Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Galatians 3:15-29
Set – Deuteronomy 19; Galatians 3
Go! – Deuteronomy 19-21; Galatians 3
Galatians 3:15-29
15 My dear brothers and sisters, here’s a real-life example I can give you: With a last will and testament, when all the property is accounted for, the document is signed, witnessed, and notarized; and afterward no one can make changes to it. 16 In a similar way, God’s promises established a binding agreement with Abraham and his offspring. In the Scriptures, it is carefully stated, “and to your descendant” (meaning one), not “and to your descendants” (meaning many). Therefore, in these covenant promises, God was not referring to every son and daughter born into Abraham’s family but to the Anointed One to come. 17 What this all means is that the law given to Israel comes along some 430 years after the promise made to Abraham; so it does not invalidate the covenant God previously agreed to or in any way do away with His promise. 18 You see, if the law became the sole basis for the inheritance, then it would put God in the position of breaking a covenant because He had promised it to Abraham.19 Now you’re asking yourselves, “So why did God give us the law?” God commanded His heavenly messengers to deliver it into the hand of a mediator for this reason: to help us rein in our sins until the Offspring, about whom the promise was made in the first place, would come. 20 A mediator represents more than one, but God is only one. 21 “So,” you ask, “does the law contradict God’s promise?” Absolutely not! Never was there written a law that could lead to resurrection and life; if there had been, then surely we could have experienced saving righteousness through keeping the law. But we haven’t. 22 Scripture has subjected the whole world to sin’s power so that the faithful obedience of Jesus the Anointed might extend God’s promises to everyone who has faith. 23 Before faith came on the scene, the law did its best to keep us in line, restraining us until the faith that was to come was fully revealed. 24 So then, the law was like a tutor, assigned to train us and point us to the Anointed, so that we will be acquitted of all wrong and made right by faith. 25 But now that true faith has come, we have no need for a tutor. 26 It is your faith in the Anointed Jesus that makes all of you children of God 27 because all of you who have been initiated into the Anointed One through the ceremonial washing of baptism have put Him on. 28 It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a freeman, a man or a woman, because in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, you are all one. 29 Since you belong to Him and are now subject to His power, you are the descendant of Abraham and the heir of God’s glory according to the promise.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
So why would I give you the law if you couldn’t keep it? Well, there are several reasons.
First, they keep you safe and secure. Understanding the nature of humankind after the fall of Adam and Eve, I knew you needed something that would put in check the evil behavior you often think about. I know you think those thoughts, but the law keeps you from carrying out a lot of the behavior because you know the punishments associated with the behavior. In the ancient days, it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, remember?
The in-kind punishment meant people stayed on better behavior than they might otherwise without the laws. It meant people thought twice before stealing since they would pay back two to five times as much as they stole. People hesitated before they struck someone or killed someone because it was life for life. There was no jury system other than the priest. If you killed someone other than accidentally, chances were pretty great you joined the victim soon after. Even then you escaped death from family members only by living in a sanctuary city.
Second, the law demonstrated My standard of living for you. But it showed just how difficult it was to live that law apart from My presence. Those commandments about lying, stealing, coveting, honoring parents. They might seem easy, but let Me ask you a couple of questions. Do you ever cheat when playing solitaire? That’s lying, you know. Do you have any company pens at home? They don’t belong to you. That’s called stealing. Ever wish you had that promotion or that car someone has? Coveting. Not so easy, is it?
The third reason I gave you the laws is because they point to the coming of My salvation for you. From the day Adam and Eve failed to obey Me, I made provision for them to find forgiveness. The laws before My coming seemed quite cumbersome to the Israelites, but they all pointed to My coming in the flesh to redeem all of humankind who would trust Me. For those who willingly gave up the rights to themselves and took me on as their total life manager, they found I could keep them free from the guilt of sin. I could do something the law couldn’t do. I could forgive and empower them to really live. The impossibility of the law becomes possible in Me.
Remember what I said to the disciples, “All things are possible with God.” Having trouble keeping the rules? Try Me on for size instead.
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