Romanos 9:26

‘And it shall be, that in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there will they be called “sons of the living God”.'

He then further cites Oseas 1:10 which asserts that those who were ‘not My people' would at some stage become ‘sons of the living God'. If we see Paul as referring this to Gentiles, as he probably is, then he is declaring that Scripture teaches that some from among the Gentiles, will be called ‘sons of the living God' (compare 2 Corintios 6:16 with 18). If that is so then what he sees as inherent within the words is that God will call many from among the Gentiles to Himself, and make them children of God (as was true of the elect of Israel - Romanos 9:8). On the other hand, if we see the reference as being towards Jews then this is further confirmation that at one stage many in Israel had not been sons of the living God, and that all was therefore subject to God's election. It may well be that Paul had both possibilities in mind.

In support of seeing these two verses as referring to Israel is that he later cites texts separately which demonstrate the acceptance of Gentiles in Romanos 10:19, and that the whole of this passage has been mainly dealing with the question as to whether all Jews were elect, with the mention of Gentiles only being brought in at the end to clinch his argument.