The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

Paul here says that the plan of God for redeeming a remnant of humanity for himself, even those among the Gentiles, was ingredient in the plan all along. We have already seen that the Gospel was spoken first in the protoevangelium in Genesis 3.15, and renewed in the covenant to Abraham in Genesis 12.1-3, which included the promise of the blessing of the nations through Abraham’s seed. Here in this text, the prophetic Word is expanded from its context only to Israel and applied to the Gentiles as well. Those who were not the people of God, not beloved, not cherished and without hope in the world—through the promise of Messiah, even these would be called “children of the living God.” Israel remains the people of God, but, the love and mercy of God is extended to the Gentiles. The mystery unveiled is that our God is in fact the God of the Jew and the Gentile, and Gentiles are to be considered fellow-heirs in the great salvation of God in Messiah. Are the Jews not to be considered the people of God any longer then? George Eldon Ladd clearly argues no to this question: In the old dispensation, Israel was the people of God. Israel’s rejection of her Messiah leads Paul to the question, ‘Has God rejected his people?’ (Rom. 11.1). No further qualifier is necessary to designate Israel as God’s people. Paul devotes a long discussion to the problem of Israel (Rom. 9-11) in the course of which he makes it clear that the Church is God’s new people. This is most vividly expressed in the use of quotations from Hosea. The prophet speaks of the present apostasy of Israel and her eschatological salvation. Hosea was directed to name one of his sons ‘Not my people,’ for apostate Israel was no longer God’s people and he was not their God (Hos. 1.9). However, in the day of salvation, this situation will be changed; they will be called “sons of the living God” (Hos. 1.10). “And I will say to Not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and he shall say, ‘Thou are my God’” (Hos. 2.23). In Hosea these prophecies clearly refer to Israel, but Paul applies them to the church, which consists of both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 9.24). This does not mean that the title laos is taken from Israel, but that another people is brought into being along with Israel on a different basis. That Israel in some real sense remains the people of God is seen in Paul’s affirmation that the Jewish people are still a “holy” people (Rom. 11.16), a people belonging to God. The fate of the Jews is seen in the light of the whole history of Heilsgeschichte. If the patriarchs-the first fruits and the root-are holy, so is the whole people. They are still “beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11.28f.).

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~ George Eldon Ladd. A Theology of the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974. pp. 537-38.