Category: Devotions

Remember how the Israelites were always tempted to go back to Egypt? That temptation still exists.

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” (Galatians 4 v 8-11)

Let those words sink in which Paul corrects himself. You are known by God. This is more than intellectually known. This is intimately known. To know God is to know that God knows you. This God who has sent His Son, this God who also sent His Spirit, knows you. That has happened not because you turned to any other or anything. The Galatian gentile followers of Jesus accepted Him as the Son and received the gospel message of the cross and they also received the power of the Spirit and it was these 2 key points that was the evidence that God came to ‘know’ them. 

That’s all we need.

Turning to anything to prove we belong; being circumcised because we need to be accepted by God and others or whatever the current pressure in 2024 is; anything other than a life with the Son’s message and the Spirit’s presence is akin to returning to slavery in Egypt or the proof that you never left. 

Are you guilty of jumping through hoops for others because you dare not let anyone down for fear of what they might think?

Do you ever wonder if people are noticing you? 

Have you committed yourself to boost your self-image and this is seen by the way you live and the finances you spend?

If the answer is YES then it could be that idols are gripping your life.

You need none of these. You don’t need to be noticed. 

You are known by God. 

There are just some days when you just may not feel worthy to be called God’s child. You can’t identify anything that warrants or qualifies you for this amazing position. The temptation is to return to the Law, to do all you can to prove to yourself that you are back on track and that you are not as bad as you feel. Resist!

Welcome Holy Spirit! Where would we be without Him?!

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4 v 4-7)

It has happened. Whether we feel it or not. The adoption scheme that through His mercy and grace brought you into His family and to be that child of God. Who did that? The Holy Spirit did and continues to remind you of this. 

Today the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, prompting you, “Go on, call Him Father, call Him Abba.” This personal, intimate, familiar title is given only because of relationship with the Holy Spirit. Call Him Abba prayerfully, worshipfully and in surrender, no matter what is happening in your life. And see what happens!

The incredible blessing for every Christian today is that they can address God as Father. This personal, intimate, familiar title is given only because of relationship. 

No one before Jesus called God this name.

No one after Jesus calls God, Father, except the followers of Jesus.

You have an enemy who is trying to get you to believe what he is saying to you. For what you believe you are is what you are and who you think you are is what you do. Why did sin happen? Adam didn’t know who he was and tried to become someone he wasn’t. The accuser said “If you do this then you will be like God.”

He should have said “stupid snake I am already like God. Why try and become what I already am?” But he didn’t and he became what God had not intended.

You are a child of God, belonging to Him, adopted to Him.

Whatever you are going through today one of the roles of the Holy Spirit and the reason God sent Him is to remind you of who you are. It is to say to you that ‘you are no longer a slave’ but you are an adopted child of the Father. 

God wants you plunged into Him, thrown into a relationship that you can know but whose name is far too mysterious for you.

Your identity soaked into His identity. A baptism of mystery and meaning. Of closeness and transcendence.

To your Father!

 

God does things at the right time. You may need to hear that today. In your waiting know that God knows when He will come. But He will come. He will move. 

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4 v 4-7)

God sent His Son.

This is God’s grace at its best because the timing is perfect.

God’s acts of grace are always in time.

He is never late.

He is not playing catch-up.

He is never too far ahead.

He is always on time.

When the time had fully come God sent His Son.

God is not a God of disorder. No matter how you are feeling right now. It is only for a time.

The KJV throughout the Bible has 4 important words … it came to pass.

You may be waiting for your miracle – it came to pass.

You may be waiting for your storm to end – it came to pass.

The timing of God’s grace is perfect.

In 7:40 Jesus is teaching in the Temple courts and the religious authorities tried to seize him “but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Later again Jesus teaching near the Temple declares, ’I am the light’ and they were furious, “Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come” 8:20. In 12:23 just after the Triumphal Entry Jesus declares, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Prior to him washing the disciples’ feet in 13:1 “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” And finally in what is the most beautiful of prayer moments in 17:1 “he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” As Jesus was facing the crucifixion he would say, “Father the time has come” (John 17:1)

Partnership with the hour and the moment of God’s move is crucial for us. 

God is still looking for your obedience to what He is doing, to the hour, the moment.

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.”

But when the set time had fully come. In history and in your own life. Look back on your story and you will find the timing of God. And He is not finished yet. You may be waiting but God is moving and it will be the set time.

