Monday, August 1, 2022

 

Monday, August 1, 2022


Psalm 74


Hosea 6:4-7:7


Romans 7:1-12


Lesser Festival: Holy men and women of the Old Testament


But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.


Isn't it curious how a marriage between a man and a woman comes up yet again to be used as analogy for our relationship with God? There is something deeply spiritual that is revealed in this concept. In Hosea, God is using it to describe how much He loves us, by setting up a terrible marriage and communicating Himself as the husband continually rescuing his wayward wife out of danger and bringing her safely back home. Paul now takes marriage between a man and woman and uses it to describe how completely we are attached either to sin or Jesus.


In the reading from Hosea, the nation of Samaria is told that their attachment to sin is like a wood-fired oven that burns so hotly it doesn't need refuelling. Paul, meanwhile, describes the human attachment to sin as like being married. We must keep before us how powerful sin is, in both its allure and its movement into death. The Law, or, God's moral code, shows us how to avoid sin and death: but sin takes that knowledge and lies to us by saying we can exercise “free will” and break that law. We think we are exercising autonomy but we are just obeying evil desires.


The solution to our miserable, abusive spiritual “marriage” to death? Jesus on the cross, killing sin and death, releasing us and wedding us so that we are now “married” into a loving relationship. Look at our good “husband”; He humbles Himself, even unto death on a cross. He is the good husband, who looks out for the best interests of His wife, and cares nothing for the entitlement due Him as God (Phil 2). He only asks that we love Him back and stay faithful to Him. Now, when we are confronted with the option to sin, we have the freedom to say “no”. We have a new life, a new purpose, a new lover, who is faithful and true.



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