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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Monday, August 04, 2008

Hosea 6

There are passages in the Scriptures where views that are contrary to the truth or against the way of the Lord are simply presented like a quotation that is then to be refuted. Sometimes there is an attribution of some kind, as when the fool says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14). In other cases, as in Hosea 6, the passage is more subtle, and we are left to consider whether the position expressed is right or wrong.

We know that God is deeply committed to the goodness of real repentance. He speaks of this movingly in the final chapter of this book. But not all repentance is real. There is such a thing as a superficial call to change, that does not take into account the depth of the problem, and is not really consistent with a deep faith.

It is surely right for Israel to return to the Lord. That is always the way of healing. It is also true that the Lord disciplines His children with the intention of blessing them and binding up their wounds. Yet what is the meaning of this call to repentance? Is Yahweh still to be one god among many who happens to need a little attention now, lest His people be slaughtered?

The fact is that the Lord’s discipline of the northern and southern kingdoms will be for more than two or three days. If we were to atone for our own sins, an eternity would not be long enough for us to adequately pay our debt that we owe to our most holy God. Amazingly, God’s Son Himself rested in the grave for three days, and He was raised up. This is what was necessary for our salvation. His perfection and His death have secured a true life of hope for His people. Those who see the cross rightly should move toward a deep repentance.

We should press on to know the Lord. His blessing of the elect is as sure of the dawn. He will pour out His Spirit upon His children like spring rains upon the earth. But have we adequately considered the seriousness of our rebellion and the cost of our redemption? Does the repentance that we propose include a real turning from sin?

The Lord’s response to this call for repentance begins in verse 4. Both Israel and Judah are addressed. The Lord requires the kind of steadfast love that His Son will deliver. Our professions of love are like a mist. They come and they go as more interesting lovers appear on the horizon. God has spoken in some detail through His prophets. Will His people willingly consider all of what He has said and turn from their rebellious ways? There will be a great day of healing that will come for the Lord’s people, but first His judgment, rather than His mercy, will go forth as light.

Ultimately we do not have within us what it will take to win the favor of the Lord. Though we have momentary affections and intentions that seem to move in the right direction, He demands something more. That something more caused Him to speak from heaven with the words, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus had more than a ceremonial burnt offering or a morning and evening sacrifice. He had true knowledge of that which was pleasing to His Father, and He continually lived a life of steadfast love.

Our problems with sin are very serious and very old. From the creation of mankind we have been transgressors of the Lord’s covenant. In the garden, when Adam disregarded the Word of the Lord and ate of the true of the knowledge of good and evil, something world-changing took place. As Paul makes so clear in Romans 5, Adam sinned for us. It is also clear even from natural revelation that the world all around us is deeply broken. This representative transgression of our first father has brought great trouble upon the earth. We are born with this blemish of Adam’s sin already upon us.

Israel and Judah displayed the accuracy of Adam’s representation in their lives of rebellion. They have dealt faithlessly with God, and so have we. Their cities are full of evildoers, and so are our churches. They were not faithful in their marriages or with their devotion to their Lord.

What hope can there be for people like us who are accurately represented by the man who sinned for us, and won death and hell in our name? The only answer for us is a new representative. We cannot be saved by even the best of our efforts at repentance. Certainly a surface recomitment to religious rituals will not satisfy a holy God. We need a second Adam, and the Lord has provided Him for us in His Son Jesus. Adam sinned for us. Jesus performed all righteousness for us. Adam won death. Jesus won life.

By the plan and purpose of God for the dawning of a new day, the righteousness of Christ and His atoning death have been credited to our accounts. In Him we have a full acceptance by our holy Lord, and we are spurred on by the power of the Holy Spirit toward a more full and real repentance.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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