Saturday after Quasi modo geniti
Posted on April 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
It is very easy for us as people to set up “us” versus “them” comparisons. In some ways it is helpful–we have to differentiate between truth and error, for example, because God calls us to be faithful to his Word.
But not all distinctions matter in the same way. In Christ, our individual human identities are unimportant compared to the fact that we belong to Christ and are heirs of eternal life. And this is because of our baptism! The Galatians were losing sight of what it really meant to be “Abraham’s seed”–they wanted to seek God’s favor through obedience to the Law. But not even Abraham, who was a great believer, was justified by the Law–rather, he trusted God’s promises and it was credited to Him as righteousness. In the very same way, we trust God’s promises to forgive our sins for the sake of Christ’s suffering and death, which He signs and seals with baptism. And we eagerly await the day when we can join Abraham and all of the others who trusted in God’s promises of forgiveness for their sins. That trust in God’s Gospel promise is what makes us one in Christ, not obedience to the ceremonial Law, or external similarities like being Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, male or female. Christ lived and died for all, and so the Gospel is for all.
Prayer: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s Resurrection, may, by the help of Thy grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conversation; 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.
