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Kevin Bennie

Jan 9, 2024 9:56 AM

Freedom is available - part 7 Keeping in Step

👇💥 FULL DEVO BELOW💥👇 All of Galatians 5 posted at the end of this devotional or copy/paste this link to see it: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal%205&version=NLT Imagine for a moment you were a prisoner. In fact, you were born in this cell, you were raised in this cell, and all you had ever known was this prison cell. And one day someone came along with a box with a key in it and said, "All you need to do to be free is to take this gift. Inside is the key to let you out and be free!" So. Freedom. The main thrust of Galatians 5:1-15 is freedom from the law of Moses. Paul specifically references circumcision...we don't need to get into all that, Paul makes it clear that if you believe and practice circumcision as justification before God then you are obligated to keep the whole law of Moses, all 613 laws and regulations in the Old Testament. (v. 3) Clearly living in freedom from the law of Moses is really important to Paul, you can get this sense from the the whole book, but he says it very plainly, "4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." Grace is the access to Christ. If you reject grace and seek to justify yourself by any other means, you are rejecting Christ. Receiving Christ means acknowledging that his death on the cross is what justifies us before God, and nothing else. Period. There is nothing that the law of the Old Testament can provide for us, nothing in our own power that can make us right before God. The question is, do you try to justify yourself? Do you internally think that there is something you should be doing that would make God happy with you? I want to remind you of another critical verse to the Christian life: "Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) You do not live in condemnation! The rest of this passage bears remarkable similar themes to what we read in Galatians, we'll look at that tomorrow, but for now... PRAY-REFLECT Do you try, in you own mind and the way you live, to justify yourself to God? To be good enough? Do you the freedom that Paul talks about in Galatians 5? PRAY-ASK Invite God to make this truth real to you....if you belong to Christ, you are free! You do not live in condemnation! You can walk out of that prison with your head held high, having received the grace of the King who made a way out for you.

Christian Living

Grace

Faith

Imagine for a moment that you are in a prison cell. In fact, you were born in this prison cell, you were raised in this cell, and all you've ever known is this cell. You've heard stories about outside you and maybe seen it, but have not experienced it for yourself. Well, one day someone comes along and they've got a box and they say, inside this gift is the key to your freedom. And you can have it. Would you choose it? I think most of us would say yes. Freedom is the number one concern for Paul in the book of Galatians. There are other things he addresses, of course, but this idea of having to keep the law of Moses, the Old Testament, the rules and regulations found in the Old Testament. He says, this is not the life that we have chosen. He says, in fact, if you're trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, then you are rejecting Christ. You're cut off from Christ. You have fallen away from God's grace. Grace is the access to God. Christ's grace, acknowledging his death and resurrection, is the way that we live this life. It is not by following anything else. To receive grace is to acknowledge that every other way of justifying ourselves before God is completely futile. The question is, are there ways that you attempt to do that? I don't know how many of you might be Jewish. Maybe not many, but we try to do this in our own way all the time. In fact, it is very American of us to feel like we have to work hard and produce enough or make an impact big enough to really mean something. When Paul is saying, no, no, the gift is yours. In Romans, Paul addresses this in another way. In chapter 8, he says, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. No condemnation. The rest of this passage actually looks incredibly similar to what we've been talking about in Galatians, and so we'll look at that tomorrow. But I want you to really sit with this. Do you seek to justify yourself? Do you feel like there are things that you have to do in order to make God pleased with you? Or what are the ways that you live in that freedom? How do you receive that freedom? What does that look like for you? I pray that you receive and experience that today by the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Peace to you.

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