CHRIST RECEIVES SINFUL MEN

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister (Col. 1: 18-23).

We serve a loving God, who wishes that no one should perish (John 3: 16) but that all should inherit eternal life, this is the message of the gospel we preach, the gospel of love and reconciliation. As soon as man became disobedient in Genesis 3, God had planned the way we would get back to Him immediately.

He sent warnings in diverse ways through different people just to get His children back, one of this prophets was Hosea. Hosea wrote in the middle of the eighth century BC. He gave most of his messages to Israel, the country in the north. But some of the messages were for Judah, the country in the south. The book of Hosea has many curses and blessings, to understand the book of Hosea, we need to understand the covenant at Sinai. To which the curses and blessings are connected.

We speak of sin, the sinner and sinful man, which we will define in clear terms. Sin simply put, is a transgression of the Law (1 John 3: 4), there is no one sin greater than the other even a minute one stains the whole body. Therefore 1 John 1: 8 is apt in describing everyone of us that way. But we must make one distinction, a habitual sinner is different from a redeemed soul that makes mistakes due to our imperfect nature, Psalm 51: 5. But the grace of God lifts us out (Ephesians 2: 8 – 9).

Who then is a sinful man, who is a sinner?

Psalm 50: 16 – 21. Every sinner is also seen as a wicked man before God. Now what constitutes sin  its simply this, knowing what to do yet not doing it (Deut 24: 15, James 5: 4).

However, as much as God loves man (John 3: 16), He hates sin. (Habakkuk 1: 13) and rejects sin in its entirety and is ready to punish all forms of wrong doing. Therefore we must be cautious not to be caught on the wrong side of the law. But whenever, we ere, we must always remember that there is a way back, we have a loving father who is ever ready to take us after we sincerely let go of sin and wash in that precious blood of the Lord Jesus.

Your brother, Vicar & Archdeacon

Julius Oyetunde Oyediran