Friday within the Octave of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
Posted on December 30, 2022 by under
Scripture: Galatians 3:23-29 (NKJV)
3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Devotion
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Though Adam and Eve were created as children of God, knowing God, loving Him, trusting Him, and honoring Him with their lives (cf. Gen. 1:26-27; Luke 3:38), they lost their right to be God’s children when they doubted God’s Word and disobeyed Him. They sought to be like God, knowing good and evil, but became children of the devil, enslaved by sin and evil (Gen. 3). As a result, all of us are born “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3). We are, by nature, sinners deserving of God’s everlasting punishment!
But, in Christ Jesus, our Savior, God again gives the right and privilege of sonship to His elect, from Adam through Noah and Abraham, to the present. Those who place their faith in Christ Jesus and are baptized in His name are called the sons of God (cf. Gen. 6:1ff.; Hos. 1:10; John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:1-2). But those who do not trust in Jesus as the Son of God and their Savior are of their “father the devil” (John 8:44) and continue in his evil ways.
Prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, direct our actions according to Thy good pleasure, that in the name of Thy beloved Son we may be made to abound in good works; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the new Birth of Thine Only-Begotten Son in the flesh may set us free who are held in the old bondage under the yoke of sin; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
