Welcome to Day 148 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about finding nourishment in the Word of God to get us through the day. In each devotional, I take a variety of scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses each) and build our understanding of what they teach via their context and connecting scripture. My goal is to help you understand how to be the type of human God created you to be.

Today’s passage is Galatians 4:4-5. We’ll examine how this future-born child will buy our freedom from sin.

Galatians 4:4-5

NASB	NLT	VOICE
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,	4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.	4 When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law)
5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.	5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.	5 to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the law. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters.

“When the right time came” talks about God sending Jesus to earth to die for our sins. For centuries, the Jewish people were wondering when the Messiah would come. Yet, God’s timing was perfect. We might question God’s timing. Yet, never doubt him or give up hope on him. At the right time, he will respond. God’s timing will be for the good of humanity and for our own good. We might not understand it, but we don’t have to. Our goal is to follow, obey, and trust. That’s the end goal at the end of the day. If God’s timing didn’t allow us an opportunity, it was for our benefit. However, waiting for God doesn’t mean we wait, and God will do the thing. It means when God says go, we go. If God says stop, we stop. Our job is to respond, obey, and trust.

John 1:14      

NASB	NLT	VOICE
14 And the Word became flesh, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.	14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.	14 The Voice took on flesh and became human and chose to live alongside us. We have seen Him, enveloped in undeniable splendor – the one true Son of the Father – evidenced in the perfect balance of grace and truth.

The Word became human. In doing so, Jesus became perfect in every way. He is the perfect teacher, showing us how to think and act as a reflection of God. Jesus is the perfect example, reflecting who we should be and giving us the power to live as God’s creation. But most importantly, he is the perfect sacrifice, using his perfect being to be a sacrifice that makes us perfect with God and removes our sins. His sacrifice, his death, and resurrection are what purify us of our sins and make us right with God. We can never repay this gift, but we can always be grateful for it.

Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, was not just 50% human and 50% God, but 100% human and 100% God. His divine power was not used to reign over us but to share the love of God with everyone. Before Jesus, the Israelites only knew God partially. Only those qualified to enter the Holy of Holies had experienced God. But after Jesus came to earth, people could know God more fully because he was now visible and tangible.

The two most common errors people claim about Jesus are:

• People minimize his human nature by disregarding how he identifies with us in our human bodies.
• People minimize his divine nature by rejecting what he did for us through his death and resurrection.

Simply put, people find it hard to compare Jesus to ourselves, given his divine power. Yet, people also find it hard to believe in the fact that his death and resurrection were a sacrifice that purifies us of our sins and makes us right with God.

In the same way “we have seen his glory,” John would have kept in mind the entire Old Testament witness to God’s glory, further confirming who Jesus is and what will be revealed about him. John might also be reflecting on how that witness had revealed itself when he, Peter, and James had seen Jesus in shining splendor at the Transfiguration. The concept of glory isn’t a commonplace term we utilize today, but it meant the world to John’s audience. Jesus was a genuine expression of God’s overwhelming presence and power. Think about it like we describe aura today. God’s glory and how it relates to John’s audience are similar to how we think about God’s aura. We continuously see God’s aura in the world, whether in front of us or not, through the different acts of people around us or the different beauty in the world.

“The Father’s one and only Son” emphasizes the uniqueness of who Jesus is. All believers are called children of God, but Jesus is unique and enjoys a perfect relationship with God the Father. We can feel the importance of the relationship through recognizing the relationship between Jesus and God. We obtain the same relationship, granted to a different extent, given Jesus’ divine nature. This relationship is a source of love and connection that we can always rely on.

Ephesians 1:5

NASB	NLT	VOICE
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,	5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.	5 He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us.

Knowing that God “decided in advance to adopt us” is another way of saying that our gift of salvation is God’s work and not based on our own works. In his infinite love, God has adopted us as his own. God loves us so much and knows us so intimately that he will do the best for us as long as we accept it. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, he has brought us into his family and made us heirs alongside Jesus, eligible to receive the eternal blessings he died for. In Roman Law, adopted children had the same rights and privileges as biological children, even if they had been slaves. Paul uses similar language to represent how closely related we are to God through Jesus and how strongly God wants a relationship with us. God knew about us since we were created and wants to have a relationship with us. What will you decide?

BREATHE IN: I am chosen…

BREATHE OUT: …by the Almighty.

Until next time, stay blessed!