Did Paul get it right?
In Romans 9:22-29 the apostle Paul seems to be giving an explanation to the question of why did God make the non-elect if he had no intention of saving them. His answer is that the non-elect have a part to play in the salvation of the elect. When their role is over then hell will begin. As tough as this answer is my concern is not with Paul’s anwer but with his use of Old Testament scripture to make his point. He quotes Hosea 2:23 and Hosea 1:10 to show that God’s plan has all along been to populate the real people of God with mostly Gentiles. When one looks at the context of both passages from Hosea it is easy to see that the prophet is only talking about ethnic Israel. The Gentiles are not mentioned in the book. But, Paul seems, at least on the surface, to disregard the original context and give the passages a whole new meaning. How are we to understand Paul’s use of the Old Testament?It does seem to me that the book of Hosea is only talking about Israel. In fact, it is a history of the rebellion of the people of Israel in spite of their being the recipients of amazing love from the God of Israel. So… what is really going on? First of all, Paul is writing under the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. His writings were described as being equally authoritative as the Old Testament scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16). We cannot say that Paul read something into the passages that was not there by the design of the God of scripture. Paul clearly states that the passages in Hosea were talking about the Gentiles coming to saving faith in the new covenant era.
Romans 9:24-26 9 (NIV) 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, It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be be called ‘sons of the living God.’
Paul is stating that the promise to Israel of future restoration is fulfilled by the coming of the New Covenant era and the establishing of the real people of God who are made up of mostly Gentiles. He is speaking of New Covenant fulfillment in Old Covenant language. Another way of saying this is that the only way that you would be able to understand the true fulfillment of these passages is interpret the old through the lens of the new. God is his own interpreter and he gives us the true meaning of his scripture.
Why would God give to Old Covenant Israel only part of the picture? It would seem to me that since Israel was only a temporary, unbelieving picture of the people of God they only needed to understand the passage as speaking of Israel as a picture of what God was going to do through the real people of God, even though they did not grasp the role of Israel as a picture of the people of God. We, on the other hand, who are believers this side of Pentecost in the New Covenant era need to grasp the full meaning of the promise. Therefore we are given the meaning of its true fulfillment. Paul was carefully handling the passages from the book of Hosea. He used these passages in a context that conveyed their true meaning in the New Covenant era.
As we read God’s word we need to be careful to let God interpret his own word. We need to set aside our presuppositions and observe how the biblical writers handled Old Testament passages when they are quoted in the New. To say that since God gave the promise to Israel of its restoration the fulfillment of that promise must of necessity require a literal restoration of ethnic Israel is to impose on that scripture a requirement that God does not impose. God is his own interpreter.
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