“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
I will not be angry forever. – Jeremiah 3:12
A key question that we all must wrestle with as we come to this text is, “who is faithless Israel?” If we are being honest, faithless Israel is none other than you and I. We are the one who have the played the adulteress and worshiped other God’s. When we examine our hearts we realize that you and I are the one who have placed faith in peoples and things other than the living God. There is no one who does God or seeks God, we are all deserving of death and God’s wrath (Romans 3:14 and 6:23).
Despite the sad state that we are in, we’re not completely without hope. Although God has every right to strike us down and make us pay the penalty for our sins, God has called us to return to Him. Our hope for returning is not on the basis of anything we have done or any goodness in us. The only way we can return to God is because of Christ completed work on the cross. On the cross God has offered to exchange my sin for Christ righteousness, but if I am to receive this free gift from God it comes on the one condition that I must confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9)
If we return to God, we will receive mercy. To receive mercy we must turn from our sins and turn to God, this a process called repentance and it must be done daily. The puritan Thomas Watson once said, “”Be as speedy in your repentance as you would have God speedy in His mercies.” We have gained everything through the cross, God has promised to no longer be angry with us. There is no more fear of condemnation and are viewed as loved in God’s sight forever more. What greater motivation do we need to live lives of worship that are characterized by putting off sin and putting on holiness (Colossians 3). Let us be quick to turn from the things of this world, for God’s love is in us and His will is for us to abide in Him by denying our flesh and all forms of worldiness. (1 John 2:15-17).
