Joshua Kennedy's Weekly Devotion

The Cross Sets Us Free from Slavery Paul doesn’t mince words in Galatians 4. He draws a hard spiritual line and forces every believer to ask an uncomfortable question: What is really producing my life—promise or performance? Using Abraham’s two sons, Paul reveals a timeless truth. Ishmael was born through human effort, ambition, and impatience. Isaac was born through promise, surrender, and the power of God. One represents the flesh. The other represents the Spirit. And they cannot coexist as equals. Promise vs. Performance (vv. 21–27) Paul teaches that just as Abraham had two sons, we too can produce two kinds of “works.” Some are born of the Spirit—led by God, empowered by grace, and bearing lasting fruit. Others are born of the flesh—driven by ambition, fear, pride, or the need to prove ourselves. The Spirit brings life. The flesh brings bondage. This is where the examination becomes personal. Not everything that looks spiritual actually originates in the Spirit. Mini...

  Freedom is not learned overnight. Paul tells us to think of it this way : a child may legally own everything his father left behind, but until maturity comes, he lives no differently than a servant. The inheritance is real, but access is restricted. Responsibility hasn’t yet caught up with position. That was our story before Christ. From Slavery to Sonship (vv. 1–3) Before Jesus, we were spiritual minors—bound by the systems of this world, ruled by forces we could not overcome, and unable to enjoy the riches of heaven. Though the promises existed, we lived beneath them. Slaves to sin. Slaves to fear. Slaves to the basic principles that govern a fallen world. But something changed when we came into Christ. Maturity arrived—not through effort, but through union. The guards were dismissed. The locks were removed. Suddenly, what once belonged to us in promise became accessible in reality. We didn’t earn it. We inherited it. The Right Time, the Right Savior (vv. 4–7) At the exact...

  1. The Promise Came Before the Law Galatians 3:15–18 Paul takes his readers back to the beginning—before rules, before rituals, before religion hardened into systems. God made a promise to Abraham, and that promise pointed directly to Christ. It was spoken 430 years before the law, proving that righteousness was never meant to come through rule-keeping. God does not contradict Himself. The law did not replace the promise, and it never could. What God established by faith, He fulfilled through the cross. Righteousness flows from trusting what God has spoken, not striving to earn what He has already given. 2. Why the Law Was Given Galatians 3:19–20 If the promise was enough, why was the law added? Paul answers plainly: the law was given because of sin. It was never intended to save—it was meant to reveal. The law exposed our condition but offered no cure. It showed us God’s standard, but not God’s power. The law came through mediators; the promise came directly from God. That disti...

Introduction:   Life often tempts us to earn God’s favor through our efforts, our good deeds, or our performance. But the truth of the Gospel is radical: God does not count our attempts at righteousness—He counts our faith in Jesus. In this devotional, we’ll explore what it means to live the “exchanged life,” where Christ’s life and righteousness replace our own. 
“Righteousness by Faith: Living the Exchanged Life” (Galatians 2:15-16)   “We are Jews by birth and not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God not by obeying the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God through faith in Christ, not by obeying the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” When we read these verses, it’s easy to get caught up in the “Jews vs. Gentiles” language and miss the more profound truth: Paul is teaching us about identity and dependence. The Jews had an ex...

  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...