In the main we are all trying to live up to some kind of standard. Sometimes the most miserable are those who are trying to keep to all the rules. The reason being so is because if only it was only themselves they were focusing on but no, they want everyone else to show due diligence in keeping the same rules as them.

In Christ we are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the promise of God. That is what Paul has just said and now …

“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.” (Galatians 4 v 1-3)

Paul has told us the Law was our tutor (3:24-25) and here he speaks of the ‘basic principles’ (see the footnote NIV) that held us as slaves waiting for a time when we would be set free. 

What were those basic principles? Paul is going to speak more about them in a few verses time. But in the context of what we have been reading and the problem Paul is addressing it is connected to the need to work for the approval of God. The Gentiles were being taught that if you come to Christ you must also take on circumcision and other rules to be accepted by God. 

2024: the one major basic principle of life is still “Unless you work hard you will not succeed.”

In itself it is not a bad principle but we must not let it impact our relationship with God. 

Remember this story?

• “There was a man who had two sons…Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.” He was the greatest slave on the farm. Why was this wrong? He was a son. “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” He makes it sound like hard work. A great slave makes for a lousy son.

➢ We need to learn how to embrace the Father’s love without working for it.

 

• “But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”  You may long for a blessing from your Father but deep and unresolved hurts can prevent that.

➢ We need to take our eyes off others and place them on Him who loves us

 

• “But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’  “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” The Father is saying you never asked, you never put yourself in the position to receive. 

➢ We need not to waste life on trying to keep the rules and yet never knowing the Father and His love and His house of joy!

Let’s recap.

• Paul has been making clear the covenant, the promise of blessing to all nations is the most important truth to hold on to, v 15-18.
• The Law/the standard of God still convicts us of our sin and that we are not kind enough, not loving enough etc. It continues to point to the need for salvation. It points us to reach out and believe in Jesus for it is only when we tap into the same faith that Abraham had will we be free, v19-22.
• We try to be good because we are now free not to try for the wrong attitude. We have been freed from the place of gaining approval. We have His approval and so we now have this automatic desire to please the One who has saved us. If we fail that’s okay. The Law still exists and it goes hand in hand with grace otherwise if we think we are not all that guilty then the power of grace is diminished. The Law continually points to the Saviour who obeyed the Law, met the demands of the Law so that the promise of Abraham becomes ours, 23-25.

There is more.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith”, v26. You are. This is a fixed position. There is nothing you can do to make that happen or to jeopardise it.

“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”, v27. The first Adam came into the world naked. But he turned his back on God and his sin brought humiliation and he sowed fig leaves together and made coverings. The second and last Adam, Jesus, went to the cross, sinless and clothed. They stripped him of his dignity and he died naked.

As a shepherd was tending his sheep, two wolves attacked. One of the wolves killed the mother of one of the youngest lambs; the other wolf killed a small lamb as its mother looked on helplessly. The shepherd finally succeeded in driving the wolves away, but he was left with a dilemma. He had lost one mother and one small lamb. Now he was in danger of losing a second lamb because its mother had been killed and none of the other sheep would nurse the lamb since it was not their own. Then the shepherd came up with a plan. He took the sin of the dead lamb and put it over the live lamb. In doing this, he caused the grieving mother to recognise the orphaned lamb as her own. So the mother accepted the little lamb, nursed it and it became her own.

When Jesus went to the cross He laid His coat of righteousness over our unrighteousness so that we are now clothed in Christ. We are accepted by God because His clothes of righteousness are on us.

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”, v28. There is level ground around the cross. No one is more special or deserving than anyone else. Everyone can love their own kind. But the reason why we try to be good even though we already are is because loving those who have different views to ourselves, being kind to those who are not like us is the real gospel message that we are all one in Christ. The world sits up to that kind of love. It is the greatest evangelistic tool.

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” v29. Paul closes with the promise to a people who have inherited it and that is you and me. We are Abraham’s seed because we belong to Christ. In Christ you are a child of God. In Christ you are connected to all God’s people thousands of years before now, today across the whole world no matter what tribe or language and to everyone in the future. In Christ you discover the love and kindness, the grace and mercy that comes from Him, these and more are your identity. You are good because He made you good but every day you rise in Christ; you stand strong in Christ; and you attempt great things for Christ, not because you are trying to earn anything but because this is who you are! An heir to the promise!

