Reading: Exodus 3:13-14; John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20When Jesus declared before Abraham was, I am, the crowd immediately reached for stones. They understood exactly what he was claiming. He was applying the divine name of God, the great I AM of Exodus 3, directly to himself. This was not the statement of a good moral teacher or a wise prophet. This was the claim of God in human flesh. Colossians...  Read More

Reading: Galatians 3:6-9, 26-29; Hebrews 11:8-16Abraham was not saved by circumcision. He was not saved by keeping the law. He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, as Paul declares in Galatians 3. The Old Testament and the New Testament are not two separate stories with two separate plans of salvation. They are one unified story, one covenant of grace, one people of God, all ...  Read More

Reading: Genesis 3:1-7; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8-10Jesus does not mince words in John 8. He tells the religious leaders plainly that their spiritual father is the devil, and that their desires align with his nature. This is not a personal insult hurled in anger. It is a diagnostic statement of spiritual reality. Since the fall of Adam in the garden, every human being is born with a nature bent toward...  Read More

Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 8:5-8 One of the most confronting truths in all of Scripture is that the unregenerate heart is not neutral. It is not sitting on a fence, weighing the evidence, deciding which way to lean. Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2 that apart from grace, we are dead, not merely sick or confused, but dead. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, as Romans 8 declares. This is...  Read More

Reading: Matthew 3:7-10; Romans 2:28-29 It is a sobering reality that a person can be raised in the church, baptized, and surrounded by Christian heritage and still be far from God. The religious leaders in John 8 boasted in Abraham as their father, yet Jesus exposed their hearts as unregenerate and hostile to truth. External affiliation never produces internal transformation. God is not impressed...  Read More

Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:14; John 3:3-8; Romans 8:7-8 Jesus told the crowd that his word found no lodging in them. This was not a failure of communication. It was evidence of spiritual death. The natural man, as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2, cannot receive the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned. The fallen mind is hostile to God and cannot submit to his law. This is wh...  Read More

Reading: Matthew 7:21-23; 1 John 2:19; James 2:19 One of the most sobering realities in Scripture is that a person can carry the title of Christian, know the language of the church, and still never have been born again. Jesus warned in Matthew 7 that many would claim his name on the day of judgment and be turned away. The apostle John explained that those who depart from the faith reveal they were...  Read More

Reading: John 8:34-36; Galatians 5:1; Ezekiel 36:26-27 No amount of moral effort transforms a slave into a son. Religious pedigree cannot accomplish it. Church attendance cannot accomplish it. Willpower cannot accomplish it. Only the Son can set a captive free, and when he does, that freedom is permanent, rooted in his finished work and not in human performance. Ezekiel 36 describes God removing t...  Read More

Reading: Romans 6:15-23; Jeremiah 17:9The Jews in John 8 insisted they had never been enslaved, even while standing under Roman occupation and spiritual blindness. This is the nature of sin's bondage. It deceives its captives into believing they are free. Romans 6 makes clear that every person serves a master, either sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness. The unregenerate hear...  Read More

Reading: John 8:31-32; Psalm 1:1-3Jesus does not measure discipleship by a single moment of emotional response. He measures it by a lifetime of abiding in his word. To abide is to dwell, to remain, to make one's home in the teachings of Christ. Psalm 1 describes this person as one whose delight is in God's word, meditating on it day and night. True salvation produces a new appetite. The regenerate...  Read More

Reading: John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Ephesians 2:4-9Devotional: Your salvation does not rest upon the fragile strength of your grip on Christ. It rests upon his sovereign, unbreakable grip on you. No one can snatch you from the Father's hand. This is not a license to sin carelessly. It is the foundation of genuine peace and perseverance. Those who have truly been born from above hate their sin. They...  Read More

Reading: Romans 5:6-11; John 19:28-30; Romans 8:32Devotional: What the world saw as defeat, God had decreed as the supreme revelation of his glory. The cross was not a tragedy interrupted by resurrection. It was the planned intersection of perfect justice and perfect mercy. When Jesus cried out that it is finished, he was declaring that the debt of sin had been fully paid and divine justice had be...  Read More