Bible Study on Perseverance (Jude 17-25)

Conversion xiii / Perseverance

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

(Is.54:10)

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

                       (Jer.32:40)

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy … being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

(Phil.1:4-6)

There is a question that has lingered under the surface of a number of our recent Bible Studies, particularly as we have considered the more future-oriented aspects of our salvation.  It has often been spoken of in the history of the Church as the question of our perseverance, and it underpins our assurance, confidence, security and joy in salvation.  It is imperative that we cultivate a great confidence in the faithfulness of God if we are not to be assailed by crippling doubt, anxiety, fear, even despair in our pilgrimage.  Failure to grasp the loving commitment of our God to carry on the work of our salvation to completion risks our being lost in a kind of legalism, as we keep trying to prove to ourselves and to God that we are, in fact, saved … for now at least!

But how can we be sure?  Often the evidence appears stacked against us.  Our faith seems so weak, our love for Christ so fickle.  Our pursuit of holiness often ambiguous.  We seem to make so little progress.  At times we’re not even sure we are Christians at all.  So how can we imitate the confidence that bubbles to the surface of the lives of Biblical saints again and again.  ‘I am convinced…’ (Rom.8:38); ‘I know… and am convinced’ (II Tim.1:12); ‘We know…’ (I Jn.2:3).  John’s epistle is written precisely so that we may have this assurance (5:13).  Whilst spiritual security is not necessarily an aspect of faith, (so that we can have faith without assurance), nevertheless, healthy faith will – all else being equal - normally bring a growing confidence about our standing before God and our future with Him.

In part this is rooted in our experience of Christ.  We have considered previously in this series, the ‘tests’ that John lays out in his Epistle.  Other passages point to how the Spirit’s witness (Rom.8:15-16; Eph.1:13-14); or how our commitment to the teaching of Jesus (Jn.8:31-32); or how our growth in holiness (I Jn.2:3), or how self-examination (II Cor.13:5) can all contribute to a growing confidence in the purposes of God.  But in isolation these can lead to an unhealthy introspection and can actually heighten anxiety.  And even if I can say with confidence I am a Christian now, how can I know I will be in the future? 

Looking away from ourselves to God and to a deepening appreciation of the nature His gracious gospel is the key here (II Pet.1:2-10 & 3:18).  In the final analysis our confidence, not just in our salvation now but also in the future, is rooted in Him, not in us.  He has begun a good work and is faithful to finish it.  ‘None of those called by God and redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ will be lost.  As God stands at the beginning and middle of His plan of salvation, so does he stand at the end’ (Boice, 519).  We are already raised and ascended with Christ.  We are already justified.  We have seen that there is a deep, inner logic between what God has already done in us, to us, and for us, and what He will do in the future.  This does not mean we will never fall into sin, even serious and debilitating sin.  We are not naive about the reality of Christian discipleship.  But it does mean that His purpose for us in Christ has infinitely greater power to define our future than our sin.  Our eyes remain fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith (Heb.12:2).  Our hope is in God’s covenant faithfulness and the perfect work of Christ, applied infallibly to us by the Spirit. 

All that we have already experienced of His saving work gives us hope for and confidence in His future work.  It is secured not by the quality of my faith, or the depth of my response, my morality or religiosity.  It is secured by the covenant made within the life of the Trinity before we were even created; it is secured by the unchangeable love of the Father to us in Christ; it is secured by the redeeming work and intercession of Christ (e.g. Rom.5:8-10; Jn.17:11; Rom.8:34); it is secured by the presence of the Spirit within us (e.g. I Jn.4:13).   Because of this, we can know and rely on the love God has for us (I Jn.4:16).

Questions

Do you think our danger lies more towards doubting God’s ongoing grace to us, or in presuming upon that grace?  Why?  How can we guard against either / both of these spiritual dangers?

Does teaching about God’s preserving us run the risk of our becoming apathetic?  How can we enjoy this doctrine such that it inspires holiness and worship? 

How can we cultivate our sense of assurance (II Pet.1:10)?  How might you recognise someone who was struggling to enjoy a sense of security in their relationship with God?  How would you support them? 

Read Jude 17-25

Do you think there are people who fall into the category of those described in vv.18-19 in the Church today?  How would you recognise them?  How should we relate to them? 

What does it mean to follow Jude’s injunction in vv.20-21?  How can we build ourselves up in our ‘most holy faith’? …pray in the Holy Spirit? …Keep ourselves in God’s love?  How can we support one another in these things?

How can we show mercy to those who doubt?  What if they don’t seem to ever resolve their uncertainties?

Does v.23 describe anything you have ever experienced as a Christian?  What would it look like to be involved in a situation like this? 

If God is able to keep us from stumbling (v.24), why does He not do so more often!?  Why is sin such an ongoing feature of Christian life?  Is ‘sinning’ what Jude has in mind? 

Does God’s preserving commitment to His people inspire worship?   How does the prospect of being ‘without fault’ and being the source of the Father’s joy shape your discipleship?

Memory Passage:

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 

John 6:37-40

For further reflection:

It is a simple matter of observation – both in the Scriptures and in our own experience of Church – that people fall away.  Jesus taught this would be the case (Matt.7:21-23; 13:19-22), and saw it happen both in ‘the crowds’ and amongst His disciples (Jn.6:66; Matt.26:14-16).  As did the Apostles (II Tim.4:10; Heb.6:4-6; I Jn.2:19).  But the realisation that people can get caught up into what the Spirit is doing in the Church without actually becoming Christians is not something that should surprise us, or cause us to fear, or to doubt that those who do become Christians cannot fall away.  This is in part why it is so important that we understand what genuine conversion looks like. 

Occasionally people argue that the presence of various exhortations to continue in the faith, or warnings against falling away, implies that even genuine Christians might not (e.g. Col.1:23; Gal.5:4; II Pet.3:17).  You may wish to discuss such passages in your Group, and it is always worth examining ourselves (II Cor.13:5).  But it is also worth taking care that we don’t separate God’s means from His appointed end.  In Acts 27, Paul knows the lives of his shipmates will be saved, but he knows too how that will happen, and warns and exhorts accordingly.  It is precisely by heeding such warnings that we enjoy God’s preserving grace.  Our faith is a dynamic and ongoing thing, not a one-off decision.  We believe, and keep on believing throughout life.  It is an ongoing and deepening commitment to Christ.  We might stumble and take wrong turns, make decisions we will regret, and at times fight against the God we love.  Many of us have.  But when all is said and done, we can celebrate His faithfulness, and sing with the Church throughout the ages:  ‘My beloved is mine and I am his…’ (Song 2:16).

Bible Study on Glorification (Rom.8:28-39)

Conversion xii / Glorification

He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

(II Pet.1:4)

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

                       (Eph.5:25-27)

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 

(Rom.8:17)

One of the most incredible teachings in the Bible concerning our salvation relates to our glorification.  Indeed, it is so remarkable that were it not so plainly taught in the Scriptures, it is likely we would never dare believe it; and may struggle to even though it is.

We are by now familiar with the idea that our experience of salvation is rooted in the idea of our being united with Christ through faith and by His Spirit.  We have reflected on being buried with Him in His death through baptism (Rom.6:3), and on being raised with Him to new life (Rom.6:5 & 11).  But Christ’s journey doesn’t stop with His resurrection!   He has also ascended to glory.  And our union with Christ means that we are ascended with Him (Rom.8:30; Eph.2:6; Heb.12:23).  This is already true of us spiritually, though as we’ll see in a moment we are still waiting for the physical aspects of who we are to catch up.  Our glorification, in its fullest sense, must wait for the resurrection of the body; yet we already participate in the life and being of God through our union with Christ.

This profound reality is the basis not merely for our future hope of resurrection, but for much of the New Testament’s call to Christ-like living and being here and now (e.g. Col.3:1-4, where Paul calls us to think of ourselves in relation to this spiritual reality, rather than focussing on our earth-bound experience, and so to ‘put to death’ all that remains of our fallen nature, 3:5).  And it is also the foundation of a rich spiritual experience as the reality of our future glorification takes root in our present discipleship.  The realisation that we are immersed into the life of the Trinity, even as the Trinity dwells within us, is one of deepest mysteries of our salvation, and well worth our prayerful study and meditation.  As the worshippers of idols participate in demons and gradually conform to those idols (I Cor.10:14-22; Ps.115:4-8), so as we participate in Christ and are slowly conformed to His image (note in I Cor.10 the link with the sacramental life of the Church).  As one Eastern Orthodox scholar puts it: ‘As Christ flows into us (through Communion) and is blended with us, so He changes us and turns us into Himself’ (Cabasilas, so Gal.2:20).  This doesn’t result in the loss of our humanity or our individuality, but as Jesus’ humanity is not absorbed in His incarnation, or lost in His glorification, so our glorification is the fulfilment of our humanity and personhood as those created in the Image of God (I Cor.15:49).

We are perhaps used to thinking about this in terms of ethical / lifestyle considerations, but the Bible encourages to think also in terms of our being, what / who we are as well as what we do.  We don’t just become people who live ‘better’.  Our destiny is renewal of being as well as of behaviour.  And while the ‘centre of gravity’ of this hope is future, nevertheless we feel its pull even now.  The true nature of humanity is to be like God (i.e. Christ), and in fellowship with Him.  As a Christian, I am already ‘being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit’ (II Cor.3:18).  It is impossible for us to overestimate, or indeed to overvalue this process, and its culmination in our resurrection on the Day of Christ (I John 3:2). 

The culmination of our glorification is intrinsically linked with the glorification of Christ – not just in His Ascension, but in His Appearing in Glory (Titus 2:13; II Pet.4:13).  It is something that we will all experience simultaneously (I Thess.4:16-17; I Cor.15:51-52).  ‘When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory’ (Col.3:4).  And in this final act of redemption it is our whole being that is renewed.  And as C.S. Lewis famously quipped: ‘It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship…’  This is dangerous language, but it is language that takes seriously the teaching of the Bible.

Questions

Paul’s expectation and longing for his future glory was so deep that he was able to gladly endure significant persecution and suffering (e.g. Rom.8:18; II Cor.4:17 etc.).  Do you share his confidence? …or therefore his willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ?  Why / why not?

What could increase both your present awareness of glory, and your hope in the future resurrection to glory? 

If our future glorification incorporates our physicality in this way, why does Paul say that ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (I Cor.15:50), and that our future bodies will be ‘spiritual’ (I Cor.15:44)?

