WEEKLY DEVOTIONS
How to Use These Devotions
Each devotion reflects the sermon's passage for any given week. So, you may use these:
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to prepare for Sunday (use the devotion before Sunday morning worship), or to reflect back on Sunday (use the devotion after Sunday's worship). Whatever works best for you and your family.
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to foster family worship with your spouse and/or children.
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(parents) to help your children learn about Jesus from God's word, along with the rest of the church! Modify the questions for your children's needs. Or, read the "Learning with the Littles" section.
ARE YOU SO FOOLISH?
Why do you obey traffic laws? Have you ever asked yourself that question? What goes through your brain when you look down at your speedometer and notice that you are going 70mph in a 55mph zone? If I had to guess, it’s probably either, “Oh! I better slow down or I’ll get a ticket!”, or, “Oh no! I don’t want to drive recklessly and hurt myself or others!”. If I take this one step further, it’s probably not, “Boy, I don’t want to compromise my observation of the law! I better slow down to maintain perfect obedience.” If that were the case, you’d be missing the entire point of obeying the law, and it wouldn’t be a good way to avoid tickets or an accident. The purpose of traffic regulations is to define safe/unsafe driving. The point is not to merely observe them, to the end that you’d observe them.
That is what the Galatians were doing; demanding law-keeping for the sake of law-keeping. The “foolish” Galatians thought that the grace of God had to be bought by careful and meticulous observance of the law, in addition to faith in Jesus. Paul asks them two fiery rhetorical questions, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (verse 2), and, “Having begun with the spirit, are you now perfected by the law?” (verse 3). Paul is making the point that if our salvation proceeded from the law, we wouldn’t need faith, and we wouldn’t need Jesus. Rather, we’d need more law! On the other hand, if we begin by grace, we’d better finish by grace! Paul is pointing out that the Galatians began with grace, and it’d be foolish to then later retreat to the law—the very same reason they needed grace to begin with!
Further down in verse 5, Paul offers a proof text from the Old Testament. He references Genesis 15:6, which says that Abraham’s belief in God was counted to him as righteousness. This is significant– it does not say “Abraham's righteousness was counted as belief”. What was Abraham's righteousness? His faith in Jesus was his righteousness. The Gospel says that we are fully righteous before the Father in Christ Jesus, by the sheer grace of God, through faith. We’d do well to never forget this, even as we press on into maturity. We began with grace, we must continue with grace, even today.
LEARNING WITH THE LITTLES
Parents, read Galatians 3:1–9 with your kids, and say (or paraphrase, to the effect):
Can a law make you a good person? Supposedly, in New York State it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket on a Sunday. That’s a really funny law! Now, it is probably a good idea to keep ice cream out of your pocket. It would avoid a messy situation and a lot of weird looks—but would you be a perfect law-keeper just by observing that law, even if other people don’t? The answer is no. Even if we obeyed every law—regardless of how strange or obvious they might be, we'd still fall short of law's demands, especially before a holy God! That is why it's so important for us to remember that only the perfect law-keeping of Jesus can make us righteous before God. When we receive him by faith and repentance, trusting in him to save us, God says that Jesus's perfect law-keeping now belongs to us. This is called "justification"—or, "Gods grace to justify sinners in Christ", and it is one of our greatest hopes as Christians.
REVELATION, NOT AN IDEA
The 21st-century world is a world of information, education, rationalism, and human thought. Christians have long debated amongst each other: Augustine vs Jerome, Catholics vs Protestants, Lutherans vs Reformed, etc. Truthfully, there are apologists for all sorts of worldviews. Search the internet and you will find people arguing skillfully for Judaism, Islam, Atheism, Postmodernism, and a host of other heretical groups. Look in the comment sections, forums, and threads and you’ll find thousands more “apologists” throwing their two cents in for consideration. In the world of the internet everyone is an expert, and all viewpoints are seen as legitimate.
In this week's passage, Paul continues his first-hand account for the events following his call into ministry. He will soon enter into a lengthy argument for the doctrine of justification to erroneous Galatians—but first, he gives an account of how and why the other Apostles accepted him. He didn’t say, “I thought long and hard, applying logic and reasoning to my gospel. The apostles accepted me because I’m so smart and reasonable!”. Look at verse 7, “They saw how I had been entrusted with the gospel…” Paul’s appeal is that his authority was not given to him by the apostles, rather, it was recognized by them. He stresses that his apostleship was on equal footing with Peter, James, John, etc.
Remember chapter one, where Paul says he did not receive the Gospel from any man? That includes himself, Peter, James, or any other person who may be spreading some view. He received it from Christ himself. God is not just a conclusion to come to, philosophically. He is the highest good made known to man. The gospel is not a school of thought or an idea. It is the solution to our biggest problem. Its authoritative witness does not come from merely critical thinking and rational thought but from our Lord Jesus himself.
REFLECT
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What did Paul mean by, “those who seemed influential”? (verses 2 and 6)
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What did the Apostles do when they recognized Paul’s authority?
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What are the implications of Paul being entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised and Peter to the circumcised? Was this a difference in apostolic authority?
PRAYER
Dear Lord, we thank you for the gift of righteousness in Christ, given to us by faith. Please help us to not confuse that righteousness with any of our own works. Help us to understand that the blood of your Son is fully sufficient to cover our sins. Amen.
LEARNING WITH THE LITTLES
Parents, read the passage (Galatians 2:1–10) with your kids and say—or paraphrase—to the effect:
How do we know the Gospel is true? Is it because smart people say it is? Smart people have said lots of things but were found to be wrong. A long time ago, people thought the earth was flat and that sneezes were evil spirits leaving the body! Peoples’ knowledge and thinking change a lot over time! Thankfully, the truth of the Gospel and the work of Jesus Christ is always the same. It does not come from human thoughts, opinions, or legends, but from God himself!
PRAYER
Gracious God, thank you for revealing yourself to us through your creation and your word. Thank you for showing us the truth of the Gospel in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would increase our knowledge and faith in that blessed truth. Help us also to respond, in gratitude, with obedience, and perseverance in the likeness of Christ. Amen.