the apostle, "whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles." He forces the Jew to admit that God is sovereign. If not, the Jew must let in the Ishmaelites and the Edomites, and admit that he himself would have been cut off — all but Moses and Joshua. Then he shows that God uses this sovereignty to call Gentiles, who had no claim by promise, and Jews, who had forfeited theirs.
Once blessing rests on God's free choice, nothing shuts the Gentile out. The lower the nations had sunk, the better they showed what mercy is.
The moment God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. And if He is sovereign, it is only natural that His sovereignty should show itself where it can be seen most clearly. The call of the Gentiles gives that occasion. If they were the worst — and they had truly sunk that low — then for that very reason they were the fittest objects for God's sovereign grace.
The same principle cuts both ways. Grace assumes that the privileged are as worthless as the outsiders.
Grace takes for granted that the Jews are as worthless as the Gentiles, and so it goes out and calls in from Gentiles as well as from Jews. Distinctions have their place while there is still hope for man and the testing goes on. It is different once the testing of the most favoured has ended in guilt beyond repair and ruin beyond help. Then the door opens for mercy. He calls in grace, freely to all and closed to none — from Jews certainly, but from Gentiles too.
These vessels of mercy turn out to be people with nothing to offer.
Vessels of mercy! Poor, wretched sinners, who could do nothing but own their guilt and shame, and be debtors to mercy alone. Oh, to think that He prepares such people — by His grace — for glory! And that this wonderful grace reaches out, not to sinners of the privileged Jews alone, but of the outcast Gentiles also!
The call named here is not a bare label. It does something inside the person who receives it.
It is a call that comes from mercy, and yet mercy that shows no favouritism. It can take in both Jews and Gentiles — yes, souls from every nation under heaven — mercy available for all who will have it. But the call spoken of here is the call that sinks into the soul. It works repentance. It makes us own our need of mercy and receive it with thanks, in Christ Jesus.
Verse 24 follows straight after the vessels of wrath. The two are not described in the same way.
Of the vessels of mercy, Scripture says plainly that it is God who has "prepared" them for glory (v. 23). But of the vessels of wrath it does not say that God prepared them, or fitted them, for destruction. It says only that they are "fitted for destruction" (v. 22). Pharaoh, unbelieving Israel, and all who refuse to believe have fitted themselves for destruction. But this does not stop God from showing His abundant mercy.
- Calling, not lineage. God's call, not family descent, is the ground of blessing. If birth decided it, Ishmael and Esau would be in too.
- Sovereignty opens the door. Once all blessing rests on God's free choice, the Gentile has as much claim as the Jew — which is to say, none but mercy.
- Ruin makes room. Grace counts the favoured nation as worthless as the outsider. The worse the need, the brighter the mercy.
- Mercy that works. The call is not a label. It sinks into the soul, works repentance, and brings a thankful welcome of Christ.
- Prepared, not fated. Scripture says God prepared the vessels of mercy for glory. It never says He fitted anyone for destruction.
As he says also in Hosea, I will call not-my-people My people; and the-not-beloved Beloved.
Paul has just said that God calls people "not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles," and he turns to the prophet Hosea to prove it. That is startling: Hosea first spoke those words over Israel, a nation God had already named "not My people."
God gave Hosea's children names that carried His verdict on Israel. One writer follows the daughter's name into the New Testament and finds two renderings:
The prophet receives a name for her — Lo-ruhamah, which means "not having obtained mercy." The Holy Spirit gives this passage in two interesting ways in the New Testament. Romans 9:25 renders it "not beloved," and 1 Peter 2:10, "had not received mercy." God was now going to withdraw His love and mercy from Israel, and take them away completely.
Paul introduces the quotation with a simple formula: God says it in Hosea. One writer shows how Paul treats the Old Testament — a prophet's words are God's own words:
In Romans 9, Paul treats all the history of Genesis as the word of God. He quotes the account in Exodus first as declaring that God spoke to Moses, and then about the history of Pharaoh. And here it is Scripture that says it. For Paul this is the same as God saying it. Next he quotes Hosea as the word of God: "He says in Hosea."
Paul's argument works because God had fallen back on His own right to choose. On that ground, birth and nation no longer decide:
From the moment God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open for a Gentile as for a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. If He is sovereign, He will naturally show it where it stands out most. The call of the Gentiles gives that occasion. The Gentiles were the worst, completely degraded, and for this very reason they were the most fitting objects for God to show His sovereignty in grace. It is clear that the apostle takes verse 25 as the future call of Israel, their reinstatement as God's people on a better footing than ever in sovereign grace. But he applies verse 26 to the Gentiles.
Commentators differ on the reach of verse 25. Some read it of the Jews, with the next verse turning to the Gentiles. Others read the whole quotation as proof of mercy for the nations. One writer argues from the unusual order of the two Hosea passages:
The question is about the precise aim of the Spirit. For myself I cannot doubt that He had both Jews and Gentiles in view in the two quotations from Hosea. If He meant only the Gentiles in both, why quote them in such a strange order? Why place the piece of Hosea 1:10 after the piece of 2:23? Suppose instead He means to show grace calling the Jews first under the gospel, even though they had lost their distinctive name of relationship. Then nothing could be more natural and fitting than quoting Hosea 2:23 before 1:10.