My children are adults now but when they were children they lived by my rules and values. Those rules and values were preparing them for when they left my home and had the freedom to do whatever they chose to do. Now that they’re adults do they abandon those rules and values? They have freedom to do so but they don’t. They continue with them because they want to. They see it is a better way of life. But as a child it felt restricting. However, they came to love me and now out of that love they desire to do those things not to obey me but the joy it brings me when I see them do so.

“Before the coming of this faith,we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. ²⁴ So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” (Galatians 3 v 23-25)

The Law of Moses locked us up but it also became our tutor.

So in one sense the Law leaves us not knowing if God is pleased with us. We are in custody. We are trying to please Him and it is wearying and it breeds anxiety because we know we are just not that good enough, we keep falling short of those expectations. But in another sense the Law points to the freedom of having a personal relationship with God through Jesus. This is the gospel we have encountered.

We try to be good because we are now free not to try for the wrong attitude. We have been freed from the place of gaining approval. We have His approval and so we now have this automatic desire to please the One who has saved us. If we fail that’s okay. The Law still exists and it goes hand in hand with grace otherwise if we think we are not all that guilty then the power of grace is diminished. The Law continually points to the Saviour who obeyed the Law, met the demands of the Law so that the promise of Abraham becomes ours.

Those who have understood the gospel don’t ask that question. They know. Those who were burdened by religious heavy burdens but who have had them lifted by grace don’t ask that question. They know. Those who still experience the conviction of sin which the Law brings don’t ask that question. They know.

Being made right before God is never achieved by working at being right or good or the best you can be. Being made right before God is only by faith in the act of Christ on the cross and your daily trust in Jesus to follow Him.

If I don’t have to do anything because God has done it all why then do I have to be kind? Why do I have to love people? Don’t you ever just want to break the rules?

Paul is leading into the important answers to these questions. However, to a group of Jesus followers being tempted to return to the Law of Moses he is making sure they understand what they would be returning to.

“Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. ²⁰ A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. ²¹ Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ²² But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3 v 19-22)

The Law of Moses declared sin not salvation. It tells us we are not good enough and never will be. It seems strange that a section of the Bible reveals how the Torah locked people into their sin. But it also shows us the need for salvation. The Torah was given to show us that we could not be good if we tried.

There was nothing wrong with the angels and Moses the mediator. A mediator between God and the Jews. But it was always God’s intent that ultimately there would be one single family which was never in Moses’ mind. God who is one has made the Jew and Gentile one family. There is no difference whether Jew or Gentile, it is the same for everyone in this world. The Law/the standard of God still convicts us of our sin and that we are not kind enough, not loving enough etc. It continues to point to the need for salvation. It points us to reach out and believe in Jesus for it is only when we tap into the same faith that Abraham had will we be free.

The answer to how we live our lives is found in this faith. The keys to living are in this faith. They are not in the rules. We are getting closer to the revelation!

If I don’t have to do anything because God has done it all why then do I have to be kind? Why do I have to love people? Don’t you ever just want to break the rules?

The Galatian followers of Jesus must have been trying to interrupt whoever it was who was reading out this letter from Paul: “Why the Law of Moses then? Why did God bring the law?” So we enter into this central message of the letter and we are going to find out.

Paul is making clear once again the covenant, the promise of blessing to all nations as the most important truth to hold on to.

“Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. ¹⁶ The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷ What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” (Galatians 3 v 15-18)

• The Law 430 years after the covenant does not do away with the blessing to all nations of salvation and grace.
• The Law is not something new from God which replaces the old.
• It does not mean God decided to introduce rules on order to receive what was originally given as a grace.
• If a promise then later on has conditions attached to it then it negates the promise.

Paul takes us back to that covenant in Genesis 15 that He made with Abram. Though it is beyond our understanding in our culture when covenants are signed in pen or in a previous generation we may remember signing a deal by spitting on our hands before shaking the hand of the other (I’ve never done that one!) the covenant with Abram was binding. It was ‘signed’ by arranging 2 halves of the dead animal either side creating a thoroughfare and the persons would walk through it, it was a declaration saying basically, “may I die if I fail to keep this covenant.”

Genesis 15 v 10 “So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side”

However, Abram was tired that day! On the day of the covenant he fell asleep! It was meant to be. God made the covenant not Abram. It was God in the presence of fire who walked in the thoroughfare. God sealed the deal. God signed the promise. The blessing to all the nations through a singular seed, His Son Jesus Christ, who did die on a cross, was promised because God made it.

• The law does not do away with that event.
• The law does not make you acceptable to God.
• The law does not give you the promise of blessing.
• That event speaking into the generation when Jesus walked the earth and for all future generations does. That covenant still speaks today.

