PRAY & READ: Galatians 3:1-18
“ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Galatians 3:13
I am a Chronic Forgetter. I forget to take out the trash. I forget to text people back, or bring sunscreen to the beach. I often forget to bring a towel to the gym, and even on occasion, I forget people’s names.
The Galatians were Chronic Forgetters as well. In the opening of Galatians 3 Paul calls them “foolish” for forgetting the gospel of Jesus Christ; foolish for forgetting that our salvation was won on the cross through the perfect life of Jesus, not through our own works.
False teachers were trying to convince the Galatians that the gospel alone was not enough. That works needed to be added to the end. They believed that salvation through faith in Christ was too simple, and too easy.
In Galatians Paul reminds us that the law was given in order to reveal our sin, not give us the requirements needed to remove it. The purpose of the law was to point us to our need for Christ. It is like a mirror that reveals our dirtiness, but cannot make us clean. Only Jesus can do that.
Some of the Galatians had forgotten the simple truth of the gospel. As we read this passage we need to ask ourselves, “Have we forgotten it too?”
Have we forgotten that it wasn’t our actions that convinced Jesus to take up his cross; it was the father’s love for us? Have we forgotten what Galatians 3:13 tells us that, Jesus “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us?” Have we forgotten that we don’t need to earn the reward of God’s love? We just need to realize that we have already received it through Christ.
I forget these things all the time.
I am a Chronic Forgetter. I am a foolish sinner who needs to be reminded again and again and again about the free grace given through the cross of Christ. I am a foolish sinner who needs to be lovingly rebuked like the Galatians and led back to drink of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
REFLECTIONS QUESTIONS:
1. What are some aspects about God or the gospel that you tend to forget? Why?
2. What is it about God or His gospel that you need to remember most today at work/school/home?
3. Are you ever tempted to think we can somehow how to earn God’s love? How will you remind yourself that you have been redeemed by Jesus if you have trusted in Him as Lord and Savior?
MEMORIZE: Galatians 3:13
“ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
This week's devotional is written by Hunter Leavine. Hunter is the Youth Pastor here at City Church.