Joshua Kennedy's Weekly Devotion

  When Obedience Confronts Tradition Galatians 2:1–3  Then, fourteen years later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there, I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we agreed, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. 3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.[a] Fourteen years is a long time to carry a burden in your spirit. Paul didn’t rush back to Jerusalem to settle the tension between grace and tradition. He waited until the Lord made it unmistakably clear that silence was no longer obedience. When the time came, Paul went up to Jerusalem not on a personal mission, but under divine direction. He brought Barnabas, a truste...

  Transformation through Christ’s Call The cross does more than forgive sin—it exposes the source of true transformation. In Galatians 1:11–24, Paul pulls back the curtain on how the Gospel came to him and what it produced in him. This is not a polished testimony meant to impress; it is a declaration that the Gospel is supernatural in origin and unstoppable in effect. When Christ calls a life, nothing remains the same. The Gospel Comes from God, Not Man (vv. 11–12) Paul begins by defending the source of the Gospel he preached. He did not receive it from human teachers or religious systems. He was taught directly by Jesus Christ. At that time, the written Gospels did not yet exist, so divine revelation was necessary. That truth matters, but so does humility. God does speak directly, yet He also speaks through people. Spiritual pride whispers, “I only hear from God myself.” That attitude cuts us off from the very instruments God often uses to shape us. Today, we are blessed to have t...

Introduction:   Galatians 1:1–10 – The Cross as the Only True Foundation Paul writes to the Galatian believers with urgency because something sacred is being distorted. Judaizers had infiltrated the churches, insisting that Gentile Christians must submit to the Old Testament law—particularly circumcision—to be entirely accepted by God. But this teaching strikes at the very heart of the gospel Paul preached:
We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—nothing added. Rather than proving the inferiority of Christ’s gospel compared to the law, Paul does the opposite:
He exposes the insufficiency of the law and the absolute supremacy of Christ’s finished work. The central theme that emerges is this:
Righteousness is not achieved by human effort but received through union with Christ—being crucified with Him and raised into new life by the Spirit. It is only through Christ, and only by the Spirit, that we are made righteous. Our old life was nailed to the cross, and...