Made right with God
“What I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust. Hosea 6:6-7
Time and again, people have convinced themselves that God could be pleased by the good things they do. They count on their ability to serve and their sacrifices as the means that will bring them closer to God. From the text through prophet Hosea, God told the Israelites how inconsistent they are in expressing their commitment to God. “O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the Lord. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight” (Hosea 6:4). They think that the good things they do can be used to erase their shortcomings. They neglected the fact that God looks at the heart and ascertain the motives of their actions. This is why God told them that if their heart is not right before Him, no good actions or sacrifices could satisfy what pleases Him. Do not allow yourself do the same mistake people did in the past that it is not in your performance that you could gain the approval of God. God is looking at the condition of your heart. “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). There is no good thing can come out from self-righteousness. Later on, Hosea will remind the people of the results of their selfishness. “You have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors” (Hosea 10:13). No matter how much effort man will exert to obtain approval from God, they will always come short. “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). It is only by God’s grace that man could obtain approval from God and this was made possible by the coming of Christ. It is only by faith to what Christ did that people can be made right before God. “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:1). If you have a relationship with God because you have surrendered yourself to Him and have accepted by faith Jesus Christ in your life, you gain the right spiritual position before God and can rejoice in the hope of glory that is in Christ (Romans 5:2). Christ came into this world so that you will realize that it is only by Him and through Him that you will gain the right relationship with God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Blessings,