Read Rom.8:28-39

What does it mean to ‘have been called according to His purpose’ (8:28)?  How do all things work together towards that purpose and our good?  Do you think Paul means to include suffering? …persecution? … death? 

How does knowing that our salvation begins in God’s foreknowledge and our being predestined, and finishes in our glorification encourage and excite us about being Christians (8:29-30)?  How comfortable are you with Paul’s argument here?  Does it work?  How is it affected if you don’t agree with Paul’s thinking?

How does God’s giving up of Jesus ‘for us’ instil us with unshakeable confidence in God’s heart to save us (8:31-35)?  How would you help someone who didn’t share Paul’s assurance in God’s work of salvation?

Why does Paul cite Ps.44 in Rom.8:36?  How does this verse fit into his argument?

How might each of the things in vv.35 & 38-39 seek to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord?  How does our understanding of the Gospel help to convince us that their efforts are futile? 

Memory Passage:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

Eph.2:4-7

For further reflection:

All through our studies in the doctrine of our salvation we have felt an inner logic and compulsion towards our future and the culmination of our redemption in the return of Christ.  This is right, and locating its fullness in the Parousia guards against a number of errors, not least overly-individualising our Christianity.  Embedding our highest expectations in the future reminds us that our own glorification is bound up in the renewal of all creation as it is (and we are) delivered from all the consequences of sin and the Fall (Matt.19:28; Acts 3:21; Rom.8:20-21).  Creation itself will provide a suitable environment for the redeemed Church to dwell in an atmosphere permeated with the manifest glory of God (II Pet.3:13; Is.65:17; Rev.21:4).  All things will in that moment be united under the reign of Christ (Eph.1:10).  We are a part of that.

Amazing though our post-mortem experience of Jesus will be, even that will pale in the light of the joy of our resurrection (II Cor.5:1-10).  There is no place for any dichotomy between physical and spiritual.  Our future hope very definitely includes Christ transforming our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Phil.3:21).  What we know as weak and degenerating will be transformed into something so powerful that anything we long to do for love of Christ, we will have the capacity to do.  What we know as dishonourable will be raised in glory, no longer contaminated by death and polluted with sin.  And we will finally see the wisdom of God in creating humanity as the pinnacle of His creation.  What we know as so very mortal, will be transformed into immortality, as Christ’ victory is total and even death itself will be ‘swallowed up in victory’ (I Cor.15:42-57).  Only then, in the fullness of our being, will this work of glory be complete.

Bible Study on Salvation (I Peter 1:3-12)

Conversion xi / Salvation

…it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.

(Acts 15:11)

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

                       (II Tim.1:9-10)

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

(I Cor.1:18)

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

(Rom.3:11)

Perhaps one of the most common titles for Jesus is ‘Saviour’.  In our liturgy we regularly close prayers (especially Collects) with a variation of the phrase, ‘In the Name of your Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,’.  It’s a powerful way of speaking of Jesus in the context of prayer, for it captures His mediation, articulating as it does His relationship to the Father (Son) and to us (Saviour).  This is the confession of the Church, and the declaring of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour is repeatedly captured in our Creeds, our liturgy and worship, and our Articles, to the point of declaring those who do not confess Christ as the exclusive means of salvation ‘must be regarded as accursed.  For the Holy Scripture declares to us that it is only in the name of Jesus that men (sic) must be saved’ (Art.18, citing Acts 4:12).  In his sermon on salvation (Homily 3, ‘Salvation of mankind only by Christ our Saviour, from sin and death everlasting’), ArchBishop Cranmer is at pains to show that this has been taught ‘by all the old and ancient authors, Greek and Latin’ (i.e. from both the Eastern and Western Churches).   To speak of Christ as Saviour is to confess Him as Lord (Is.43:11).

The work of Christ is focussed on revealing the Glory of God in the salvation of sinners (I Jn.4:14).  To confess Christ as Saviour, is to confess the Church as the saved.  But to speak of salvation isn’t as straightforward as it might first seem.  Read the citations at the top of this study carefully, and ask yourself: Am I saved?  And if so, when?

Trying to capture the sophistication of the Bible’s teaching about our salvation, theologians speak of the three tenses of salvation, each of which is reflected above.  To ignore, or lose sight of any one tense is to skew our thinking about what it means to be saved, so that we will struggle to make sense of our experience of God in the Gospel, and will open ourselves up to confusion and frustration.  We have been saved (Eph.2:8, also e.g. Rom.8:24, Titus 3:5 etc.): past tense.  Reflecting on the studies of previous weeks we can see that there is a profound sense in which our salvation is completed.  ‘He has saved us…’.  We are already delivered from the guilt of sin, and from its penalty and condemnation.  Herein lies the grounds of our security.

But we also speak of salvation in the present tense: We are being saved (II Cor.2:15, see also I Cor.15:2 which likewise speaks of salvation as a present continuous experience).  This speaks to our ongoing transformation as the enslaving power of sin is weakened and at times broken, so that we are slowly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom.8:29).  Herein lies the grounds of our sanctification.

And alongside both this completed and continuous salvation is a future tense: we will be saved (Rom.5:10, also e.g. I Cor.3:15, Phil.1:28 etc.).  In this we anticipate our full and final deliverance from the power and indeed the presence of sin.  This future aspect is often spoken of as ‘glorification’ (see our next study), and is as certain as the others for a number of reasons, not least because He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil.1:6).  Herein lies the grounds of our striving.  We continue to press on, even in the face of failure and frustration, because we know that our final victory is inevitable.  Our sure and certain hope inspires our unshakeable confidence in midst of the ambiguities of life in this age. 

This is the great promise of the Gospel forged by Christ.  He came to seek and to save the lost (Lk.19:10).  The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Rom.1:16-17).  

Questions

How would you explain ‘salvation’ to someone who was curious about what you believed as a Christian?

Do you think talking about being ‘saved’ is helpful in our own culture?  If not, can you think of other language or imagery that would convey the same idea? 

Does the idea of salvation in 3 tenses help you to make sense of your experience as a Christian…  or not?  Do you find it encouraging … or not?

Read I Pet.1:3-12

What do you think Peter means when he talks about ‘an inheritance that can never perish, spoil of fade’ (v.4)? Does it excite you that it is kept in heaven for you (v.4)?  …does it inspire worship (v.3) or do you find it difficult to envisage and respond to?  Why do you think that is?

What are we shielded from through faith, and by God’s power (v.5)?  How do you reconcile a promise like this with Peter’s recognition that the Church suffers grief in all kinds of trials (v.6)?  What do you think Peter has in mind by ‘trials’?

What tenses of salvation can you pick out in I Peter 1:3-12?

Do you value your faith as something ‘of greater worth than gold’ (v.7)?  How is that manifest in your life and decisions?

Would you describe yourself as someone ‘filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy’ because of your faith in Christ (v.8)?  Is Peter being unrealistic in terms of the Church’s trials (v.6)?  How would you explain this verse to someone with depression? 

How do Peter’s comments in vv.10-12 shape your view of the Old Testament?  Do you think of the Old Testament prophets as serving ‘you’ (i.e. the New Testament Church)?  What do you think that means?  What difference does it make to how you read the Old Testament?

Memory Passage:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Rom.8:28-30

For further reflection:

The is something compelling about seeing the whole Trinity engaged in the project of our salvation, from before creation and into the everlasting ages of the New Creation.  The Father has chosen us in Christ before the creation of the world (Eph.1:4), and so longs to be reconciled to us that He has willingly sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (I Jn.4:10); the Son willingly has undertaken to represent us (Heb.5:1), to be a substitute for us (II Cor.5:21), and for the joy of sharing His inheritance with us endured the cross to redeem us (Heb.9:12, 12:2), and now in His glory He intercedes for us (Rom.8:34); the Spirit is willingly living in us (Rom.8:9), leading us (Rom.8:14), interceding for us (Rom.8:26-27),  and applying Christ’s work in the very depths of our experience.  This plunges us into the heart of God and His love and grace.

But what is it we are being saved from?  Our first response might be: from our sin.  Obviously there is a great deal of truth in this (although intriguingly the Bible speaks almost universally of being set free from sin, rather than saved from it e.g. Rom.6:7, 6:18, 6:22; Heb.9:15; Rev.1:5).  But it does beg the question of what it is about our sin that we need to be saved from.  We might focus on egocentric aspects of the answer to this question, recognising that sin is self-destructive.  But Scripture has a more Theocentric emphasis: Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Rom.5:9).   In the final analysis we conclude with the Apostle that we need to be saved from God’s wrath against our sin, and the expression of that wrath in judgement.  At the deepest level, God is saving us from Himself.  In Christ, holy mercy triumphs over holy judgement.  This is the mystery of our salvation.

Bible Study on Sanctification (Rom.8:1-13)

Conversion x / Sanctification

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.

                       (Phil.2:12-13)

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

(Rom.6:4)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

(II Pet.1:3-4)

One of the earliest signs that God has done a saving work in us is our growing hatred of sin, and love and longing for the holiness we see in Christ.  In terms of Biblical religion, it is simply inconceivable that we could be united to Christ and not share in a relentless striving for ‘the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’ (see Phil.3:12-15, coming as it does in the context of Paul’s celebration of justification).  Our induction into the life of God, and the inaugurating of the Spirit’s work of transforming us into the image of Christ is fundamental to our experience of being a Christian (Eph.4:24; Col.3:10).  It isn’t just that it is linked to our salvation.  It is our salvation.  We are saved to bear the image of Christ (I Cor.15:49).  ‘It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…’ (I Thess.4:3).

The word, ‘sanctification’ is one of those words you almost feel you should be intimidated by on principle.  It holds together two concepts for us.  The first, and most fundamental, meaning is the idea of being set apart.  In this sense anything could be sanctified, and in books such as Numbers, we even find things like shovels and bowls being ‘sanctified’ (i.e. ‘holy’, see e.g. Num.4:7-15).  This isn’t to suggest they have a moral quality, but rather simply that they are set apart.  But the second concept captured by the word is to do with the purpose for which things and people are set apart, which is the service of the thrice-holy Lord.  When this is applied to redeemed humanity, then it does take on a moral dimension.  We are set apart to serve the Lord, to become holy (II Cor.6:16-7:1).  This explains why the Bible can speak of ‘sanctification’ both as a completed act (e.g. Heb.10:10) and as a continuing and progressive process (e.g. Heb.10:14). 

