April 22 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the beginning of a new life for all believers. It's also the pledge of our resurrection (1 Cor. 15). The study of Colossians is part of this month's meditations on the meaning of the resurrection.

Bible Reading:

Colossians 2: 16–19

Bible Text:

Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival (Col. 2:16).

Devotional:

The Colossians' religious teachers were oh-so-spiritual and quite strict. They organized life around a calendar of religious events and divided all of life into things permissible and untouchable. They had visions and revelations. And they claimed that God spoke to them.

But Paul said, "Rubbish!" These religious teachers forgot that Christ had fulfilled the Old Testament. The Savior had already come, but they reverted to Old Testament pictures and symbols of salvation. And they practiced a self-willed religion that placed them outside the love-beat of Christ's church and out of touch with the Lord Jesus.

It's tragic that people who begin with the gospel of grace can end up in a moralistic house of bondage. It happened to the Colossians, it happened to the Galatians, and it happens to many congregations and denominations today. They start out as evangelical groups, thrilled by the gospel of freedom, but they end up under the whip of the moralists. Somehow grace turns sour, and their religion becomes a book of do's and don'ts. They have the gospel but they don't know why it is called the "good news." They have the law but they forget that the law is fulfilled by love.

They need to rediscover Christ and the gospel of sovereign grace.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.