I’m devoting the next few weeks to working on a project that’s going to demand most of my mental energy. So apart from the usual Mon-Fri Checkout which will continue, I won’t be writing an additional daily article. Instead, I’m going to post a series of daily devotionals on Hosea that I wrote a few years ago.
I will betroth you to me in righteousness. (Hosea 2:19)
Righteousness can be either threatening or comforting. Martin Luther spent many years terrified by Paul’s description of the gospel as a revelation of God’s righteousness (Rom. 1:17), which he understood as the righteousness with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner. So terrorized was his conscience that he came to hate the “righteousness of God.”
However, one day he came to realize that the righteousness being spoken of was not a divine demand, but a divine provision; not a revelation of God’s condemnation, but of God’s salvation; not something God required of him, but something God offered to him. His whole life was instantly transformed. This was how he put it:
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me…. And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.
You may ask, “But what if I cannot meet His standards? What if I am a disappointment to Him?” Here in our verse, God promises all His covenant people, “I will betroth you to me in righteousness.” He will not condemn and reject you but will acquit and accept you. Though you specialize in unrighteousness, He specializes in righteousness. Let His righteousness be your comfort, not your terror. As He betroths you to Him, He clothes you in pristine, pure, divine righteousness. He sees no spot.