It is perhaps helpful to think of (most likely) four stages in our experience of sanctification.  The first is it’s definite and completed beginning in our regeneration (e.g. I Cor.1:2, 6:11; Acts 26:18).  The second is the ongoing experience of being made like Christ that characterises our earthly pilgrimage (e.g. II Cor.3:18; Eph.2:8-10).  Third is our spiritual sanctification that is already accomplished, but which will be a qualitatively different experience after death when our body of sin is returned to dust (e.g. Heb.12:23; Phil.1:23).  Fourthly and finally will be our total sanctification when we inherit our resurrection bodies at the return of Christ (e.g. I Jn.3:2-3; Phil.3:21).  The only exception to this pattern will be those Christians who are still living when Christ returns (I Cor.15:51-53; I Thess.4:15-18).  It was for this in its entirety that Christ sanctified Himself to the cross (Jn.17:19).

Our inevitable involvement in this development is so intrinsic to our faith, that the Apostle John establishes it as a test of saving faith (e.g. I Jn.1:7-9; 3:6; 3:14; 4:17).  Indeed, without such holiness it is impossible to see the Lord (Heb.12:14).  The same indwelling Spirit who regenerates us, seeks to make us holy. Or put another way, we cannot be united to Christ in His crucifixion, without being united to Him in His resurrection (Rom.6:9-11).  This how the Lord closes the gap between what the Father declares us to be in our justification, and who we are in terms of our lived being and behaviour.  

It is the outworking of His jealous covenant love that expresses itself in the desire that we forsake all other competing claims and loves, and through which He strips us of our idols.  It is the goal of His redeeming us (Titus 2:14).  It is the course by which He leads us to love Him with all our heart and soul, mind and strength, as indeed He has loved us (Jer.32:41).  It is a ‘dynamic reality as well as an objective fact’ (Letham, 87).  And without participating in such a ‘dynamic reality’, we have only the most dubious of claims to salvation. 

Questions

Practically speaking, how can we grow in holiness?  What do you think hinders our progress?  And how can we overcome it?

If the first question focusses our attention on our role and responsibility in the process of sanctification, what would you God’s role in it is? 

Would you agree that there is a connection between our orientation toward sanctification and our experience of prayer?  How would you explain it to someone?  What passages from the Bible would speak to this question?   

Read Rom.8:1-13

How can Paul write of ‘no condemnation’ when he also describes so adamantly the Christian’s ongoing experience of sin (Rom.7:14-25)?  What difference does it make to us that we know we will never face condemnation?

What is ‘the Law of the Spirit who gives life’ (8:2)?  How does it differ from the ‘law of sin and death’? 

What was Jesus able to do that the Law was powerless to achieve (8:3-4)?  How does this shape your thinking about your relationship with God?

What do you think the Spirit desires (8:5)?  What does it mean to have our minds set on that?  How would a mind ‘set on what he Spirit desires [and] … governed by the Spirit’ differ from a mind set on and governed by ‘the flesh’?  Why is your mind so important here? 

What does it mean to be in the realm of the flesh?  Why can someone here not please God?  And by contrast, what does it mean to live in the realm of the Spirit (8:9-10)?  What difference does this make to how you live?

Do you feel the sense of obligation Paul refers to in 8:12?  How do you ‘put to death the misdeeds of the body’ (8:13)?

Memory Passage:

As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”  And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”  Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

II Cor.6:16-7:1

For further reflection:

Not only is it integral to our experience of salvation, but the desire for sanctification is symptomatic of genuine spiritual life and health.  The more we are conformed to the life of Christ, the more sensitive we become to the extent of our sinfulness, and the more we recoil from it, longing to be freed from it.  The deeper our intimacy with God’s holy love the more fully we will love holiness and crave likeness to Him; and the more we will strive to cleanse ourselves of anything that hinder our pursuit of Him (Heb.12:1-2).

Yet growth in likeness to God, will mean a diminishing of our likeness to our world (I Jn.2:15-17).  Such separation from the world is not an end of itself, as if holiness could be reduced to a vapid list of all the things Christians don’t do.  It is the disentangling of our relationship with sin and of the way that sin interconnects us with a world at variance with God’s goodness and vision for life.  Sanctification will mean we feel increasingly discordant with the assumptions and the ambitions of the world we live in, and estranged from the patterns and pleasures that characterise our culture.   This will set us at odds with so much that surrounds us, and as such, sanctification demands of us a sense pf priority that values it above all else.  The battle within, and without is such that only those who are genuinely captivated by the ‘beauty of holiness’, and who are willing to sacrifice all else to possess it and be possessed of it, are likely to attain it.  If our heart is set on anything else, we will find ourselves unable to surrender that (whatever it might be) for the righteousness that is our birth right, and that can be ours only through the Spirit of Christ.

Bible Study on Redemption (Eph.1:3-14)

Conversion ix / Redemption

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

                       (I Pet.1:18-19)

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

(Heb.9:12)

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

(I Tim.2:5-6)

The idea of Christ as our Redeemer is one of the most ancient in the Bible.  Job – in likely the oldest book in the Scriptures – speaks of his hope that his Redeemer will one day stand on the earth, and that when Job is resurrected he will look on Him with his own eyes (Job 19:25-27).  It is a title that seems particularly precious to Isaiah, who routinely speaks of Christ in terms of His being the Church’s Redeemer, and occasionally in a way that harks back to decisions made within the life of the Trinity, prior even to creation (e.g. Is.44:6; 44:24; 49:1-9; 63:15-17 etc.).  Isaiah isn’t the only one who hints at a ‘covenant of redemption’ forged in the eternal counsel of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (e.g. I Cor.2:7; Eph.1:4; Titus 1:2; II Tim.1:9; I Pet.1:20; also, Jn.17:1-6).  But our focus in this study is our experience of redemption.

‘Redemption’ is a rich and graphic idea that we find established throughout the Old Testament as it anticipates the work of Jesus.  The earliest model of redemption is the Exodus.  The basic structure is laid out in Ex.6:6, ‘I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment’ (see also Deut.7:8).  The mechanism through which this redemption will occur is the death of the Passover Lamb, which is the ransom price for ‘every firstborn male’ (Ex.13:1-2).  Given it’s being written into the DNA of the Ancient Church in this way, we shouldn’t be surprised that ‘redemption’ finds expression throughout the Law and culture of the people of Israel.  The ‘buying back’ of a life forfeited is a recurring theme (e.g. Ex.21:28-32).  The figure of the Kinsman-Redeemer powerfully foreshadows the coming Christ (Lev.25:47-55, famously enacted in the Book of Ruth).  Another beautiful example of redemption is found in Hosea’s buying back his bride, Gomer (Hos.3:1-3, see also Is.54:5).  Again and again we see this matrix of ideas: slavery, ransom, release, which give us the contours of our own experience of redemption.  We were in bondage to sin and Satan, and needed to be delivered.  Scripture draws out a range of aspects of that deliverance.  We are delivered from His coming wrath (I Thess.1:10); from this body of death (Rom.7:24); from the spiritual forces arrayed against us (Col.1:13; I Jn.5:19; Heb.2:14-15); from the curse of the Law (Gal.3:13, 4:5); and from sin (John 8:34; Col.1:14).  All of this is done through Christ, our Deliverer (Rom.11:26-27), and our (Kinsman-)Redeemer (Ps.19:14; Ps.78:35; Is.44:6).

All this is achieved through the paying of a Ransom (Mk.10:45; I Pet.1:18-19).  Not to sin or Satan, but paid within the life of the Trinity, by the Son through the Spirit to the Father.  Our sin is indebtedness to God, the failure to ‘pay’ a loving obedience owed to Him.  But Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us (I Cor.5:7).  That is the necessary transaction that makes forgiveness possible – see Study 3 in this series.  In the cross Christ purchased everything necessary for the deliverance of the Church, so that for us salvation might be free. 

Hence we find commercial language used of the Church.  We are those who have been bought with the blood of God (Acts.20:28).  Likewise, the grounds of worship in Rev.5:9 is that ‘you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation’.  It is also the ground of an appeal for holiness.  ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies’ (I Cor.6:19-20).  Again we read, ‘Jesus Christ, … gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:13-14, see also Gal.5:1).  Deliverance is a lived experience.  The power of sin is in principle broken in all those who are united to Jesus.  Grace paves the way for purity.  Those for whom Christ died also died in Christ, and are raised with Him (Rom.6:11-14).

Questions

To what extent do you think Christians should make observable progress toward Christ-likeness?   Does this idea of the power of sin being broken in our redemption resonate with your experience? …or do you find yourself still living as though enslaved?

Would you say you have a clear vision of what it would mean to live like Jesus?  To what extent does this idea of living like Jesus feature in your thinking about being a Christian (see e.g. II Cor.3:18; I Jn.4:17)?

How can MIE help in this?  Do you find Services and Home Groups supportive in your battle against temptation, and towards holiness?   

Read Eph.1:3-14

What does Paul means when he talks of our being blessed ‘in the heavenly realms’ and ‘with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (1:4)?  Does this sort of thing feature in your experience of being a Christian?  What would it look like if it did?  

How do you feel about the language of having been ‘chosen’ and ‘predestined’ (1:4, 5, and especially v.11)?  What do you think it means?  What would you say to someone who struggled to take on board with what the Bible teaches here?  What would they be missing out on if they decided not to believe this?

Why does Paul stress the love and grace of God when he is talking about our ‘redemption through His blood’ (1:5-8)?  How does this affect you?

How does knowing ‘the mystery of His will’ affect your thinking about life and relationships (1:9-10)?   How does our ‘redemption’ help us to be a part of that will and purpose of God?

If we already have redemption (1:7), in what sense do we still have to look forward to it (1:14)?  How do you feel about the idea that redemption means you are God’s possession (1:14)?  How is God glorified in this?  Does it inspire you to worship, as Paul seems to anticipate?

Memory Passage:

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption … the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, [will] cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!  For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

…taken from Heb.9:12-15

For further reflection:

Like other aspects of our experience of new birth, redemption has a future orientation built into it.  Exodus pictures the Lord’s redeeming of the Church as the first stage of an ongoing pilgrimage that culminates in their coming to the ‘mountain of [His] inheritance’ (Ex.15:13-17).  ‘In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling’.  We’ll see in our next study that our conversion is not, and cannot be a ‘stand-alone’ event, but that it launches us into a dynamic process of transformation that will not be complete until the Day of Resurrection.

