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.
SONS OF GOD
As a kid, my grandfather would eat a dessert (like cake or ice cream) and joke that all he needed to do was eat a salad, and it would cancel out the dessert's unhealthiness. Not only did Grandpa never eat the salad, but even if he did, it obviously wouldn’t cancel out the dessert. But to a kid, this logic was compelling. It was like a “take a penny, leave a penny” system—you can eat anything you want as long as you eat healthy stuff to counteract it. If only it really worked that way!
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Like dieting, the law of God is not a transactional “give a little, take a little” concept. It is a perfect, Godly standard and demands perfect adherence. It was given for a specific reason– to show us that we are enslaved and in need of Christ to free us. Some people think that, as long as we do more good than bad, we will tip the divine scales and “make it into heaven.” That's like thinking a glass of water will counteract the bottle of Coke you drank! It's simply not the way it works. If you want to be righteous under the law, you must be truly without sin. Just like if you want to be truly healthy, you must be truly without junk food. The problem is that we are unable to be without sin by ourselves.
In Romans 3:23, Paul tells us that all have sinned and are short of God’s glory. In our passage (Galatians 3:23) he says, “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” What is this faith, and how can it make us righteous? Paul says in verse 26, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” The law alone cannot make us part of God’s family, any more than eating kale alone can make us look like an Olympic swimmer. Only faith in his Son for our righteousness can make us God’s children because, in Christ, we are adopted into his family.
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REFLECT
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How does adoption change how we think about the gospel and the law?
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How can Paul’s point about baptism (verse 26) inform what we think about the sacrament?
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What was Paul trying to get across in verse 28? Was he saying that we are all exactly the same?
LEARNING WITH THE LITTLES
No Learning with the Littles this week.
PRAYER
Holy God, we thank you for giving us Jesus and his perfect blood for our salvation. We recognize that if we had to contribute anything to salvation, we would fail. Thank you for giving us the necessary faith and repentance to be brought into your family as sons and daughters. We pray that you will continue to sanctify us and conform us to your image until the very end. Amen.