Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Acts 13:38-39.
In our reading for today, Paul is on his first missionary journey. He is accompanied by Barnabas. To place the reading in context, it is the Sabbath and the two of them are attending synagogue in Antioch. After the reading of “the Law and the Prophets” (the Hebrew Scriptures), the synagogue leaders invited them to speak to the assembly. Paul offers an account of the history of the Jewish people and their broken relationship with God who chose them. He relates how God sent Jesus to repair and restore the relationship between God and God’s people and how Jesus was rejected by the religious authorities. In verses 38-39, Paul declares forgiveness of all of the sins that could not be reconciled through strict adherence to the Law of Moses, and he declares that “through Jesus everyone who believes is put in right relationship with God” (v. 39, CEB).
Paul’s declaration in that synagogue is the essence of his message fleshed out in his letter to the Galatians and it is basically the definition of the Wesleyan understanding of justification by grace. Through justification, we are freed from the bonds of our sin and reconciled or brought back into a right relationship with God. From there, we begin the journey toward sanctification or living into the image of God as we become the people who God created us to be.
Personal Worship Option:
God loves us so much that God gave up everything to offer the restoration of the relationship between Creator and created that was meant to be as described in the opening passages of Genesis. How do we respond to this overwhelming forgiveness today? Pray: God of grace and God of glory, thank you for loving me so much that you look beyond my faults and see the beautiful person that you created me to be. Help me to see that beauty and live into your calling upon my life. Amen.
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