ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
CONSIDER THE WRATH OF GOD
God’s moral Character leads Him to judgment and punishment of unrighteousness.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Quote from Knowing God by J.I. Packer – “God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil”
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS WRATH
Praise God because he is just. Praise Him because He does not overlook evil and sin. Praise Him because he executes justice in his righteous wrath. Praise God because he never carries out his wrath on a whim.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for Christian Challenge – Pray for physical, mental, and spiritual endurance for the student leaders at Challenge who’ve now been working intensely for the past week to build new trust
relationships with other students at WSU, to share the Gospel, and to connect people together in small groups. Pray that they would abide in Christ and operate out of His strength, trusting in Him to bear fruit in their lives and the lives of others as He pleases.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Galatians 3 Christian Standard Bible
Justification through Faith
You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing? 5 So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard— 6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?
7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
Law and Promise
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
15 Brothers and sisters, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to a validated human will. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. 17 My point is this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and thus cancel the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise; but God has graciously given it to Abraham through the promise.
The Purpose of the Law
19 Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one. 21 Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. 23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.
Sons and Heirs
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
So, since we don’t have to obey the law, can we do whatever we want? Yes, you can. But you could always do whatever you wanted. You just couldn’t do whatever you want and live in God’s blessing. You still can’t as a believer. When someone thinks that not having a “law” will lead to a life of “lawlessness” they are misunderstanding two things. First, external laws have never kept humans from living outside the law. Second, when a human heart changes, the need for external laws goes away. You don’t have to tell someone who loves their child that they must not abuse that child. They need no law to tell them to take care of that child. The law was given until the Seed had come. Now, we have in the New Testament, examples, patterns, and principles that help us know who God is and what is important to him. That allows us to pattern our lives in ways that maximize our blessing as his kids. But this life of faith is just that, a life of faith in Jesus. We don’t look to laws to live out the gospel, we look to Jesus. Anyone who thinks that trusting Christ now means they are free to do whatever they want to do must question whether they have actually trusted Christ. When you know the love of God in Christ, then you want the will of God revealed in the life of Christ to be manifest in your own life. We should be able to say “I am free to do whatever I want…and what I want is to love God and love people.”