This is why Paul speaks of our Day of Redemption as remaining – in its fullest sense – a future reality: ‘…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’ (Eph.4:30).  This focussed anticipation of resurrection features likewise in Paul’s phrase, ‘the redemption of our bodies’ (Rom.8:23).  As always Paul is following His Master, who also located the experience of redemption at the end of the Age (Lk.21:28).  This far into the series we should be anticipating the logic: If redemption is about our deliverance from sin and Satan, and our liberation for holiness, then it can only be fully realised when we are resurrected into the New Creation, when we are delivered from bodies in which sin dwells (Rom.7:21-25), and from the world that is under the control of the evil one (I Jn.5:19).  The joy that we feel in our incremental progression toward holiness will in that day be eclipsed by a life in which there is nothing to hinder our full enjoyment of, and fellowship with, God.

Bible Study on Adoption (Rom.8:12-17)

Conversion viii / Adoption

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

                       (I Jn.3:1-2)

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

(Heb.2:10-11)

He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

(Eph.1:5)

One of the most extraordinary claims of the Bible is that when we become Christians we are adopted into the family of God.   We’re so used to it that we might almost forget how breath-taking a privilege it is.   As we’ve seen several times in this series, the glory of what it means often comes into sharp relief when we consider not only what we are saved to, but also what we are saved from.  Perhaps most stark is Jesus’ own designation of the religious leaders as children of the devil (Jn.8:42-47); but only slightly less disturbing is Paul’s language in Eph.2:2-3, where in describing the Ephesians’ reality before becoming Christians, he writes literally of how they followed ‘the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh (sinful nature) and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath’ (emphasis added).  The NIV’s translation obscures the fact that Adoption is a central theme in the letter, and the familial contrast very intentional (see 1:5, 1:14, where inheritance is linked to adoption, 1:17, 2:18-19, 3:6, 3:14-15, 4:6, 4:14, 5:1, 5:8).  Against this background, the idea that we are now adopted into the family of God is staggering.

Justification speaks to the legal status we enjoy before God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness (see study 4).   Whilst Adoption also has a legal aspect, it speaks much more directly and intimately to the question of our relational acceptance on the basis of Christ’s own sonship.  On this basis God – who we can now call ‘our Father’ (Jn.20:17) – bestows on us all the privileges, blessings and responsibilities of family life.  These legal and relational undercurrents can help us to understand an important reality in our Christian experience.  The legal status of our adoption does not change, irrespective of the relational dynamics at play in any given moment.  This is the grounds of our assurance even when we ‘feel’ far from our Father for whatever reason.

One of the highest privileges of adoption is our access to God in prayer.  As we are now identified with Jesus, our Brother, we are able to come before His Father as our Father.  Jesus consistently approached God as His Father (Matt.11:25; 26:39, Jn.17:1 etc., in fact the only exception is His cry of dereliction, Matt.27:46).  We would never dare such presumption without explicit mandate from Christ.  Even then, the invitation to such intimacy threatens irreverence.   We keep our balance by remembering that He remains ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name’ (Matt.6:9).  Our Father remains our Lord.  

The Fatherhood of God is also understood by Jesus to be the context of our spiritual disciplines, and the grounds of our freedom from worry (see Matt.6); and likely of our receiving the Holy Spirit with a view to our growing more like our Brother in the family likeness (Lk.11:13; Rom.8:14; Phil.2:15).  This sense of growing to be like our Father is a key idea linked with our being children of God (Eph.5:1, I Pet.1:14-16).   It lies in the background to Heb.12:4-11, which alerts us to the fact that the love of our Father means He is not willing to leave our sin unchallenged.  As Judge, God no longer sees, or remembers our sin as something for which we need to be judged.  He ‘blots out our transgressions … and remembers our sins no more’ (Is.43:25).  But as Father, He continues to see them as something which hinders our pursuit of the ‘family-likeness’.  In Hebrews this is celebrated as confirming God’s love for us, and that liberates us so that ‘we can share in His holiness’ (II Cor.6:18-7:1).

Few other aspects of our salvation speak to our hearts and redeem our emotional life so deeply as the idea of adoption. 

Questions

If prayer is so critically linked to adoption, what does this mean for those who aren’t Christians?  Should we encourage people who aren’t Christians to pray e.g. the Lord’s Prayer?

If we are supposed to reflect the life and character of our God, should Christians be expected to adopt as part of our discipleship?

Based on this study, and from your own knowledge of the Bible, how would cast the doctrine of adoption in explicitly Trinitarian terms?  What would the benefits of doing that be? 

Read Rom.8:12-17

What does Paul mean by living ‘according to the flesh’?  Why does living like that lead to death (8:13)? 

How do you ‘put to death the misdeeds of the body (8:13)?  What is the role of the Spirit in this?  How would help a new Christian to do this?

What is the difference between ‘slavery’ and ‘sonship’ (8:14-15)?  Should people who aren’t Christians speak of God as their Father? 

Do you think it is sexist and inappropriate to speak of our adoption to ‘sonship’ in the way Paul does here (8:15)?

How does the Spirit testify with our spirit that we are God’s children (8:16)? What would it ‘feel ‘ like?  How would you experience this? 

Why is it so important?  How would you counsel a Christian who was struggling to think of themselves as part of God’s family? 

Why does Paul link our being heirs, with suffering (8:17, see also 8:18)?  What do you think we are heirs of…  what is our inheritance?

Memory Passage:

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Gal.4:4-7

For further reflection:

A key reality for us to consider in our adoption is the concept of inheritance.  We’ve already touched on it as we worked through Rom.8 (:17, see also 8:23), but it is a regular theme where the Bible speaks to the issue of our adoption (see e.g. Gal.4:5-7; Eph.1:5-14, though it isn’t limited to such passages e.g. I Pet.1:3-4; Titus 3:7).  This takes us deep into the territory of God’s Sovereignty, and of His relationship to both this Creation and the New.  His design in adoption transcends the lifespan of this passing age.  It was before the creation of this world that ‘he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ’ (Eph.1:4-5); and it isn’t until our resurrection into the New Creation that our adoption is complete (Rom.8:23, after all, we cannot fully reflect the family likeness until our bodies are redeemed).  This link with the New Creation might well explain the connection between ‘adoption’ and ‘inheritance’.

Inheritance of course is a massive deal in throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Num.34:2; Dt.1:38; Josh.1:6; Ps.16:5-6; Acts 7:5 etc.).  It is important that we don’t mix up God’s inheritance in His people, and His people’s inheritance in and from God.   It is tricky to figure out exactly what the Church’s inheritance is.  Is it, as the Levites experienced, the Lord Himself (Rev.1:6-7.  Christ is THE Heir, and we only inherit in Him, so Matt.21:38, Heb.1:2)? …or salvation (Heb.1:14)? … or as some Bible Scholars from previous generations have thought, does it include an allocation of New Creation land (hence Matt.5:5; Rom.4:13)?   Paul relentlessly talks of our inheriting the Kingdom of God (I Cor.6:9-10, 15:50; Gal.5:21; Eph.5:5; see also Jas.2:5, and following Jesus, e.g. Matt.25:34).  So it might be best to speak of our inheritance as the sum total of our entire experience of salvation, stretching into the Age to come, and that that can never perish, spoil or fade, and that we are to treasure so deeply that we will suffer and lose all if only we can grasp it (Rom.8:18; II Cor.4:17). 

Bible Study on Baptism in the Holy Spirit (I Cor.12:1-14)

Conversion vii / Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

                       (Ezek.36:25-27)

He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

(II Cor.1:21-22)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.

(I Cor.6:19-20)

The place of the Holy Spirit in our conversion and subsequent discipleship has been the topic of much debate, not to mention (tragically and ironically) the cause of much division.  The confusion is often focussed on the use and meaning of phrases such as ‘being filled with’ or ‘being baptised with / by / in’ the Holy Spirit.   Although the language of being ‘baptised in the Holy Spirit’ only occurs a handful of times in the Bible (Matt.3:11; Mk.1:8; Jn.1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16; I Cor.12:13; though the language of ‘being filled’ is more common), the question of what is being referred to is hotly contested, and differences of opinion have proven so strident that they have led to Church splits, the birth of new denominations and movements and an extraordinarily widespread and unprecedented experiment in the revision of Christian worship and spirituality.  Recent history has made us very reticent to speak of the Holy Spirit at all.

What precisely is the role of the Holy Spirit in our conversion?  And are there subsequent experience(s) of the Spirit that we should seek / anticipate post-conversion, that open to us a qualitatively different experience of discipleship or empowering for ministry?  In the passage we’ll be studying in this session, Paul teaches that baptism with / by / in the Spirit is common to all Christians (I Cor.12:13).   It is not possible to be a Christian without having received the Spirit in this way (Rom.8:9; Gal.3:2).  We receive the promised Holy Spirit when we believe, as a ‘seal … a deposit guaranteeing out inheritance’ (Eph.1:13-14, see also Rom.8:11; II Cor.1:21-22, 5:5; & likely I Thess.1:5).  In Him we receive this first, authenticating instalment of all that God has promised us in Christ.  This is what it means to be a Christian (Acts 2:38), and it is our receiving the Spirit that launches us into a relationship with God that results in our growth into Christlikeness (I Pet.1:2).  Of course, our relationship with the Holy Spirit isn’t static.  But, whilst we may experience differing degrees of intimacy, uneven patterns of growth and spiritual development, and seasons of empowering for particular tasks or ministry, the fundamental category of having received the Spirit doesn’t change.  The Heidelberg Catechism teaches us that ‘He has been given to me personally so that by true faith, He makes (i.e. causes) me to share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me and remains with me forever’ (Lord’s Day 20, emphasis added). 

As with any relationship, there may be moments of deepening, or times that are particularly rich.  But always it is His Spirit in us, progressively enabling us to act on the desires of our new heart to follow His decrees and laws (Ezek.36:25-27, notice how this answer’s David’s cry in Ps.51:10-12).  He isn’t simply the Agency of our new birth, and our union with Jesus, but He is the One on whom we depend to preserve us in our new creation states.  He provides all we need to enjoy growth into our relationship with Jesus and into His likeness.  He is constantly active in fulfilling God’s plan for us and our redemption.  As the Holy Spirit is promised to the Son to equip Him for His work of salvation, so He is promised to us - the Church - to equip us to enjoy all the benefits of that salvation (Is.59:19-21; Jn.14:16-17 & 26; 16:13-15; Eph.3:16-17 etc.  You might also want to re-visit our JCL term on the life and work of the Holy Spirit to see this explored more fully). 

