Sunday, April 3, 2011

Jesus Pays My Debt! AT THE CROSS - Part 4

Hosea 1:1-3 (NIV11), The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord." 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.


Hosea 3:1-3 (NIV11), The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you."


Hosea 3:4-5 (NLT), This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols! 5 But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.


Ransom: What God’s Love for People Like Us Cost God

Hosea 1:2 (NIV11), …the Lord said to him, "Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord."

Hosea 1:2 (MSG), The first time God spoke to Hosea he said: "Find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here's why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God."


“Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as ‘Careful! This might lead you to suffering.’”

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one…lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable…”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, as found in The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis, 278-279.


Ransom: What God’s Love for People Like Us Cost God

1. Life-changing love always includes the risk of being hurt. God’s love for us cost Him the pain of our betrayal, unfaithfulness and rejection.


Hosea 2:5-7 (NIV11), She said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.'
6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
'I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.'

Hosea 2:8 (ESV), And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.



“Remember, this marriage is a microcosm of God and His people. Once more, the reader is confronted by a mirror rather than a window because Israel’s sin is humanity’s sin…” ~ Derek Kidner


Hosea 2:14 (NIV11), Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.


2. Life-changing love is relentless. God’s love for us cost God the persistence to refuse to give up on us, regardless of how many times we’ve sinned and rejected His love.


Hosea 3:1 (NIV11), The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."

Hosea 3:1 (MSG), Then God ordered me, "Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who's in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife. Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people, even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy."

Hosea 3:2 (NIV11), So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.


3. Life-changing love is always sacrificial. God’s love for us cost God the life of His own son, Jesus Christ.


“Who can explain the sanity of true love? Love is of God, and it is infinite. Love is sovereign. Love is apart from reason; love exists for its own reasons. Love is not according to logic; love is according to love. Thus it was with Hosea, for he was playing the part that God has played with you, all your life, and with me.

“The pursuing love of God is the greatest wonder of the spiritual universe. We leave God in the heat of our own self-desire and run from His will because we want so much to have our own way. We get to a crossroads and look back in pride, thinking that we have outdistanced Him. Just as we are about to congratulate ourselves on our achievement of self-enthronement, we feel a touch on our arm and turn in that direction to find Him there. ‘My child,’ He says in great tenderness, ‘I love you; and when I saw you running away from all that is good, I pursued you through a shortcut that loves knows well, and awaited you here at the crossroads.’

[When we] have torn ourselves free from His grasp and rushed off again, through deepest woods and farthest swamp, and as we look back again, we are sure, this time, that we have succeeded in escaping from Him. But, once more, the touch of love is on our other sleeve and when we turn quickly we find that He is there, pleading with the eyes of love, and showing Himself once more to be the tender and faithful One, loving to the end. He will always say, ‘My child, my name and nature are Love, and I must act according to that which I am. So it is that I have pursued you, to tell you that when you are tired of your running and your wandering, I will be there to draw you to myself once more.’

“When we see this love at work through the heart of Hosea we may wonder if God is really like that. But everything in the Word and in experience shows us that He is.

“[God] will give man the trees of the forest and the iron in the ground. Then He will give to man the brains to make an axe from the iron to cut down a tree and fashion it into a cross. He will give man the ability to make a hammer and nails, the Lord will allow man to take hold of Him and bring Him to that cross; He will stretch out His hands upon it and allow man to nail Him to that cross, and in so doing will take the sins of man upon Himself and make it possible for those who have despised and rejected Him to come unto Him and know the joy of sins removed and forgiven, to know the assurance of pardon and eternal life, and to enter into the prospect of the hope of glory with Him forever. This is even our God, and there is none like unto Him.”
~ Donald Grey Barnhouse, quoted by James Montgomery Boice in The Minor Prophets – Volume 1, pages 24-25.


Mark 10:45 (NLT), For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.


Ransom: “…to buy the freedom of a slave or a prisoner.”


“Jesus came to pay that kind of ransom. But since the slavery he is dealing with is of a cosmic kind – that is, cosmic evil – it required a cosmic payment. Jesus is saying, ‘I will pay the ransom that you couldn’t possibly pay, and it will secure your freedom.’ The payment is Jesus’ death on the cross.” ~ Tim Keller, King’s Cross, page 140-141

"God Himself came to pay our debt… The cross is the self-substitution of God! The only way Jesus could redeem us was to give His life as a ransom... God created the world in an instant, and it was a beautiful process. He re-created the world on the cross - and it was a horrible process. That's how it works. Love that really changes things and redeems things is always a substitutionary sacrifice." ~ Tim Keller, King’s Cross, page 140-144


1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV11), For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

The NLT says, “…He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.”


1 Peter 1:18-20 (NLT), For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.

Hosea 3:4-5 (NLT), This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols! 5 But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.


Our only logical response: surrender and worship.


Three Life-Changing Truths:

• Jesus is our mediator.

• Jesus is our redeemer.

• Jesus paid our ransom.



Death By Love Recommended Reading
Chapter 9 – “I Am Going To Hell”: Jesus Is Hank’s Ransom
Pages 183 - 195