GOD'S PEOPLE
ROMANS 9:23-26
ROMANS 9:23-26 NKJ
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea:
"I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved."
26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'
There they shall be called sons of the living God."
OBSERVATION:
It has been said, and rightly so that the Jews are God's chosen people. The fact that Israel exists as a nation today is a testimony to that fact.
But where we have stopped short is proclaiming that we are God's people. We who belong to the Lord Jesus are His chosen ones.
This spiritual truth caused Paul an inordinate amount of trouble with the Jews of his day. The Jewish people of Paul's generation were convinced that they and they only were God's chosen people. When Paul came preaching that the Gentiles were also God's people, he stirred up a hornets' nest of hate.
I am grateful that Paul stuck with the truth and did not give in to the pressure from the Jewish culture.
In our passage for today, we are referred to in some wonderful ways.
We are called vessels of God's mercy, and He has prepared us for His glory. I am not sure of all this entails, but it certainly sounds good.
Paul also says we are the called of God. Too often, the only individuals we deem as called are the preachers and missionaries. But all of us who belong to Jesus are called. We are called to walk with God, represent the Lord, and inherit all He has for us.
And then Paul quotes the Old Testament prophet Hosea in regard to the day we are living in. The prophet spoke hundreds of years before Christ that we Gentiles are now called God's people. And we are called beloved. And we are called sons, male and female sons, of the living God.
APPLICATION:
One of the most impactful ways to apply spiritual truth to your life is with your words.
We can and should say about ourselves what God says about us. So, we can say that we are God's people. We are called of God for His glory. We are beloved of God, and we are sons of the living God. It may sound strange to your ears when you first say it but stay with it. These are important spiritual truths.