Paul is telling his audience of believers in Rome at the time, a group that contains both Jews and Gentiles (those who are non-Jewish), that it is not only Jews who are in God’s family, but also the Gentiles.
Here, Paul is referencing the book of Hosea from the Old Testament. The prophet Hosea was commanded by God to marry and stay with an unfaithful woman (a prostitute). God commanded Hosea to give his children symbolic names. Hosea named one of his children Lo-Ammi “Not My People” and other of his children Lo-Ruhamah, “Not my beloved.” The book of Hosea represents God’s desire to restore His people, and while Gentiles are not of the ethnic heritage of God’s people, God adopted them in through Jesus’s sacrifice. Paul is using this passage from Hosea to reiterate that those who were not God’s people (Gentiles) can now be a part of God’s people through faith in His son, He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. Verse 24 demonstrates this, as Paul says that it is not only Jews who have been pre-planned for mercy to display God’s glory (verse 23), but also the Gentiles. Paul quotes directly from 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.”
Paul is telling the audience in Rome that it is not only the Jews whom God has called to be His people, but that some Gentiles will also be adopted into God’s people through faith in Jesus’s sacrifice. As we will see in verses 30 through 33, God has called some Gentiles to righteousness through faith to make them vessels of mercy for His glory (verse 23). In verse 26, Paul is emphasizing that some Gentiles have been called by God to be His children (verse 9-12).
Biblical text
24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 25 As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ”
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.”
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