The posture of the Christian life with regard to the Spirit is to be continuously being filled.  It is an ongoing, life of dependence, and exploration of all that He is and brings into our life.  This is Paul’s point in Eph.5:18 where the command to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ is addressed to the whole Church, and where the tense he renders the verb stresses this continual renewal of relationship and experience (see also e.g. Peter’s experience in Acts 4:8 & 4:31).  It is worth noting that in contrast to being ‘drunk on wine’, Paul anticipates the impact of being filled with the Spirit to stimulate self-control, and so to further and enhance unity and worship, discipleship and holiness in the life of the Church.

Questions

So what do you make of those passages that do seem to suggest a second experience of the Spirit, after conversion (e.g. Acts 8:14-16; 10:44-46; 19:4-7)?

What would say to someone who testified to experiencing a ‘second blessing’ after they had become a Christian, and who likely sees that as opening a new chapter of Christian experience, or was associated with spiritual blessing?

How have you experienced the ministry and presence of the Holy Spirit in your own life as a Christian? 

Read I Cor.12:1-14

What ‘influences’ do you think Paul has in mind when he talks about how the Corinthians had – as pagans – been led astray to dumb idols (12:2)?  Do you think such influences are still at work today in different religions and spiritualties? 

Why does Paul link the presence of the Spirit to our confession of Jesus as Lord (12:3)?  What do you think is going on at Corinth that means Paul feels he has to make this point? 

Why does the Spirit distribute ‘different kinds of gifts’ throughout the Body of Christ (12:4 & 11-14)?   How can we discern if people are using their God-given gifts for the ‘common good’ (12:6)?  How should we handle it if someone is using their gifts for more selfish ends?

Do you think the list of gifts in vv.8-10 should be the experience of every Church?  Are (some of) these gifts limited to the ministry of the Apostles?  Why / why not?   Given that unity in the midst of diversity is such a significant theme in this passage, why do you think the question of ‘gifts’ is so divisive amongst Christians? 

Why does Paul shift his imagery from ‘baptism in/by/with the Spirit’ to being ‘given one Spirit to drink’ (12:13)?

Memory Passage:

‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the Lord.  ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants – from this time on and for ever,’ says the Lord.

Is.59:20-21

For further reflection:

One of the deepest mysteries of our faith is found embedded in the doctrine of the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  ‘We were’ as Paul puts it ‘all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body’ (I Cor.12:13).  There is both the personal experience of His indwelling and equally essential is the corporate aspect of His indwelling (I Cor.3:16; Eph.2:22).  The Spirit who indwells us indwells the entire congregation of which we are a part.  Our experience of the Spirit is as essentially corporate as it is individual.  We are added to and united with the Body of Christ through the pervasive ministry of the Spirit.  This is what we mean in ‘the Grace’ when we speak of ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ (II Cor.13:14), or indeed ‘the unity of the Spirit’ (Eph.4:3).  The Spirit who unites me to Christ, and who unites my brothers and sisters to Christ, in so doing unites us to one another.  My relationship with the Church is of a piece with my relationship with Christ.  And together we are united to the Father, through the ministry of Christ (Eph.2:15-16).

The inexorability of this union and the fellowship it constrains us to is further underlined as we reflect on our union together within the life of the Trinity.  As we are each, and as we are together, united to Christ by His Spirit, we indwell Christ by His Spirit as Christ indwells us by His Spirit.  And as Christ is in His Father, so we are in Christ.  ‘On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ (Jn.14:20).  Our fellowship with each other is as profoundly unbreakable as the fellowship of the Trinity, for it is in that fellowship that we now share (II Pet.1:4).  Each loving disciple shares in the mutual indwelling of the whole Trinity through the indwelling of the Spirit, and as such shares union and communion with each and every other Christian (Jn.14:15-24).  What might our congregational life look like if we grasped this truth?

Bible Study on Regeneration (Eph.2:1-10)

Conversion vi / Regeneration

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

                       (Ezek.36:25-27)

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

(I Pet.1:23)

…if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!

(II Cor.5:17)

When we were looking at dimensions of our conversion such as reconciliation or justification we are looking at things God does to us.  He credits Christ’s righteousness to us and then vindicates us; or He deals with His hostility to us in the death of Christ and in so doing, reconciles us to Himself.  When we think of regeneration we are beginning to think more in terms of what God does in His.

The basic idea is that of ‘new creation’.  God works in us by His Spirit to recreate or change our very nature, so that we possess spiritual capacities and abilities we didn’t have before.  Through this instantaneous event God imparts spiritual life to us.  It is our new birth, our being born again / from above (Jn.3:3-5); our being born of the Spirit (Jn.3:8, with Ezek.36:25-27 lying behind Jesus’ teaching.  See also Titus 3:5-6).  In terms of our reading from Ephesians (see below), it is the moment of transition from being ‘dead in transgressions and sins’ (2:1), to being made alive in Christ (2:5, see also Col.2:13, Rom.4:17). The Bible simply states it as fact, never explaining the spiritual mechanics of how this is achieved.  The closest we get to an answer is Peter’s doxology: ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...’ (I Pet.1:3).  The new life we receive in our new birth is linked to (likely a foretaste of) the New Creation life that Jesus inaugurates in His resurrection from the dead.  Yet while the logistics remain a mystery, it affects everything we are.  The transformation is as total and as far-reaching as the difference between a stone statue and a living human being.

Jesus explains the absolute necessity of this re-birth as he instructs Nicodemus (John 3:1-8).  And in doing so He underlines too the absolute necessity and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, as ‘the sole Author and active Agent’ (Murray, 99).  We are as dependent on the Holy Spirit in our new birth as we were on our parents in the old one (Jn.1:12-13)!   Such a radical change in our nature is something utterly beyond our power to achieve.  It requires in its entirety a miraculous intervention, which seemingly occurs as we hear the ‘Good News’. 

As we hear of Christ in the Gospel, His Spirit is at work bringing us to life and recreating us through the Word of God, enabling to respond to that Gospel.  Hence I Pet.1:23-25, ‘For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God … And this is the word that was preached to you’.  The same connection is made by James: He chose to give us birth through the word of truth (1:18).  This is a powerful motivation to ensure that the message we believe and proclaim is in fact the Word of God.  We tamper with the place of the Word of God in our Church’s life and mission at our peril.

If this is fundamentally a work of God that is deeper than our conscious awareness, so that it isn’t discernible to us, how can we know if it has happened?   The Apostle John outlines for us three critical tests we can apply.  The first relates to our ability to believe in, and our desire for the Bible’s teaching about Jesus.  We find this articulated in passages such as I John 5:1, ‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…’.  The question of what we believe is not merely intellectual.  Alongside this is a relentless desire for holiness, through which the Spirit is at work to slowly change the pattern and direction of a life as we learn to overcome the pressure of the world to shape us (e.g. I Jn.2:29, 3:9, 5:3-4 etc.).  And thirdly our love for the Church (I Jn.4:7-8).  These are inevitable outworkings and evidences of the experience of regeneration.  Just as you cannot be ‘born again’ without believing in Jesus, so you cannot be born again and not be growing in holiness, or in your love for the Church.  By their fruit you will know them!

Questions

If someone said that they were a Christian, but not one of those ‘born again’ kind of Christians, what would you say?

In Jn.3, what do you think Jesus means when He talks about being born of water and the Spirit (Jn.3:5)?

As you reflect on the Apostle John’s ‘tests’ from I John, do you end up feeling more secure or less (I Jn.5:13)?  Why is that? 

Read Eph.2:1-10

As you read through Eph.2:1-3, do you think this is a fair description of people who aren’t Christians?  Do you think it is right to suggest that people don’t have any ‘natural’ ability to respond to Jesus? 

How would you explain that this is what the Bible teaches to someone who isn’t a Christian?

What do you think Paul is seeking to convey with his use of life / death language (2:5)?  In what sense are Christians alive in a way that non-Christians are not?  What difference would that make to us?

What does Paul mean when he talks about our being ‘seated … with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’ (2:6)? 

How does Paul’s teaching in this passage highlight and celebrate the love, mercy and grace of God (2:4, 7-9)?

What is Paul driving at when he says that our faith is not from ourselves, but is a gift from God?  How does this lead to humility on our part (2:9)?

How does understanding the Gospel more clearly inspire our ‘good works’ (2:10)?  How does the fact that God has already prepared those good works make you feel? 

Memory Passage:

Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

Jn.3:5-8

For further reflection:

Amongst theologians, this is one of the most contentious elements of the Bible’s teaching about what happens when we are united to Christ.  A generation ago John Murray wrote: ‘[W]e are compelled to ask the question, how can a person who is dead in transgressions and sins, whose mind is enmity against God, and who cannot do that which is pleasing to God (Rom.8:7-8), answer a call to fellowship with Christ? … and how can a person whose heart is depraved … embrace Him who is the supreme manifestation of the glory of God?’ (p.95).   It is, he suggests, a ‘moral and spiritual impossibility’.  The doctrine of Regeneration, of God’s re-creative power, is put forward as the answer to this conundrum.  This, argues Murray, ‘makes possible what would otherwise be impossible’ (so Matt.19:25-26).  It is because we are changed that we are able to respond to the Gospel.

Note the order.  Because we are born again, we are able to put our faith in Christ.  We might well have assumed it was the other way round, i.e. we put our faith in Christ and then we are born again.  This is an aspect of the Bible’s teaching that unashamedly celebrates God’s sovereign initiative in our becoming Christians (Jn.3:8). 

Paul tells us that ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil.1:6).  He is the Pioneer (Author) and Perfecter of our faith (Heb.12:2).  He initiates a process of growth and spiritual development (Sanctification) that continues until we throw off this mortal coil (Perseverance).  We’ll see in both those studies that our confidence and security rests in the fact that our salvation is, at the end of the day, God’s work, not ours.

Bible Study on Reconciliation (Rom.5:1-11)

Conversion v / Reconciliation

God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

                       (Col.1:19-20)

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

(Eph.2:15-16)

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

(Matt.5:23-24)

It is likely that this is the subject in this series that will cause the most soul-struggle and Scripture-searching.  We will have to navigate passages and themes that few of us have genuinely confronted, and which often provoke not just discomfort, but anger and grief.  This is, in part, why we study the Bible in community.  It stops us ignoring the parts of the Bible we find difficult or unpalatable, even shocking or traumatic.  And it means we can work these things through in a context in which we can be supported and loved, as we engage meaningfully with painful and destabilising aspects of the Bible’s teaching.

