Romans 9.26-Paul Cites Hosea 1.10 To Support His Teaching In Romans 9.24 That Gentiles Were To Be Effectually Called By God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday April 15, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:26-Paul Cites Hosea 1:10 To Support His Teaching In Romans 9:24 That Gentiles Were To Be Effectually Called By God
Lesson # 319
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
This evening we will study Romans 9:26 in which Paul cites Hosea 1:10 to support his teaching in Romans 9:24 that the Scriptures predicted that like the Jews, Gentiles were to be effectually called by God.
Let’s read Romans 9:1-29 and then concentrate on verse 26 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:1-29, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: ‘THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.’ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: ‘AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.’ And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.’ Just as it is written, ‘JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.’ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, ‘I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, ‘I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’ AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.’ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.’ And just as Isaiah foretold, ‘UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.’”
Let’s concentrate on verse 26 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:26, “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
In this passage, Paul is quoting from Hosea 1:10.
Hosea 1:10, “And in the place where it is said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.’” (NASU)
Hosea 1:10 speaks of the future restoration of Israel.
However, as he did in Romans 9:25 when quoting Hosea 2:23, Paul applies Hosea 1:10 to the Gentiles being effectually called by God during the present dispensation.
The key to understanding how Paul could apply Hosea 2:23 to Gentiles and do the same with Hosea 1:10 when both passages were directed towards the Northern Kingdom in Israel specifically is the expression “not My people.”
He did this because by ethnic or racial heritage and their unregenerate status the Gentiles of course were not God’s people.
Therefore, he was led by the Spirit to apply these verses to Gentiles even though it was originally directed towards the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
In Romans 9:26, Paul continues to apply passages in Hosea to Gentiles that were initially directed towards the Northern Kingdom.
He does this since through the Spirit, Paul saw an analogy between God’s present rejection of Israel with His past rejection of the Gentiles.
Paul also sees the analogy between the present effectual calling of the Gentiles and His future effectual calling of the Jews.
Therefore, Paul quotes both Hosea 2:23 in Romans 9:25 and Hosea 1:10 in Romans 9:26 because he wants his readers to see this analogy.
Romans 9:26, “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
“AND” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that presents an “additional” Old Testament passage from Hosea that serves to further confirm Paul’s teaching in Romans 9:24 that God would effectually call not only Jews but also Gentiles.
“IT SHALL BE” emphasizes the certainty that the Gentiles in the nations where they are located throughout the earth would become sons of the living God in the future when they exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
This prophecy is being fulfilled during the church age, which began on the day of Pentecost in approximately 30 A.D. and will end with the rapture of the church, which is imminent.
“IN THE PLACE” refers to anywhere on the earth or in other words, the various lands throughout the earth where unregenerate Jew and Gentiles are located.
“WHERE” refers to the various places where unregenerate Jews and Gentiles lived when it was said of them in the past that they were not God’s people but in the future they will in these very places be effectually called through faith alone in Christ alone.
“IT WAS SAID TO THEM” refers to the predication that in the places where unregenerate Jews and Gentiles were known as not being God’s people, they would also be effectually called to be sons of the living God.
Romans 9:26, “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
“YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE” is emphasizing a comparative contrast between unregenerate Jews and Gentiles not being the people of God in the past with their being effectually called by God to be His sons through faith in Christ during the church age.
“THERE” refers to the various geographical locations on the earth where unregenerate Jews and Gentiles reside and have accepted by faith Jesus Christ as Savior.
It emphasizes that in the very same regions throughout the globe in which unregenerate Jews and Gentiles were emphatically rejected by God as His people, they would also be effectually called to be sons of the living God.
“THEY SHALL BE CALLED” refers to unregenerate Jews and Gentiles during the church age being effectually called by the Father through the communication of the gospel by the Holy Spirit.
“SONS OF THE LIVING GOD” is composed of the nominative masculine plural form of the noun huios (ui(ov$) (hwee-os), “SONS” and the genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$), “GOD” and the genitive masculine singular present active participle form of the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), “OF THE LIVING.”
The noun huios emphasizes the legal aspect of the Jew and Gentile Christian’s relationship with God and is thus directly related to justification and adoption.
This is how the word was used in Romans 8:14 where it was used of both the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome.
Romans 8:14, “Because, all of us who are, as an eternal spiritual truth, led by means of the Spirit, who is God, these are, as an eternal spiritual truth, God’s sons.”
This is how Paul uses the word in Galatians 3:26.
Galatians 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The verb zao is a reference to the eternal life of God.
The verb zao functions as an “attributive participle” and as an “attributive genitive” meaning that it is specifying that eternal life is an attribute of the Father.
The noun theos refers to the Father since the word is used in relation to the huios, “sons” and functions a “genitive of agency” indicating that God the Father is personal agent who effectually calls Gentiles to be His sons during the church age.