It does not answer the question but it is crucial before the questions are answered.

If you do not understand and if you have not fully grasped and accepted and are living by this amazing promise then you will not be able to move into what Paul says next.

Dwell a little more on this amazing grace!

Is God pleased with you? How do you even begin to answer that?

Is God pleased with your neighbour? That’s perhaps an easier one to answer because we know all that is wrong with them! This is the problem Paul is addressing. The Jewish believers needed the Gentile believers to be like them! They were too different. The problem hasn’t gone away. God had always promised a multi-ethnic diverse family. But that can be challenging if all your life you are doing your best to be good by keeping certain rules and then seeing others blatantly breaking them yet still claiming to worship your God!

Here are 4 important verses from the Old Testament (Paul’s Scripture’s) that we all need to keep reminded of for they lead to the life we should be living.

“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” ¹¹ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” ¹² The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” ¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” ¹⁴ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Galatians 3 v 10-14)

“Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Deut 27:26) If you fail in just one detail you fail. You might pass the test of circumcision but fail in the other 612 commandments.

“the righteous will live by faith” (Hab 2:4) We are made right before God when we put our trust in what God has done for us and stop doing things for Him in order to gain or indeed prove our status.

“The person who does these things (the law) will live by them.” (Lev 18:5) There are never enough rules to keep to please God. It is a trap. It will not lead to simple faith but an anxiety that you are not pleasing God.

“Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Deut 21:23) Living the way of rules is a curse, it does not set anyone free it only leads to judgment. The Torah/the Law of God is perfect we are not. Jesus went to the cross, sent by God, in the perfect plan, to be that curse and to abolish it so something new could begin. He became the sinner. Hold on! Surely we are the sinner. Yes but He became the sin and took the penalty for it. It’s done.

Over the last few days I have focused on the promise, “All nations will be blessed through you” and this is how … v14 Jesus on the cross paid the price to rescue us from that cursed way of life. He redeemed us. The blessing first given to Abraham (faith credited as righteousness) can now flow to us so that we might receive an eternal future promise, the Spirit. We are now perfect. God sees Jesus-followers as without sin. This is the power of the gospel. So how stupid would it be if we returned to relying on our own human effort to try and please God? Yeah, really stupid!

In my nation as in many it is difficult to say it is a blessed one. Hatred on the streets fuelled by hatred on social media. My nation needs the Saviour. It needs Jesus Christ.

Speaking into the hatred of division Paul is defending the position that Gentiles do not have to become Jewish in order to be a true Christ-follower. He has met the Messiah. He has been transformed by Jesus and his faith is in Him. He looks back into the Scriptures to the promise Abraham received. It is a promise of blessing given to Abraham’s descendants who have faith like he had.

“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” ⁹ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Galatians 3 v 8-9)

The quotation is from Genesis 12:3 when Abram at 75 years old set out from Harran to the Promised Land, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. Also when in the presence of the Lord and two angels in Genesis 18:18, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” Finally and most importantly, after his obedience in willing to surrender his own son in Genesis 22:18, “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” It is most important because it shows how the nations will be blessed. Through the offspring of Abraham. That is not many but one.  We will read soon in v16, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.” It is still for today. It is for my nation right now and for every nation. The ‘through you’ is not only Abraham’s faith but through being in Christ, through faith in Jesus and being transformed by the obedience He has done on the cross.

Paul wrote of this in Romans 6 using the concept of baptism in showing the identification change that took place when we first started to follow Jesus. We were dipped into the same scene of the cross. There was blood, a slaughter, our crucifixion, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him…” (6:6). Crucial to our understanding is this: sin and death was not overpowering Jesus on the cross, Jesus was overpowering sin and death. The blood of Jesus overpowered all fear. The blood of Jesus justified us. The blood of Jesus redeemed us from the hand of Satan. The blood of Jesus totally forgave us. The blood of Jesus gave access to God. That’s the scene: the overcoming of all fear, justification, redemption, forgiveness, access, freedom. That’s the scene we were dipped into. All nations will be blessed THROUGH YOU. That’s what we went THROUGH. We then went where Jesus went. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death…”(6:4) We were dead. Therefore, His resurrection then becomes our resurrection. His new life becomes ours. His power becomes our power. All nations will be blessed THROUGH YOU is still a promise to every nation and a prayer for us all that today people will go through Jesus to their blessing.