Open Your Bibles Romans 9:24-29

What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—  even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
    ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
    only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out
    his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty
    had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
    we would have been like Gomorrah.

-Romans 9:13-23

When we see so many across history of man rejecting the Gospel, we find ourselves asking: Has God’s plan failed? This week, we look at Romans 9:24–29 to see why the answer is a resounding "No"—and why our only hope is that God is the one who keeps a "remnant" for Himself.

In this episode we learn...

• The Sovereign Call (vv. 24–26): Paul utilizes the Prophet Hosea to explain that God's mercy extends to the Gentiles. Those once called "not my people" are brought into the covenant by the effectual call of God, proving that salvation is governed by His will alone.
• The Remnant (vv. 27–29): Quoting Isaiah, Paul clarifies that while the visible people of God may be numerous, it is the remnant—the elect—who are saved. This distinction ensures that God’s promise has not failed, as He always preserves a seed for Himself.

Key Takeaways:

1. Grace: Verse 24 reminds us that it is God who calls. Our standing as His children is the result of His sovereign initiative, not our merit. This is Good News!!
2. Covenantal Faithfulness: The existence of a remnant proves God is faithful to His word, even when the majority fall away.
3. Total Depravity: Verse 29 humbles us with the truth that without God’s intervention to "leave a seed," we would all justly face the same judgment as Sodom.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome, welcome, my friends, to the Grave the Gospel podcast, where we always encourage you to know what you believe and why you believe it. I am your host, Will Hunt Saker, and today we're going to continue our study of Romans 9. But we're going to drill down on a short set of verses, verses 24 through 29. Now, we're uh we're going to continue with Paul's thoughts. This is what he's been developing on God's sovereignty in our salvation. But now he's going to include the Gentiles and he's going to reduce the Jews to a remnant. Now, contextually, let's reorient ourselves with Romans 9. Paul's been addressing some questions. Primarily, he's been addressing the question of what Israel's role is in God's plan of redemption in light of their rejection of Christ and now this unexpected inclusion of the Gentiles. He's very disappointed in them and they're needing his counsel here, especially to the church in Rome. So Paul argues basically in Romans 9 that God, his promises remain the same. They remain intact. His election is not founded on any kind of ethnicity or the work of man, but strictly on his sovereign will and mercy. So that basically is a quick summary of Romans 9, bringing us up to this point in verse 24. And we're going to see in these verses, Paul changes his focus on discussing why God has the right to do whatever he wants. He can choose whoever he wants, all based on his will, to how he's going to call people both that are Jewish and non-Jewish into his covenant family. So this section is set within Paul's larger argument about God's sovereignty in election. Now I'm going to begin reading uh in verse 22, even though our verses today we're going to look at 24 through 29, just for some context, so you can see the flavor of Paul's thoughts as they develop. So he writes, beginning in verse 22. And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured much patience, vessels of wrath, having been prepared for destruction, and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory. Then we get to verse 24, namely us, whom he also called, not only from among Jews, but also from among Gentiles. As he also says in Hosea, I will call those who were not my people, my people, and her who was not beloved, beloved. And as shall be in that 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 may be like the sand of the sea, only the remnants will be saved. For the Lord will execute his word on earth thoroughly and quickly. And just as Isaiah foretold, if the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have been become like Sodom and would have been like Gomorrah. That's Romans 22 through 29. Now, in those first two verses, we read for that flavor that Paul had just finished describing those to whom God will make known the riches of his glory in Christ. Remember, Paul's focus is the gospel on Jesus Christ, person and work of Christ. So in other words, what Paul is saying is he's revealing his wrath and his mercy in perfect accordance with his nature. He refers to these uh individuals as vessels of wrath, of course, and mercy, which he prepared beforehand. Now, in verse 24, he writes that these vessels of mercy are us. Okay, now remember, his audience is a congregation of Jews and Gentiles in Rome who have been called to Christ. So he says that. Christians, believers. That's Romans 9:24. Then he adds a little bit of context to that, a little bit more detail. That all of those that God is called, vessels of mercy, come from both Jews and