Morning, April 7
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Bible League: Living His Word
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"

What is a curse? In the Bible, a curse is understood to be a pronouncement of evil or misfortune of some kind on someone or something. It is the opposite of a blessing. What is the "curse of the law?" In the Old Testament, curses are the penalty for not keeping the Law of Moses. The law itself is not a curse. Violations of the law lead to curses. Obedience, on the other hand, leads to blessings. In Deuteronomy 28 there is a list of the curses that would befall the people of God if they violated the law. It includes things like sickness and disease, crop failure, defeat before enemies, and a number of other things including, ultimately, deportation to foreign lands.

In Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul tells us that any attempt to obtain salvation by obedience to the law is doomed to failure. The reason for this is that no one can keep the law perfectly: "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10) and "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Anyone who tries, as a result, is under the curse of the law, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them" (Galatians 3:10).

Obviously, if we are to obtain salvation, it will have to be in some way other than by obedience to the law. The good news is that there is another way---faith in Jesus Christ. Our verse for today explains that this is because Jesus "redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." Although Jesus kept the law perfectly, He became a sacrifice of atonement for us by bearing upon himself the curse of the law. He who did not sin became sin for us so that through Him we might become righteous before God (II Corinthians 5:21).

Since we are now counted as righteous before God because of our faith in what Jesus did for us, we have the right to claim freedom from the curses of the law. And we also have the right to claim the blessings of the law.

Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Judges 20, 21


Judges 20 -- Israelites Defeat the Benjamites

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Judges 21 -- Wives for the Benjamites

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New Testament Reading
Luke 11:1-28


Luke 11 -- Instruction about Prayer; Casting out Demons; the Sign of Jonah; Woes upon Pharisees

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Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
Don't lust for her beauty.
        Don't let her coy glances seduce you.
Insight
Regard lust as a warning sign of danger ahead. When you notice that you are attracted to a person of the opposite sex or preoccupied with thoughts of him or her, your desires may lead you to sin.
Challenge
Ask God to help you change your desires before you are drawn into sin.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Psalm 4:2  O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?

An instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honors which the blinded people of Israel awarded to their long expected King.

1. They gave him a procession of honor, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, he himself bearing his cross. This is the triumph which the world awards to him who comes to overthrow man's direst foes. Derisive shouts are his only acclamations, and cruel taunts his only paeans of praise.

2. They presented him with the wine of honor. Instead of a golden cup of generous wine they offered him the criminal's stupefying death-draught, which he refused because he would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and afterwards when he cried, "I thirst," they gave him vinegar mixed with gall, thrust to his mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to the King's Son.

3. He was provided with a guard of honor, who showed their esteem of him by gambling over his garments, which they had seized as their booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal gamblers.

4. A throne of honor was found for him upon the bloody tree; no easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was, in fact, the full expression of the world's feeling towards him; "There," they seemed to say, "thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God himself should be treated, could we reach him."

5. The title of honor was nominally "King of the Jews," but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really called him "King of thieves," by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes of saints and angels, world without end.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
2 Corinthians 6:10  as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

Romans 5:2,3  through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. • And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

2 Corinthians 7:4  Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

1 Peter 1:8  and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

2 Corinthians 8:2  that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.

Ephesians 3:8,9  To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, • and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;

James 2:5  Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

Evening April 6
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