Another writer agrees that Hosea spoke these prophecies about Israel, and finds the force of Paul's argument right there:
The prophecies clearly apply only to Israel. But it is Israel at the same distance from God as though they had been Gentiles — "not My people." If God could have mercy on Israel after calling them "not My people," then He could be merciful to Gentiles too. They were in exactly the same class. What admirable wisdom! What blessed grace! Could Israel escape the plain, though humbling, force of this? And God does more than restore them to the standing of His "people." He also gives them the sweet name "beloved."
The name "not My people" was never God's last word. One reference work draws the distinction:
Lo-ammi is the symbolic name of a son of Hosea, meaning "not my people" (Hosea 1:9). Because of the sin of Israel they are for a time outwardly not God's people. God has not changed His purpose concerning His ancient people, Rom. 11:29; He has only changed His manner toward them. Hosea 2:23 adds, "I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'" That will happen when God's set time arrives to bring them into blessing again.
- Named — Hosea's children carried God's verdict in their names: "not My people" and "not having obtained mercy." Romans renders the second name "not beloved."
- Quoted — Paul introduces Hosea's words as God speaking. What Scripture says, God says.
- Free — Once God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew. The worst become the fittest display of grace.
- Reaching — Commentators differ on whether verse 25 speaks of Jews or Gentiles. They agree on the logic: if mercy can reach Israel after "not My people," it can reach the nations too.
- Renamed — God does more than give back the old name. He calls them "beloved." He changed His manner toward His people, never His purpose.
And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, *Ye* [are] not my people, there shall they be called Sons of [the] living God.
Paul has just said that God has called people "not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles," and now he backs it with the prophet Hosea. The line he picks holds a sentence of rejection and its reversal. Commentators differ on whether that reversal is meant for Israel, for the nations, or for both.
The phrase "not my people" was once a boy's name. Hosea gave it to his son, and it carried God's verdict on a whole nation.
Symbolic name of a son of Hosea, meaning "not my people," Hosea 1:9. Because of Israel's sin they are, for a time, outwardly not God's people. God has not changed His purpose about His ancient people, Romans 11:29; He has only changed His manner toward them. The wording of Hosea 1:10, quoted in Romans 9:26, leaves room for the Gentiles as "sons of the living God."
Verses 25 and 26 come from two different chapters of Hosea. The two apostles use them differently.
Look closely into these quotations from Hosea. Peter, who writes only to converted Jews, takes just the passage at the end of Hosea 2. Paul quotes that one too. He also quotes the one at the end of Hosea 1: "In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called" — not "my people," but — "the children of the living God." It is this last passage that he applies to the Gentiles called by grace.
Some readers take both quotations as pointing to the Gentiles. One writer answers from the order Paul used.
If the Spirit meant only the Gentiles in both, why quote them in such a peculiar order? Why place the fragment of Hosea 1:10 after that of 2:23? But suppose He means to illustrate the call of grace under the gospel to the Jews first, despite their having lost their distinctive name of relationship. Then nothing could be more natural and fitting than His use of Hosea 2:23 before 1:10.
The chapter has been arguing that God chooses freely. Nationality cannot limit the reach of that choice.
From the moment God falls back on His own sovereignty, the ground is as open for a Gentile as for a Jew. God is not sovereign if He may not choose whom He pleases. If He is sovereign, then it is only natural that His sovereignty should show itself where it would be most striking. The call of the Gentiles gives this occasion. If they were the worst — and they certainly were utterly degraded — for this very reason they were the most fitting objects for God to exercise His sovereignty in grace. The apostle clearly reads verse 25 as the future call of Israel — the people of God put back on a better footing than ever in sovereign grace. But he also applies verse 26 to the Gentiles.
God could have given outsiders back the title Israel had lost. He chose a different word.
God avoids the word "people" and uses "sons" instead. By that change He signals through His prophet, with the most admirable fitness, that when He was going to work in grace He would work in a way worthy of His name. He would bring Gentiles not merely into the place of Israel, but into a better standing. Granted they were the vilest of the vile: even so, grace could and would raise them into the nearest relationship to God Himself. Then they should be, not a mere substitute for Israel, but "the sons of the living God."
Older English versions read "children" here; the ESV reads "sons." The word choice is not accidental.
The context makes it clear that the question is one of standing — a relationship God owns. So, as we would expect, it is "sons" and not "children" as in our version.
The verse does not move the blessing somewhere else. God speaks it on the very spot where He disowned them, and He is doing that now, before Israel's own restoration.
The Gentiles were always "Lo-ammi," and He says to Israel, "Lo-ammi"; so all are "Lo-ammi." But now we get a new principle. "In the place where it was said to them, Lo-ammi, there they shall be called the children of the living God." And this is going on now. When Israel is restored, it is as "the people of God."
- Sentence. "Not my people" was a real name Hosea gave his son — God's verdict that for a time Israel would outwardly not be His.
- Sovereignty. Once God acts on His own free choice rather than on national claim, the ground is as open to a Gentile as to a Jew.
- Pairing. Verse 25 looks to Israel's future call; verse 26 Paul applies to the Gentiles — two quotations from Hosea, in that order, for two groups.
- Upgrade. The promise does not just restore the lost title "people." It grants a nearer one: "sons of the living God" — a better standing, not a substitute.
- Place. God speaks the new name on the exact spot where the old sentence fell. That is happening now, while Israel's restoration as "the people of God" still lies ahead.