And it will be in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.
Truth to Learn
God chooses people from around the world to be His children.
Behind the Words
“People” is translated from laos, which we looked at before. This implies that those who are spoken of in this verse had not been part of God’s family until He chose them.
The word “sons” is from huios. Strictly speaking, this refers to a male child. However, it is often used in the New Testament as a reference to a child without reference to gender.
Meaning Explained
Paul has been demonstrating to his readers that God is clearly sovereign in His choice of whom He will bless and who will be cast into hellfire. He has made it very clear that it is God’s choice regarding who will receive righteousness and who will receive condemnation. In the previous verse he quoted Hosea 2:23 in which God proclaims that He will call them His people who were previously not His people. That is, Hosea was prophesying that non-Jews would be proclaimed as God’s people. He now quotes another passage from Hosea. This time he is quoting Hosea 1:10 which says,
Yet the number of the sons of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which is not measured nor numbered. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, you are not My people, there it shall be said to them, you are the sons of the living God.
One of the really significant things about Paul’s quoting these passages is the fact that Hosea was a prophet to whom God gave direction to marry a prostitute and to raise his children as if they were illegitimate children. This was done as a sign to the Jews that God was displeased with their following after other gods (which God considers harlotry). Here’s what God tells us in Hosea 1:2:
The beginning of Jehovah speaking by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of adultery and children of adultery. For the land has utterly gone lusting away from Jehovah.
Because of this warning from God, the Children of Israel were told that God would one day call those who were not His people (Gentiles) as the sons of the Living God. Paul is now demonstrating to the Jewish Christians in Rome that this prophecy is being fulfilled in the choosing of the Gentiles as well as Jews in the church age. In Hosea’s time the Jews were required to worship at the temple in Jerusalem on given occasions at prescribed times of the year. But now, because Hosea’s prophecy is fulfilled, we can worship God anywhere and do so through faith rather than deeds of legalism.
Paul will further show in the coming verses that this calling of the Gentiles will not be through the works of the Law or church rituals but by the justification through faith that he has talked about in the earlier chapters of this letter.
Application
The Jews were required to worship in Jerusalem and follow a prescribed set of rituals. Those who are chosen of God today must worship in spirit and truth, but they can do so anywhere. As those who are called the children of the living God, we are spread throughout the world to proclaim the gospel truth.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved