Wednesday, May 31st, 2023

It's been said, pithily, that the Old Testament foretells Christ, the Gospels tell of Christ, and the rest of the New Testament tells how Christ is coming back. We see this in a vivid way in the book of Hosea in the Old Testament. Hosea is a minor prophet of Israel, someone who was raised up by God to call his generation of Israel back to God in repentance. What is interesting about Hosea is that his own life pictures the love of Christ. In Hosea 1, God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, which he does. Beyond the obvious lesson in obedience, Hosea truly loved Gomer despite her cheating ways. In his time, God had Hosea live in such a marriage so that he could fully grasp what God experiences when his people, Israel, turn to idol worship. But we see Christ pictured here in Hosea because despite Gomer's great and continual sin against Hosea, Hosea still loved, blessed, and sacrificed for her. He did not forsake Gomer because of her wicked ways; he actually chose her and married her while she was still a prostitute. We see Christ make the same sacrifice with the same great love for us. Paul wrote in Romans, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It is in faith in Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, that He died for each of us individually to cover our sins, that we are saved. And even after we come to faith and receive salvation, none of us is perfect. We still sin, just like Gomer never stopped sinning against Hosea. But just as Hosea never stopped loving Gomer, Christ never stops loving us. His sacrifice, like Hosea's wedding to Gomer, is once and for all time. Though we are covered by the blood of Christ through faith, let us not live like Gomer but instead honor Christ by a life of service and faithfulness to him.

"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -- Romans 5:8