His Law - Hosea 8:12

I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing. - Hosea 8:12

    One of the most common arguments made by unbelievers today is that the Ten Commandments are an ancient code, long out of date and hardly applicable anymore. How strange that anyone should even suggest following those ancient archaic rules. After all, they reason, what’s wrong with an occasional lie if it accomplishes our goal? Who indeed has the right to tell us who we may and may not choose as our partners in life? And where does anyone get off telling me what I can and can’t do with my body? Their wisdom is shrouded in both self-indulgence and iniquity.
    You’ve heard all the arguments. By now they all have that metallic clicking sound of a firing pin striking a spent casing. According to the unbelieving masses, no one has any right to insist upon a standard of behavior for anyone else! “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 17:6. This particular verse says a lot about our own times. In the 21st Century, it seems the catchphrase is “No king, no master.” Oh, wouldn’t the masses be thrilled if that were true? But unfortunately for the foolish and the blind of modern times, their insistence on personal autonomy doesn’t change the reality that we all do indeed have both a King and a Master - “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.” - Jeremiah 32:38-39.
    Still, the hardened hearts and stiffened necks will object and deny. To what end? “The foolishness of a man twists his way, and his heart frets against the Lord.” - Proverbs 19:3. Unregenerate man will continue as he has for millennia, always striving against the Lord. He knows no other way. His rebellion is as much a part of his fallen nature as is his desire to sin in spite of the conscience God has given him! Unregenerate man finds strength in numbers of his kind, even though all their souls are darkened by the shadow of death. In this we remember the old adage: misery loves company. Sinners love sinful company. They will do anything to encourage others to join them in their sinful pursuits. There are no strangers among sinners. They all eat of the same spoiled feast. “ . . .  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” - Romans 1:32.
    I would ask that those who would be wise among them to examine themselves as we believers are called to examine ourselves. Seek true wisdom. Recognize the hopeless condition of the declaration, “no god - no master.” Search for the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Do what we must but find Christ. Without Him, we have no hope. Recognize Him as Lord and Savior. Let this be our wisdom - “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” - Hosea 14:9.
    One of the most oft argued premises is that IF there is a God, there are many paths to Him. Such a view of eternity is hopeless at best and spiritually deadly at its worst. However, for the one who is discerning, the 14th Chapter of John eradicates the very notion that a person may be saved without accepting Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior - “If you love Me, keep My commandments. . . .  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. . . .  Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.’” John 14:15, 21, 23-24.
    Keep His law perfectly? Not even a Pharisee is capable of such perfection and neither are we. But we strive to do so and in as much as we endeavor to keep God’s law in our hearts, minds, words, and actions, our sins are washed clean by the blood of Christ by faith through grace. Our imperfect adhesion to God’s law is evidence of our salvation in Jesus Christ. The impassioned rejection of His law is evidence of the inverse!