Day 202

Hosea 3:1-5:15, Romans 6:15-7:6, Psalm 88:1-9a

You may have noticed that I am a fan of getting in touch with Biblical history, (a fan, definitely not an expert!) but trawling through all the misdeeds of Israel is getting a bit hard going. You can see the guilt being built up though. Returning to what we were saying yesterday about the guilt of being unfaithful to a lover, Hosea starts using names. And when you are being told that you have done something wrong, the use of names makes it worse, it makes it personal.

The other trick that the prophets used is that they sometimes repeated things, to really get the message across. Paul also feels as though this is an important technique because here he repeats the bit about not succumbing to sin just be because we think we are already saved, in fact I even had to look back because I thought that the opening verse was exactly the same as yesterday. If it is worth saying though, it is worth saying twice, and this was a significant problem for the church in Rome – sin was still quite rife.

But Paul speaks of slavery, a quite real concept in that time and a quite negative one still today. Slavery to sin does not paint a good picture, but Paul offers a far better one, that we are free by the grace of God.

Law v. Love.

We are released from the written law and enter into a relationship of love. Some might say that, if we are released from law then we can carry on sinning. Released from law though means that when we enter into love we enter into the obligations of love, which is to avoid hurting the people we love. If we sin we hurt God and those around us.

The fact that we are no longer slaves to sin is, in itself, an amazing thought. The fact that we are loved by God and that Christ died for that love is just as amazing. Feel that freedom and love today.