That may sound a very melodramatic way to open a meditation on what happens when we become a Christian.  Isn’t the question of our reconciliation with God something to be enjoyed, and celebrated?  Indeed it is, but the problem comes into focus when we push behind the end result, and ask what it is about our relationship with God prior to our becoming a Christian that means we need to be reconciled in the first place.

The language of reconciliation presupposes a prior state of alienation (Col.1:21).  The deep question concerns the nature of that alienation.  I tentatively suggest that we often imagine the state of affairs to be one of passivity: ‘we just sort of grew apart’.  We tend to accept we are alienated from God, but counter that with the idea that God still loves us, and that our relational distance from Him is rooted in lost-ness, perhaps distractedness, or simply an ignorance about who God is.  How does this measure up with what the Bible teaches?

The Bible’s teaching is altogether more powerful and graphic, emotive and specific.  Our alienation from God is active, not merely passive.  The Bible uses powerful words like enemies, hatred, rebellion and vengeance (see e.g. Deut.32:39-42; Jer.9:7-9; Is.63:10; Nah.1:2; Ps.5:4-7, 7:11-17; 11:4-7, 94:1-3; Rev.19:11-14 etc.).  It is worth reading those passages carefully and meditatively.  What is perhaps unexpected is that they speak of God as our enemy, not just of us as God’s enemies.  In other words, when the Bible speaks of reconciliation, it is two-fold.  God is reconciled to us as much as we are reconciled to God.  By virtue of our sin and rebellion, God is alienated from us as well as our being alienated from God; we had become God’s enemies and He had become our Enemy.  Of course the two are not equivalent.  God’s enmity is just and holy, ours to Him is unjust and sinful.   

Our temptation is to simply and reflexively deny that such passages mean what they seem to say.  Perhaps they are an allegory without any concrete interpretation… or poetry without any definite meaning… or a perspective on God that is simply incorrect, or inadequate, or that is to be dismissed because it ‘conflicts’ with His love.  I’m not sure any of those responses would do justice to God’s self-revelation. 

God’s love is not something that continues unaffected irrespective of our attitude to Him, and the behaviour that flows from that.  It is something that finds concrete expression in the Father’s decision to send His Son, to bear His judgement in our place, precisely so that we could be reconciled to Him, and in Christ to be loved now as those adopted into His family (Jn.3:15-16; I Jn.4:10-11).  This is how God reconciles us to Himself (II Cor.5:18, NB the Bible never speaks of humanity reconciling God to them).  The removal of God’s holy hostility and animosity toward us through Christ’s death becomes the ground of our peace with Him.  

As one theologian puts it, ‘While it is true that Christ would not have died for us if God had not loved us, it is equally true to say that God would not be to us what He is if Christ had not died.  That is to say that God could not have been reconciled to us, and could only have continued in His holy hostility toward us had Christ not died for us’ (Reymond, 650).

Questions

Do you think this is a fair representation of the Bible’s teaching?  How does it make you feel?  Why do you think you feel as you do?  How does it affect your thinking about your own conversion? …about evangelism?

How do you think this should affect how we preach the Gospel?

How do you reconcile passages that speak about God’s hatred, vengeance and His designation of sinful humanity as His enemies, with the love of God?

Read Rom.5:1-11

How does ‘justification’ (see study 4 in this series) relate to our being reconciled to God (5:1-2)?  …and how does that relate to our being saved from His wrath (5:9)?  Does it matter that we know the answer to questions like this?

How does our belief about being justified and reconciled affect our interpretation of adversity and suffering (5:3-5)? 

On the basis of this passage, what would you say to encourage someone who thought that suffering and struggle in life called into question the reality of God’s love for them?

Why does Paul talk about us as having been ‘powerless’ when Christ died for ‘the ungodly’ (5:6)?  How does this observation highlight the nature of God’s love for us, and underline how different it is from human love (5:7-8)? 

Do you agree with Paul that before we become Christians, it is right to speak of us as God’s ‘enemies’ (5:10)?  How does this observation highlight the nature of God’s love?

Why does Paul say we shall be ‘saved through His life’ (5:10)? 

Why does Paul think that the doctrine and experience of reconciliation should cause us to ‘boast in God’ (5:11)?  What would that look like?

Memory Passage:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.

II Cor.5:17-20

For further reflection:

When Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, He is not calling us to walk a path He has not trod before us.  He understands the cost.  The ‘Prince of Peace’ stands in the place of a humanity at war with God, and exhausts the reality of God’s hostility against them.  Christ’s death on the cross has not per se removed humanity’s hostility to God, but it has addressed His alienation towards us.  We had an enemy in God that needed to be slain.  In being slain, Christ slew God’s hostility.  In Christ, God took the initiative to reconcile us to Himself. Again, that is what it means to speak of God’s love (Jn.3:16; I Jn.4:9-10). 

And now He teaches us to be like Him (Matt.5:44).  We are to be those who take the costly initiative to bring about reconciliation (Matt.5:23-24).  As we were thinking when considering forgiveness, we may not be able to fully effect reconciliation, but as far as possible, this is our posture and goal (we are reconciled to one another fully only in Christ, Eph.2:14-16).  It is in this context that we are call to ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt.5:48).  Perhaps this is the most like God we can become.  This is why it is so important that we appreciate the nature of our alienation.  For then are we in a position to understand not only what God has done for us in Christ, but what we are in turn called to do for others through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and with he love and support of the Church. 

In such insight end experience lies our answer to the colossal divisions that scar human society.  Such division and alienation is rooted in sin: greed, jealousy, self-preservation, inequality, and strife.  Such can only be dealt with in the cross, and in our conversion.  Then we can offer a better way… but only in Christ.

Bible Study on Justification (Phil.3:1-14)

Conversion iv / Justification

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

                       (Rom.5:1-2)

…you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

(I Cor.6:11)

We … know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

(Gal.3:15-16)

There are so many dimensions to the radical change that takes place the moment that we are grafted into the life of Jesus (Jn.15:5).  Our relationship with everything and everyone is fundamentally transformed, in many cases utterly inverted.  Being born again (Jn.3:3) radically alters all of who and what we are, and most profoundly of all, it radically changes our relationship with God.  It affects us psychologically, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, relationally … and legally. The legal change in our standing before God is what the Bible is talking about when it uses the word justified / justification.  ‘Justification’ is the opposite of ‘condemnation’ in the Divine Court of Law.  It speaks not merely of acquittal, but of a right legal standing, a vindication, in this case: of being judged to possess a perfect human righteous.  The implications are breathtaking.  By virtue of our being united to Christ, ‘[God] constitutes the ungodly righteous, and consequently can declare them to be righteous… God cannot but accept into His favour those who have been invested with the righteousness of His own Son’ (Murray, 123-4).  In a similar vein, the mighty Dutch Reformed theologian, Bavinck wrote: ‘Of all the benefits [of our union with Christ] first place is due to justification, for by it we understand the gracious, judicial act of God, by which He acquits humans of all the guilt and punishment of sin, and confers on them the right to eternal life’. 

It is a powerful spiritual reality that takes us to the heart of one of the deepest mysteries in the Bible:  How can God justify (i.e. declare righteous) the wicked (Rom.4:5)?   How can God look on a life that is riddled with intrinsic sinfulness and declare it to be righteous, without violating His own righteousness?  If he is going to do what is right, then He ought to look at a life that is sinful and wicked and declare it to be sinful and wicked, and deal with it accordingly (Dt.25:1; Prov.17:15; Ps.11:4-7 etc.).  This is a question of God’s righteousness as much as it is ours.  How can God ‘not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities’ (Ps.103:10)?  It is the deepest problem of a fallen creation.  How does God in His wisdom, resolve that problem without causing dissonance within His own being?  How can He be gracious and righteous, forgiving and just? 

The answer is found at the cross.  God’s putting forth Christ as a sacrifice is first and foremost a demonstration of His own justice … so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom.3:26).  It is what Martin Luther describes as ‘the great exchange’ that comes about through faith.  In one direction, my sinfulness is credited, attributed, imputed to Jesus and as He takes to Himself a sinfulness that is not His own, so He takes to Himself God’s righteous condemnation of that sin.  In the other direction, His righteousness as a Man who has lived in total obedience to the Law (Gal.2:16; 3:11) is credited to my account, and on that basis God declares me to be righteous (Rom.5:17-19).  Remember that this is a legal transaction.  None of this changes my nature, or affects my spiritual condition.  I remain a sinner who is at the same time declared righteous.  You may have heard this referred to in disparaging terms as a ‘legal fiction’.  But as there is nothing fictitious about Jesus becoming sin on the cross and dying a God-forsaken death, so there is nothing fictitious about my becoming the righteousness of God and as such being vindicated by Him (II Cor.5:21).  It can feel counter-intuitive to begin with, but it is liberating, both for God and for us. The demands of obedience to the Law have been satisfied and fulfilled on my behalf by Jesus. 

This has always been the understanding of the Church, and as such, the grounds of her worship: ‘I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness’ (Is.61:10).

Questions

What would you say to a Christian who thought that they had to be a good enough person / Christian before they could be acceptable to, and accepted by, God?

Have you ever wondered if God is continuing to punish you for sins you committed in the past?  How does this study help you to think this through?

The Canons of the Council of Trent (1545-63) still stands as the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.  Canon 9: “If anyone says that by faith alone the impious is justified … let him be anathema.”  Why do you think RC-ism takes such a strident view of this?  How do you feel about it?

Read Phil.3:1-14

How is Paul’s experience and understanding of justification linked to his joy, and his expectation of the Church’s joy (3:1; 4:4)?  Does this resonate with your own experience of faith in Christ?

Why does Paul spell out his credentials in 3:4-7?

Why does Paul now consider ‘loss’ what he previously considered ‘gains’ (3:7-8)?

How would you explain Phil.3:9 to someone who wasn’t a Christian?   What objections would you anticipate to Paul’s teaching?  How would you respond?

What does it mean to know ‘the power of [Christ’s] resurrection and participation in His sufferings’?  How can we become like Christ in His death, so as to attain to the resurrection from the dead (3:10-11)?  Would you say you shared Paul’s spiritual ambition here?

