Spend time in prayer and silence with God, asking Him to meet with you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to the guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
– Galatians 4:1-7
Devotion
Here we see that salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone gives us the position of sons/daughters of God. This could not happen by the works of the law. Clearly, Paul is saying that it was the childhood of the nation Israel when they were under rules and regulations (the law). “But when the time had fully come…” At the time determined by God, God the Father sent His Son to redeem those under the law. God had a twofold purpose: (1) To redeem those under the law. (2) That they might receive the adoption of sons. Christ was born under law-conditions so that He might ransom those who were themselves under such conditions. Through faith in Christ, we are redeemed from the law itself, seen as a system of attempted self-justification. The evidence of our spiritual adoption is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul is clearly communicating to the Galatians that they should not go back to the old way of self-justification by keeping the law. Instead he is encouraging them to stay the new course of living according to the Spirit. As Paul writes in the first chapter of the Book of Romans, “For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith…”
The Big Question
Jesus came into this world so that we could relate to His Father in a new way. We no longer must work hard on that religious treadmill in order to earn God’s love. Instead, we receive God’s love freely as sons and daughters as we trust in the person and work of Christ. Have you ever tried to earn God’s love by keeping the rules (self-righteousness)? How does it make you feel to know that you can receive justification (Christ’s righteousness) when you trust in His finished work on the cross?
Conclude your time in prayer and silence, reflecting on what God revealed to you today.