Gentiles. He writes, namely us, verse 24 now, whom he also called, not only from among Jews, but also from among Gentiles. So you're seeing uh that inclusion now of Gentiles with the Jews. So having a collaborative effort here. So Paul is stating that God's sovereign choice and salvation now is expanded. It's expanded beyond the nation of Israel to include all other types of people. Now, the Greek word that we use to translate into Gentile here is ethnos, which literally means people from all nations and types. All right. So Paul is not intending to say that God chooses every person in the entire world to unto salvation, but rather that he chooses from every type of people. So now it's not just the Jews, which was his original people that he chose to begin the covenant process to where ultimately Christ will culminate all that. And then when Christ comes, that expands automatically to include other people. Because that's Paul's perspective here. And another key verse we need to pay attention to there was a phrase. Uh, that uh, well, essentially he says, from among is what he says. That's what Paul says, from among Jews and from among Gentiles. So Paul is deliberately stating there, with using that phrase, from among, that not every Jew is called, nor every Gentile is called, but from among all types of people, I will call them into a union with my son. So that's what the phrase from among implies. Okay, it points to the origin of those called, not all of them. All right. So God's sovereignty here, okay, he's sovereign in all things. His sovereign call leads his people to salvation, okay? It's not determined by their ethnicity again. We can't drill that down enough in any place into anybody's head. It's not meant to be uh a point of merit or uh a deed of ours, but by his divine choice, that's how he elects. Now, does God possess the authority to make such choices? Can he do that according to his own will? Is he allowed to do that? Does he have that kind of authority? Well, the inclusion of the Gentiles here appears to answer that as yes, he does. As it affills, as it fulfills, I should say, his purpose to extend his call to individuals from all backgrounds, ensuring that they're justified by his grace through faith in Christ alone. And that's the whole chapter of Ephesians 2, really. So Paul supports this claim by showing that the scriptures also confirm this. And they include the Gentiles. So he's going to quote Hosea here. He says, I will call those who are not my people, my people, and her who is 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, believers. Romans 9, 25 and 26. Now, in that passage there, as I said, Paul references Hosea, specifically uh chapter 2, 23, verse 23, and chapter 110 uh collectively, he puts them together there. And he's illustrating that God's redemptive plan has always encompassed those described as not my people, which Paul indicates here is a clear reference to Gentiles. However, it's interesting, the context of Hosea for the original audience was his marriage to his unfaithful wife, Gomer. God then likened at the time the northern tribes of Israel as unfaithful in a spiritual sense to Gomer's behavior, Josea's wife's behavior in the physical sense. Both are unfaithful in the same way, but one is spiritual, one is physical. Matter of fact, two of Gomer's children. One was uh named not loved, like you saw quoted there, and the other was named not my people. However, we see from the the text there in Hosea that God would go on to reverse that at some point. Uh, and the implication here is that he's reversing the unfaithfulness of Israel in the child's names. So that was the context of Hosea. I will call those who are not my people, one of the names of Gomer's children. I'll call them my people. And her who is not beloved, the other name of a child, beloved. So he's reversing that. They're in faithfulness. And it shall be that in that place they will be changed, from you are not my people to now sons of God. So we always have to remember how did the New Testament authors um interpret the Old Testament? And the way they looked at New Testament prophecy, okay, the authors of the New Testament. How did they look at Old Testament prophecy? Because that's what this is. It was a threefold process. They had an immediate fulfillment, okay, which was seen in Israel at the time, historically. Then they had a uh uh in-between fulfillment, uh, an intermediate one, I guess you could say. This would be seen in Christ. This is how the New Testament authors viewed it. And also the church, we see that in Acts. And then they had a final fulfillment of things to come, which would be God's eventual consummation of us all into glory, all the believers. His kingdom will come. So while this specific prophecy did have an immediate fulfillment through God's judgment and promise of reconciliation upon the northern tribes of Israel, Paul also viewed it uh as having a fulfillment in a gospel perspective, with the inclusion of the Gentiles. Now, essentially, the outsiders, the Gentiles, who are once outside of all this and not children of God, are now called to the inside. So now I want you to note, though, that Paul had already touched on this in chapter four of this letter regarding Abraham. He