How does Paul’s thinking about what Christ has done inspire him to ‘press on towards the goal’ (3:12-14)?  What is ‘the prize’ Paul refers to in v.14?  do you share Paul’s attitude of ‘straining’?  Why / Why not?

Memory Passage:

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

Rom.3:22-25

For further reflection:

While the doctrine of ‘justification’ is under siege in today’s Church, it remains ‘the very hinge and pillar of Christianity’ (Thomas Watson).  An error here is like a faulty foundation undermining the integrity of the whole building.  The Church simply cannot stand without it.   As such it finds its place in the CofE’s basis of faith: We are accounted righteous before God solely on the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, through faith, and not on account of our own good works, or of what we deserve. The teaching that we are justified by faith alone is a most wholesome and comforting doctrine…’ (Art.11, see also the Homily on Salvation.  Also Heidelberg Cat. Qu.59-64; Westminster Confession, Ch.11). 

This doctrine inspires evangelism and world mission (Rom.10:6-15); breeds humility (Rom.3:27); establishes equality throughout the life of the Church, so that there is no room for a sense of superiority or inferiority (Rom.3:29).  It teaches us how to interpret our experience of suffering (Rom.5:1-5). It motivates and makes possible our pursuit of holiness, and our fulfilling of the Law (Rom.3:31 & 13:9).  But that is a subject for a future study.

We finish this study recognising that the doctrine of Justification is the grounds of our spiritual confidence before God.  If my sense of acceptability before God is based on my own ‘goodness’, or how I think I’m doing as a Christian, then awareness of sin and failure will cripple any sense of assurance.  Once I realise that my standing before God is on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, then my confidence is unshakable (Rom.8:1 & 33).  As John Newton wrote: ‘This heap of inconsistency and instability found his hope outside himself in the Christ who love and holiness are perfect’.   

Bible Study on Forgiveness (I Jn. 1:5-2:2)

Conversion iii / Forgiveness

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

                       (Eph.4:32-5:2)

Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me.  Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.

(Ps.86:4-8)

Forgiveness is absolutely central and foundational to our conversion and discipleship.  The Apostle John writes to ‘dear children’, the youngest of Christians ‘because your sins have been forgiven on account of His Name’ (I Jn.2:12).  But what is ‘forgiveness’?  And almost as important: What is it not?  If we answer either (or both) of these questions inaccurately, we will find ourselves struggling to understand our experience of God, and disoriented in our own attempts to forgive others.  Forgiveness is altogether far more profound than we tend to imagine.  When we realise that the cost of forgiveness – at any level – is the death of Christ we may begin to appreciate that the mechanics of forgiveness is more complex than an apology and a ‘Don’t worry about it’ (or worse, a shrug and a ‘There’s nothing to forgive’). 

What does it mean to speak of God’s forgiveness of us?  It is the cancelling of the moral debt that is incurred by our sin, or better: it is His bearing the cost of that sin.  We owe love to God and to one another, and failure to love both God and neighbour puts us in debt to both (it’s interesting how often the idea of debt / cancelling debt is used to convey the reality of sin and forgiveness, e.g. Matt.6:12; 18:21-35 etc.).  This concept of forgiveness is built into the worship of the ancient Church with festivals such as the Year of Jubilee   It is axiomatic that such sin cannot simply be discounted without violating the justice of God.  Rather, it is imputed / credited to Christ who pays our debt on the cross (Ps.32:2; I Tim.2:6; I Pet.1:18-19).  This ‘legal’ and moral transaction, is the only foundation on which the relational dynamic of forgiveness can be built (Heb.9:22; Ps.49, esp.vv7-8 & 15).  God’s commitment to us in forgiving us is that He will not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities (see Ps.103:10).  He will not allow our history of sin to shape how He relates to us.  That will be shaped rather by our being united now with Christ.  We can immediately see that this is not a passive thing, nor is it the simply ignoring of our sin, letting us get away with it, or a kind of spiritual ‘sweeping it under the carpet’.  It is a costly and deliberate choice by God, made possible by the cross that allows God to relate to us differently.  He agrees to pay our debt.

In the Bible, this is captured in the language of ‘remembrance’.  God speaks of remembering the covenant (i.e. His dealing with us in Christ, so e.g. Jer.14:20-21), and conversely of not remembering our sin (e.g. Is.43:25; Jer.31:34).  This is not merely a ‘forgive and forget’, as if that were even possible; it is rather that conscious decision to not remember them so that they will not be used against us, and won’t affect our ‘standing’ before Him.  He chooses to relate to us on the basis of Christ, rather than our sin.  It might be helpful to distinguish between God relating to us as Judge (in which He doesn’t remember our sins to condemn us, but forgives us once-for-all); and as Father (in which He does remember our sins, forgiving us on an ongoing basis, and disciplining us and training us into Christlikeness).  Indeed, when Jesus is speaking about our ongoing experience of forgiveness it is always in the context of God as Father (see e.g. Matt.6:9-15; Mk.11:25; Lk.6:36-37).  We’ll revisit this in our later study on Justification.

Forgiveness is not an end in itself.  It is a means to reconciliation, and the restoration of fellowship.  This is true in terms of our relationship with God in Christ, and it is true of our relationships with one another in Christ.  It is not often understood that forgiveness – properly understood – is a uniquely Christian experience, which cannot extend beyond the borders of the Church (see, For Further Reflection).  This clarity enables us to make an important distinction, and one that will help us capture a vision for our congregations as communities of grace.  We often talk of churches as ‘places of acceptance’.  Everyone, we think, should be accepted (as they are?).  Rooting forgiveness in the dynamic of the cross helps us to keep balance here.  Churches accept people on the same basis as Christ does: repentance and faith, and this links grace and forgiveness to holiness.  Churches are forgiving communities, but they aren’t condoning ones. 

Questions

What do you mean when you say ‘I forgive you’?

Read Lk.17:3-6.  What is the first step in the process of forgiveness?  What does this preclude?  What if you are the offender?

Can you forgive someone who hasn’t repented?  How do you know someone has repented sincerely?  Is it sincere repentance if an offense is repeated (seven times!)?  What is the difference between ‘repentance’ and an apology?

What about Lk.23:34 & Acts 7:60?  Does this contradict Jesus’ teaching in Lk.17:3-4?  Does God forgive without repentance?

What if you don’t feel like forgiving them?  Or what if you feel that you can’t forgive them?

Read I John 1:5-2:2

How does John’s description of God inspire your own desire for ‘light’ throughout your life (1:5)?  How does that manifest itself?

What does John mean by ‘walk in the light’ (1:7)? …and conversely ‘walk in the darkness (1:6)?

How can John be so optimistic about our progress in righteousness, when our experience of ongoing sin is so debilitating (see 1:7;1:9; 2:1)?

What does it mean to confess our sin (1:9)?  Should we confess our sins publicly (Jas.5:16)?  Why do you think we include corporate confession so regularly in services of Christian worship? 

Why does John link God’s forgiving us our sins with (a) His faithfulness, and (b) His Justice (1:9)? 

If Christ’s death is sufficient for the sins of the whole world, why is everyone not forgiven (see 2:2)?

Memory Passage:

Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.  Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.  Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.  All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Ps.25:6-11 

For further reflection:

Once we have appreciated the inextricable connection between the cross and forgiveness we are in a position understand that those who are not Christians cannot –properly speaking - be forgiven (…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Heb.9:22).  We may already realise that in terms of their relationship with God, but it is also true in their relationship with other people, including us.  This sounds counter-intuitive…  after all, aren’t we supposed to forgive everyone?   The short answer is ‘No’.  To put it bluntly, not even God forgives everyone!  Why do we try and set for ourselves a higher bar than God meets?  Yes, there are several commands in the Scriptures to forgive, such as Col.3:13, ‘…forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you’.  But even here there is a hint of the necessary limits of forgiveness.  First, Paul’s injunction is written to Christians in the context of their relationships to one another within the life of the church.  And secondly, he qualifies it: ‘…as the Lord forgave you’.  We’ve already seen that even within the life of the Church forgiveness requires repentance as a precondition. 

The reason is simple. I cannot forgive someone whom God has not forgiven (the two aspects of sin and forgiveness are deeply intertwined). If sin (moral debt) isn’t cleared at the cross, then there cannot be forgiveness either from God or from us. We can do a lot: adopt a posture of willingness; live with their ‘debt’; pray for them to be forgiven; refuse to take revenge; refuse to get caught here and defined by their sin against me; repay evil with good. But I cannot forgive.Paul recognises that forgiveness might not always be possible (Rom.12:18), and so should we.

Bible Study on Baptism (I Pet.3:18-22)

Conversion ii / Baptism

… you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

                       (I Cor.6:11)

In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

(Col.2:11-12)

Over the years at MIE I’ve preached, spoken and written several times about why infant baptism is entirely Biblical, why sprinkling is at least as valid a form of baptism as immersion (if not actually more so, Biblically speaking) and why our baptisms aren’t somehow made more valid if I have previously confessed faith in Jesus, or perhaps already been a Christian for several years (this in spite of oft repeated claims to the contrary from certain sectors of the Church).  Rather than rehearse the arguments for ‘who?’ and ‘how?’ again here, I want to focus more on the question of ‘what?’.  We tend to be so engrossed in the former two questions that we often forget to ask the third except at the most superficial levels. 

The imagery of baptism is not limited to the idea of ‘washing’ or ‘cleansing’ (though it certainly includes this as we’ll see later, though also Acts 22:16, I Cor.6:11, and likely a poetic parallel in Acts 16:33).  It embraces our inclusion in the Church (I Cor.12:12-13); our ‘ordination’ into the priesthood of all believers (Heb.10:19-22, with all its evangelistic connotations, Rom.15:16); new birth (Jn.3:5); the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Matt.3:16, Acts 1:5, I Cor.12:13); judgement (Mk.10:39, Matt.3:11); unity (Eph.4:3-4) to name but a few.  But underpinning them all and making them all valid is the deeper reality pointed to: identification with, or better, union with Christ.  Baptism signifies, exhibits and proclaims the truth that at regeneration we are engrafted ‘into’ Christ, and through Him into the other members of the Godhead (thus Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48 are not at odds with the fully Trinitarian ‘Name’ of Matt.28:19).

What this means in real term is that a relationship is forged and established with the One into whom we are baptised that is so profoundly intimate that it becomes our defining identity (hence Gal.3:27-28, ‘…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’).  It defines our history, our present and our future.

