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Here is the link to this week's Sabbath School Lesson Study and Discussion Material: Click Here
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Re: Lesson #7 (4th Quarter 2011): The Road to Faith
[Re: Colin]
#137480
11/13/11 02:06 AM
11/13/11 02:06 AM
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A pastor I know personally posted this in Facebook: I just studied this week's lesson and I want to throw a thought out there. This week's lesson was obviously about the importance of the law of God. Coming from an SDA position the author obviously wants to make sure that the law is defended. Now I believe the law is still in force but I have a couple issues with a few things. I felt the lesson spent too much time trying to prove the law's permanence. It is a point that must be made but I think our people need to hear more about the promise of Christ and its fullness. I believe that the freedom in Christ from the law and its condemnation needs to take a more central role. Also, there is a subtle form of legalism that says I am forgiven and justified in Jesus but now as a believer it is my duty to keep the law out of love and loyalty. Sounds good but Paul totally dismisses this, especially in Romans in 6-8. It is only 'in Jesus' that I can obey. Life in the Spirit which lesson 12 gets into must be screamed out to us. We need Jesus' justifying grace and his sanctifying grace. I cannot as a born again believer look at the law and keep it. The new birth deals with my attitude and will toward God in my mind. But the power to obey my newly converted mind is not present. Hence the struggle spoken of in Romans 7. His mind is right with God (new birth) but his body (the housing of his sinful nature) is warring against it. Paul in despair cries out that there is only one answer in Romans 7:24, 25, Jesus. In Romans 8 he begins with another role of the Spirit (Jesus' earthly Representative) to bring life into our mortal bodies. I must have Jesus within. It is God that works in to will and to do in us to obey. Furthermore, the goal of the Christian life is not obedience but rather to know God. Paul tells us in Colossians that the mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory. God wants to restore and remake us for sure but being in a trusting, living union of grace with Him is the goal not to get us to simply obey. For many years as an SDA I have heard our duty to obey, obey, obey and little or no mention of the freedom I have in Jesus. Jesus has me on every level! I can simply rest in Him for everything. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that every spiritual blessing is already mine in Christ. I do not have to wonder about my security. God has retold my story, I have a new reality in Christ. I am forgiven, new, righteous, holy, redeemed, loved, empowered, the Spirit...etc in Christ. The question is 'who's version of reality am I going to believe, God's or Satan's? The flesh, Satan, the world all try to tell me another story I can see but God is telling another story I can't see but believe. I am under grace, which can only believe. To be under law, which can only be do. If my focus is do I am not believing the right story. So under grace, being in Jesus is more about knowing who I am in Him. Study the word knowledge in the NT and look how it is used. Knowing Jesus, is knowing who I really am now. And here is the climax, as I understand who I really am in Jesus it affects the way I live. Paul in his letter was always trying to get people to see themselves differently, in Christ and then would urge in light of their new identity how to live. If I am in Christ in the heavenly realms then live from that vantage and put to death the things of the earth. Live as you are in Christ. All his letter are like this. If you want this really brought out read Ephesians and Colossians especially. Sorry its long but we need to focus more on who we are in Jesus rather than how to live! What do you think of whst he posted? Do you agree, disagree, or what>
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Re: Lesson #7 (4th Quarter 2011): The Road to Faith
[Re: Daryl]
#137505
11/14/11 07:46 PM
11/14/11 07:46 PM
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First of all, paragraphs would be nice.  I felt the lesson spent too much time trying to prove the law's permanence. It is a point that must be made but I think our people need to hear more about the promise of Christ and its fullness. I think the law is part of "the promise of Christ and its fullness." The law is not merely a list of commands to be obeyed. It can, and should, be seen as a description of what Jesus promises to mold us into. I believe that the freedom in Christ from the law and its condemnation needs to take a more central role. I don't like the idea of freedom "from the law," as if the law was something to shun. Rather, we are freed from sin, and enabled to obey the law. (Though there are caveats.) Also, there is a subtle form of legalism that says I am forgiven and justified in Jesus but now as a believer it is my duty to keep the law out of love and loyalty. Sounds good but Paul totally dismisses this, especially in Romans in 6-8. "Aaawwww! I have to love God and my neighbor?!? Bummer!" That's the attitude I'm sensing here regarding the law. Our "duty" to obey the law is akin to our "duty" to kiss our wives when we get home. It's not a duty as much as it is a privilege. If one sees it merely as a duty, I would suggest that such a one has no idea what, or Who, the Gospel is. It is only 'in Jesus' that I can obey. ... We need Jesus' justifying grace and his sanctifying grace. This is true. I cannot as a born again believer look at the law and keep it. The new birth deals with my attitude and will toward God in my mind. But the power to obey my newly converted mind is not present. This is partially true. The new birth changes the mind, but in me, that is, in my flesh, the power to obey is not present. However, there is also in me the New Man, Christ Jesus. He has power to obey. His mind is right with God (new birth) but his body (the housing of his sinful nature) is warring against it. The body, which he calls "the housing of his sinful nature," is not a significant concern. The body will follow the commands given to it. The only question is, which will give the commands, the New Man or the Old Man? If the Old Man has been crucified, and we are to reckon it dead, those of us who understand the State of the Dead know better than to listen to it. Paul in despair cries out that there is only one answer in Romans 7:24, 25, Jesus. Yes, Jesus is the answer. But His answer is not that we are to be left languishing in bondage to our trespasses and sins. He came to set the captives free. That's it for now. More later.
By God's grace,
Arnold
There is no excuse for any one in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation. RH 12/20/1892
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