Jul 21 – Hosea 3, Hosea 4, Hosea 5 Romans 6:15-23, Romans 7:1-6 Psalm 88:1-9

Hos 3:1

The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

It breaks my heart to read this. How much did it hurt Hosea to do this? He’d been betrayed time after time. It must have been so hard to show that love again. 

Yet God does for us. How many times have we thrown His love back in His face? How many times have we betrayed Him? How many times have we made other things our priority?

Yet Hi love for us never fades. Never diminishes. How wonderful His love towards us is!

Rom 7:1-4

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Paul is speaking to people who know the me and live by the law. He gives an interesting example here, of a woman and marriage. The marriage vow is unto death, yet after one of them has died it’s not sin for her to remarry. 

He’s using this an example to say – if we are in Christ we’ve died to the law. We used to belong to the law, but when we come to Christ we did to that. The old passes away and we belong to another. 

We can’t let the old life continue to have authority over us. It’s dead. Gone. 

We should be living in the Spirit not the law. What’s the difference? The law is about obeying rules (or trying to) the Spirit is about becoming more like Christ. 

One is a chore. The other is a pleasure. However, the end result of both should lead you away from sin.