When we become Christians, we aren’t simply ‘let off’ our sin.  Baptism gives us a profound insight in to the mechanics of salvation.  We are united with Christ in His judgement, in His death (Rom.6:3), in His burial, and thus in His judgement.  The point is not that we ‘escape’ judgement for sin, but that in Christ we have already been judged, and having passed through that experience, we are now anticipating a (bodily) ‘resurrection like His’ (Rom.6:5).  As Paul goes on to explain, because we have already (spiritually) died we are no longer under the power or the condemnation of the Law.  This is the basis of his later appeals for assurance and holiness in the Epistle to the Romans.  We have died to sin and so variously we are no longer slaves to it, but are freed from it, and cannot continue to live in it any longer!  We are to remind ourselves (and each other) of this colossal reality, and to think of ourselves constantly in these terms (Rom.6:11).  Paul is not espousing some form of ‘positive thinking’, or advocating that if we think it we become it.  Rather he is reminding us of the truths conveyed in our baptism!  This is the reality of who and what we are.  We are reminded of this every timed we see a baptism in Church, or every time we remember we are baptised.

It was this awareness of the import of baptism that led Martin Luther, when he was aware he was being tempted, to carve into his desk ‘Baptizatus sum’ (Latin, I am baptized).  Note that this is in the present tense, it is an ongoing state of being, not merely a historical event.  He repeatedly counselled his congregation in a similar vein: ‘The only way to drive away the Devil is through faith in Christ, by saying: ‘I have been baptized, I am a Christian’’.  It was also Luther who captured the sense of union with Jesus: ‘For that purpose Christ instituted holy baptism, thereby to clothe you with his righteousness. It is tantamount to his saying, My righteousness shall be your righteousness; my innocence, your innocence. Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life’.

Questions

Why do you think the crossing of the Red Sea in the Exodus was seen as a baptism (I Cor.10:2)?  Can you think of other baptisms in the OT?

Why do you think John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptised, and why does Jesus insist He must be (see Matt.3:13-17)?

How important do you think Baptism really is?  Is it possible to be a Christian without being baptised?  What would you say to someone who said they were a Christian, but had never been baptised?

Read I Peter 3:18-22

What is going on in I Peter 3:19-20?!?  Who do you think Jesus preaches to? 

How does the water of the flood symbolise baptism (v.21)?

Does Baptism always mean what Peter says it means (v.21)?  What happens if someone is isn’t a Christian, or who doesn’t become one, is baptised?

Why is a ‘clear conscience towards God’ so important (v.21)?  Do you think this is an experience that should be enjoyed by every Christian? 

What does it mean to say that ‘It (i.e. the water of baptism) saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (v.21)?

Why does Peter now introduce the Ascension of Christ, and His rule over ‘angels, authorities and powers’ (v.22)?  What has that got to do with baptism?

How does Peter’s teaching on baptism lay the groundwork for his teaching on a godly attitude to suffering (3:13-18 & 4:1-2)? …and for living ‘for the will of God’, rather than ‘evil human desires’ (4:2)?

Memory Passage:

[W]hen the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:4-7

For further reflection:

The living God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, or to use the language of the creed, ‘of all things, seen and unseen’.  We have a propensity to forget this, and to relegate our faith to the ‘spiritual’ realm.  There is something about sacraments that help us to remember that the physical and spiritual (better: seen and unseen) aspects of creation belong together, and that the Spirit doesn’t bypass the ‘physical’ in His work, but embraces it and works through it.  He uses tangible, external elements to teach us and spiritually nourish us.

He teaches us to take certain physical actions seriously because when they are met with faith, they become, by the Spirit, the arena of the Church’s encounter with Jesus.  Those physical actions are ordained in the life of the Church by Jesus.  Augustine said there were countless ‘sacraments’ in that all aspects of the physical world function – at least potentially – to exhibit the truth about Jesus.  But in the unique context of corporate Christian worship, we restrict ourselves to those commanded by Christ, and by them life, meaning and truth are conveyed to us.   We are understandably sceptical about those who see nothing but earthly things and who assume they have total significance, but there is an equal danger in treating earthly things as if they had no significance at all.

But as we celebrate sacraments in the life of the Church we are given a much more sophisticated vision for the truly Spiritual nature of the physical.We hear a whisper of how the seen and unseen aspects of creation will be re-integrated in the renewal of all things (Matt.19:28).What we do with physicality matters.It is as much a part of our reality – present and future – as the spiritual dimensions.

Bible Study on Repentance (II Cor.7:8-13)

…do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

                       (Rom.2:4)

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.  I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

(Acts 20:20-21)

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle, the first thesis read: Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ … willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance’.  It’s strange that something previous generations of Christians considered so all-defining finds so little traction amongst us.  The image of a preacher calling for repentance is reserved for the eccentric, street corner, self-proclaimed prophet.  And our caricature of such a ‘prophet’ is likely deranged, and certainly loveless.  For us ‘repentance’ sounds faintly medieval; it feels like a bitter after-taste of days when the Church lost balance and fell into narrow-minded legalism, and moralistic judgmentalism.  Thankfully we’re past all that now …right? 

And yet even the most cursory reading of the Bible – or even just the NT – is enough for us to realise that repentance remains absolutely core to the Christian faith.  It is the first word of Jesus’ public teaching (Matt.4:17), and it is amongst His last (Lk.24:46-47), and it is central to the preaching of the Apostles (see e.g. Acts 2:38; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20).  Throughout both Old and New Testaments, repentance is seen to be a crucial aspect of what it means become a disciple of Jesus.  It is the word that describes a turning from sin to God.  It is the exercise of faith, or at least it is part of the same dynamic as faith.  Some scholars distinguish faith (turning to God) from repentance (turning from sin).  Others make that point that turning to God is turning from sin (I Thess.1:9-10).  Either way, it is intrinsic to the act of becoming a Christian, and as such is embedded in the liturgy of baptism, (Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour?  I repent of them).

Over the years, Bible teachers have worked hard to capture the different elements of authentic repentance, seeking to distinguish it from superficial counterfeit experiences.  It is possible to be sorrowful for (the consequences of) sin, or to regret a course of action, without that constituting repentance.  King Saul’s tears (I Sam.24:16), are not indicative of genuine repentance, and neither are Esau’s, or Judas’ (Heb.12:16-17; Matt.27:1-5).  As one old preacher put it: a stony heart can be broken into a thousand pieces, and each piece remain a stone.  In the somewhat archaic language of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, true repentance is rather: ‘… a saving grace (Acts 11:18) whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of their sin (Acts 2:37-38) and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ (Joel 2:13) doth, with grief and hatred of their sin, turn from it unto God (Jer.31:18-19) with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience (Ps.119:59)’.

More contemporary theologians speak of: a changed way of thinking (that leads to): heartfelt sorrow and shame for sin (including our self-righteousness and Christless morality, Phil.3:7-9), taking responsibility for sin, confession, renouncing sin, looking to God for forgiveness in Christ, commitment to forsake sin and to walk instead in obedience to Christ, making restitution for sin where possible.  It is something that affects every aspect of our being.  Our vision of reality disintegrates, as our perspective on everything changes.

Importantly, repentance remains central to our experience of being a Christian throughout life.   The old Scottish preacher, Thomas Boston (1676-1732) wrote: ‘the heart is first smitten with repentance for sin at the soul’s first conversion to God, and the wound still bleeds, and is never bound up to bleed no more until the band of glory be put about it in heaven’.  We repent of sin for as long as sin remains part of our experience.  This not a qualitatively different experience, but a maturing and intensifying of what we experience when we first become Christians.  As our awareness of our sin deepens, so too does our repentance.  As our love for God grows, and our desire to be like Him in every respect matures, so does our repentance.  As our appreciation of grace develops, so does our repentance.  Such is the way of Christian discipleship from start to finish.  Our life is a turning away from sin and a re-turning to God.

Questions

Why do you think that God doesn’t remove sin from us as soon as we become Christians?

Does an emphasis on repentance threaten our sense of self-worth and self-esteem?  …or our sense of being loved and valued by God? Why / why not?

Do you think repentance is genuine if you again commit the sin that you have repented of?

Read II Cor.7:8-13

How do you feel about Paul’s willingness to rebuke the Corinthian Church (v.8)?  Do you think this is an example that pastors should follow today? …or was it something that only Apostles should think about doing?

Do you think that repentance is essential to becoming and living as a Christian?  Is repentance always accompanied by ‘sorrow’ (v.9)?

Can you share your own experience of repentance?  Does it match the description of repentance listed here?  Do you think it should? How has repentance lead to a change in the way you live? 

How would you describe the difference between ‘worldly sorrow’ and ‘godly sorrow’ (v.10)?  Why do you think ‘worldly sorrow brings death’?

Why are the Corinthians experiencing the range of emotions and objectives laid out in v.11?  Do you think this is a healthy spirituality?

Is Paul being manipulative in seeking to expose how devoted the Corinthians are to him and those associated with him (v.12)?

Memory Passage:

Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live … Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.  Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.  Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Is.55:3 & 6-7

For further reflection:

How do we (in partnership with the Spirit) go about cultivating a spirit of repentance?  Perhaps we have never thought of repentance as such a critical aspect of Christian experience?  Or perhaps the constituent facets of repentance have faded over the years so that they are no longer prominent?  Or maybe our misunderstanding of grace, or our presumption has meant that we have never really understood the necessity for it.  Whatever the reason for its neglect, how do we (re-)ignite a passion for this lost art? 

We might think that in the call to ongoing repentance, we are being invited to a severe introspection, that we should focus in on ourselves and on our sin.  Perhaps we think that we must dwell on the self-destructiveness of sin, or the prospect of death and judgement.  In fact, it is often not our anticipation of judgement, so much as it is our longing for the holy purity of the New Creation.  It is often not anxiety about God’s anger at sin, but the appreciation of His love and grace.  It is often not a fear of alienation, but a longing for greater intimacy with our God that leads to contrition and repentance. 

And far from repentance being a severe or crushing experience, born out of a crippling sense of the austerity of God, it is born out of our passionate love for God and our desire for Him and for all that He is for us in Christ.  Genuine grief over sin flows from genuine pleasure in knowing God, and contrition comes from realising that our sin prevents us from knowing Him more fully and being like Him more completely.  Only when we are truly captivated by the beauty of holiness will we hate the ugliness of sin.  It is after all, His grace that ‘teaches us to say No to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly live in this present age’ (Titus 2:11-12).