“22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory — 24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. 26 And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.”
Now Paul has brought his argument full circle, connecting his thoughts back to what he said in chapter 8 and previous. God shows mercy on those whom He has chosen beforehand. God has chosen not only the children of the promise, that being Abraham’s physical descendants, but now, the Gentile church also. Paul uses the words of the Old Testament prophets to back up this claim. Verses 25-26 are quoted from Hosea:
“Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God.” — Hosea 1:10
See also Hosea 2:14-23.
In the context of Hosea, God is going to bring judgment on His nation Israel for their disobedience. Yet, despite the spoken promise of wrath and judgment for Israel’s sin, God tells the prophet Hosea that, in the end, He will save Israel and that He will again call not His people, my people, and she who is unloved, beloved. We now know from Romans that this promise of salvation not only applies to the Jewish people, but that the Gentiles will be included in these wonderful promises as well.
Peter, writing to a mix of Jews and Gentiles in his first letter to the dispersed Christians in Asia, writes this about the experience of salvation and sanctification:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” — 1 Peter 2:9-10
These statements are true of every Christian. All who have responded to God’s call through the Gospel of Jesus Christ are among God’s chosen race. We are all now made to be a royal priesthood, of whom Christ is the head, a holy nation, and a people who are God’s. Every Christian knows the experience of being called from the darkness into the light. Now that we have received mercy from God through the Gospel, we have been adopted by God into His family, into His chosen people. This applies to all who respond to the gospel, irrespective of ethnicity, regardless if you are a Jew or Gentile.