Daily Devotional for Thursday, November 28

The Great Deliverer

"Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father;• Galatians 1:4.

Has there ever been a moment in your life when you felt trapped? I have seen several movies and television shows in which a character is pinned in a car, trapped in aroom, caught in ahole or locked in some sort of cell or dungeon. In most of these dramatic depictions, there was ahero who came to rescue the character from whatever bondage just in the nick of time. I can still vividly remember the time when my mother rolled up the car window with my arm in it. I was probably around seven-or eight-years old. While not as extreme as some of those television shows, I still felt the panic of being trapped in the window. The pain and fear prevented me from being able to tell my mother what had happened in a clear manner, so she had to interpret the squeals to figure out what was wrong. The moment of realization led her to roll the window back down, freeing my little arm from its trap. The overwhelming relief from being freed from this evil world was the feeling I think Paul was trying to help the Galatians realize and feel for themselves.

We know that Paul himself shared the gospel and discipled the believers in Galatia, so he wrote to them as if they were his children. Throughout the letter, we will read about rebuking them for many things as parents should when they see their children go astray. The main theme he focused on, though, was freedom in Christ and the grace of God. Paul's goal was to correct the misconception the churches in Galatia had about being in bondage to the Law. With this in mind, he closed his greeting by painting the picture of Jesus as our one and only Deliverer. He could have used many attributes of Christ, but he chose to focus on His unique ability to free us from spiritual bondage.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

As a believer, you have been delivered from evil and spiritual bondage.

Ashley Ridings