touched on this same principle of those that were not Jews becoming seeds of Abraham, but through faith. So that covenant promise given to Abraham will be guaranteed to those who have the faith that Abraham had, not by ethnicity or any kind of tradition or works, and especially not by human expectations, like with circumcision. No, none of that would count only by God's choosing of those in the faith. All right. So Paul now is going to shift his focus again from the inclusion of the Gentiles now that he he said the Old Testament speaks of this as referenced in Hosea, but another Old Testament uh prophet he's going to cite, and that's Isaiah. In this part uh of the message from Paul, he emphasizes not only the inclusion of the Gentiles, we got that, into this promise of justification, but also the fact that the number of Jews is diminishing into what is referred to as a remnant. Uh, and this is what he writes in uh uh Romans 9. Isaiah, he's quoting Isaiah now. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the sons of Israel may be like the sand of the sea, only the remnants will be saved. For the Lord will execute his word on the earth thoroughly and quickly. And just as Isaiah foretold, if the Lord had not left us descendants, had not done this, we would have become like Sodom and would have been like Gomorrah. 27 through 29. So what Paul's referencing here is one of what we like to call Bible's most uh the Bible's most significant. There are many, actually, but this is one of the most significant remnant uh verses. And it's from Isaiah chapter 10, 22 and 23. Now, there in that context, it's used, and Paul uses this to bolster his argument now, but in in that original context of Isaiah, it's akin to that of Hosea regarding abandonment of God, apostasy, unfaithfulness. However, in this particular incidence with Isaiah, it pertains not to the northern tribes of Israel, but to the southern tribes of or the southern tribe of Judah. So the text reveals in Isaiah that during the Assyrian invasion uh in the eighth century BC, roughly, both Israel and Judah were devastated, severely devastated, leaving only a small number of people still alive. Nevertheless, God promised to punish Assyria for their arrogance in this whole thing. Now, that the uh details on that, that's going to have to be a topic for another discussion. But just know that he didn't say there that he's going to punish them. His his wrath is going to come down on Assyria for their arrogance. And he also assures that a faithful remnant will return to him. Believers will return to him, a remnant of what was. Okay. We see that in verses 27 through 28. That God chose to maintain essentially an Israel inside of Israel. So a smaller Israel inside the larger Israel, if you will. So then in verse 29, he gives a well-known example of that, uh, an illustration of what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah. And you could see the contrast here. A majority, the even though Israel was as numerous as the sand of the sea, they've been now reduced to a minority, all by the sovereign will of God. So that's the remnant principle, which is very important in Paul's argument here that God chooses how he will. So to sum this up, we can touch on a few key themes here. Uh so God's sovereignty. We just talked about that, especially here in the context of salvation. And how does God do this? How does he choose? Well, Paul touched on a process of it in Romans 8, um, through what we call the golden chain of salvation. But ultimately, no one really knows how God does this. We just know that he he does. And scripture's clear that God is sovereign. So whatever he declares will happen. If he says something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. And when he calls someone or he calls a group of people, that call is going to be effective. He we learn this in Isaiah 55, which reads, So will my word be, which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, without accomplishing what pleases me, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. That's God, Isaiah of God in Isaiah 55, 11. Very, very dominant forced uh verse here regarding God's sovereign will. So ultimately, we can rest in in humility, knowing that he is God, that what he says will take place, that who he calls will come. And he is God and we're not. That's a central figure of all of the Bible. He's God, we're not. What does he do with this? He does with it according to his will. That's what. And that our righteousness before him is found in his grace, through faith in the completed work of Christ alone, nothing else, and all for one reason and purpose: his glory. His glory alone. So thanks for joining us today, folks. We really appreciate it. Next week, we're going to uh continue to follow Paul's teaching in uh Romans 9, and we're going to begin in uh verse 30, and we're going to go through nine into 10 and probably stop at verse 13. That's a pretty much a complete thought of Paul's. And uh that's what he's going to actually. Begin and complete in many ways the argument that God's people are those who have come to Him through Christ and for no other reason. Grace and peace to you all. And once again, remember, folks, know what you believe and why you believe it. God bless.