Galatians 5:1-6 Freedom or a Cage?
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 21, 2020 Galatians 5:1-6
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus did not undergo the second death just to put us back into slavery. He did it so that we would have freedom. Paul is telling the Galatians that by choosing circumcision as a method of salvation, they were choosing slavery rather than freedom. Jesus did not die to make us jump through hoops in order to be saved. Jesus died for very necessary reasons in order that we could just choose to accept His death in our place. Once that happens, we need to just keep trusting and accepting Him. When the Galatians started trying to be Jews in order to please God, they were in effect rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice for them. They were cutting themselves off from their Savior. They were trying to achieve salvation by their own actions, but Paul told them that they could not succeed in that way. If they tried that method, they would have to keep the whole law completely by themselves, but this is simply not possible for fallen humans. We need another way to be saved and that way is through Jesus. We cannot have a kind of half-and-half composite salvation where it is half what we can do and half being forgiven for the rest. Instead, our only hope is to throw ourselves totally on God’s mercy and trust in Jesus to guide us. Only faith and love in God can keep us from death. We have to accept Jesus’ love for us totally and trust Him to bring us to the place we need to be. We cannot add our own methods to God’s. Doing that is arrogance because it means that we think that we know as much as God. Eve made that same choice of thinking that her judgment was superior to God’s. Instead, we need to humbly follow Jesus, trusting Him to bring us home.
(Revelation of God) “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” Paul is saying that we are not and cannot be righteous by our own actions, but that some day we will be pure and righteous. This will take place through the Spirit living in us. However, we have to trust Him to do this action. Our faith in God’s promises is necessary for the Spirit to do His work in us. When we start trying to “help” Him along by adding restrictions like circumcision as a prerequisite for salvation, we are actually denying the Spirit. We are not trusting God to do what He has promised.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to keep trusting You. I will not be righteous in this life, but I can be faithful. I will not be without temptation, discouragement, and depression, but I can be trusting. I will still be bombarded by doubts and fears, but I can believe Your promises. Be with me and transform me and give me wisdom and show me what to do. Give me a clean heart and heal me.