Jul 20 – Hosea 1, Hosea 2 Romans 6:1-14 Psalm 87:1-7

Hos 1:2

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.”

Well there’s an interesting start. God tells Hosea to take a prostitute as a wife, knowing that she would not remain faithful. 

And Hosea’s life is a picture of how we treat God. For this to be true, Hosea must have loved his wife dearly. He must have felt deeply hurt and betrayed as she wandered.

And that’s how Israel was treating God, running after every passing idol. Selling themselves for short term gain.

It’s easy to be critical, but we must make sure we do not live the same. Do we trade the things of God for short term pleasure? Do we go running after every world trend?

It’s a challenging book. But it’s not one without hope.

One child was called “Not my People” – for God was saying at this point, they were no longer His people and He was no longer their God. It’s a crushing inditement.

Yet in chapter 2 God speaks of a day when this will change. A day coming when to those He said no mercy, He showed mercy and to those who were not HIs people, He will once again say you are my people and they will rely – you are our God.

Through the hurt God feels through our betrayal – His love wins out.

Rom 6:1-2

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Where do we stand with sin once we are saved? We know we are forgiven and we know that we are under grace.

But there is a line of thinking that gets into dangerous territory here. If we are under grace and not the law, then it’s not about living right, but keeping close to Jesus, after all the cross is a complete work.

If grace increases because of sin, and grace is all encompassing then what we do doesn’t seem to matter so much.

It’s not a new line of thinking and it’s still one that some Christians get stuck in.

But Paul had already comeuppance against this way of thinking and he makes it very clear. Do we go on sinning? By no means!

The whole point is that when we come to Christ we die to sin. We die to the old life. When we receive Him, we take off the old self – so we must turn our backs on sin. Yes, He is ready to forgive – but if sin doesn’t become something we leave behind we’ve missed the point of who we are in Christ. We are all salves to something and we should be slaves to Christ not sin.

Can sin still have a place in our lives? Paul says By No Means!!! Or in some translations, God forbid! Absolutely Not! Of course not! That’s unthinkable! May it never be!

I think you get the point.