Romanos 9:25

‘As he says also in Hosea (Greek - Osee), “I will call that my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved”.'

Paul then cites Hosea in order to demonstrate that it has always been God's intention that some who were ‘not My people' should become ‘My people'. That some who were not beloved and elect, would become beloved and elect. (In many cases ‘beloved' and ‘elect' were seen as synonyms).

He declares that in Hosea we read, ‘I will call that My people who were not My people, and (I will call) her beloved who was not beloved' (a Pauline paraphrase of Oseas 2:23). It would certainly appear, at least at first sight, that this quotation from Hosea is backing up Romanos 9:23, for in it he is seeking to demonstrate from Scripture that some of those who were ‘not God's people' would become so. But some question who are in Paul's mind here. The previous verses from Romanos 9:6 onwards have been referring to the election of only a part of Israel, with Gentiles only being introduced at the end as an additional final comment. Is he then continuing his argument on the election of only a part of Israel? Or is he now seeing the Gentiles as included? The direct connection with the previous verse would suggest that he is applying Hosea' prophecy to ‘the called' among both believing Jews and Gentiles, both therefore being seen as having been ‘not My people', and now being ‘My people'. And the general impression at first sight is certainly that that is precisely what he meant. But against this is argued the fact that there is little doubt that the citation from Hosea only had Israelites in mind, because it was Israelites who were actually in the mind of Hosea.

However, if we take the view that Paul is drawing from Hosea's wording, (that ‘not My people' can become ‘My people'), the inference that this is God's usual method of working, and that it is something which was evidenced by an Israel that had lapsed into Gentile idolatry and had therefore virtually become Gentile, having been cut off from God's true Israel, then, it may well be that he sees this as evidence that God will reach out to believing Gentiles as well. That is indeed what the Jews themselves believed when they accepted into their synagogues both Gentile proselytes and Gentile God-fearers (uncircumcised adherents).

But strictly speaking, in Hosea ‘not My people' referred to a rejected Israel. It may thus be that this is simply a continuation of the argument that ‘not all Israel is Israel'. His point would then be that for a while Israel had been ‘not My people', and were thus not of the elect, but that as a result of God's activity some of them would become ‘My people' (‘some' because many would die in their ‘not my people' state), indicating again that not all Israel is Israel. Most scholars, however, see Paul here as referring to the Gentiles, with Paul's point being that a principle is revealed in the statement which demonstrates that God can make ‘not My people' into ‘My people'. It may, in fact, be that Paul had both possibilities in mind.