God's Love
Scripture Reading — Hosea 3
“Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods. . . .”
How embarrassing it must have been for Hosea to deal with his wife’s unfaithfulness. But God told Hosea to show love to her, so Hosea paid the price to buy her back and bring her home.
What can we learn from this? We learn that no one can climb out of the depths of sin on their own. In addition, we learn that God’s work of salvation pays the price to redeem the sinner (buy them back) and save them.
This is a picture of all that God has done to show his love to us, his people. God made Jesus to be a sacrifice in order to save us. Jesus laid down his life to pay the price to redeem us, so that we can be free from our sin and have new life with God. In this way, God restored us from being slaves of sin to being his people again. He made us a part of his family again, just as Hosea restored Gomer. What a great blessing this is!
There is a book in Korea called “From Seo-cho to Heaven.” Seo-cho is a district in the city of Seoul. The point is this: people can live in Seo-cho and can move to other districts in the city, but they can’t move to heaven as they please. How do we “move” to heaven? It’s possible only if we believe in Jesus.
How should we then live? Well, Hosea tells Gomer not to run away or commit adultery again. So this means we, as God’s family, shouldn’t turn away and love the world again. We cannot serve two masters.
Dear God, thank you for saving us from the depths of our sin. Help us to live faithfully for you from now on. In Jesus, Amen.
About the author — Jang Ho Park
Jang Ho Park is a pastor in Tacoma, Washington. He and his wife, Jong Boon, have two sons.
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