Here is the link to this week's study:

http://www.ssnet.org/qrtrly/eng/06b/less11nkjv.html

Feel free to discuss this week's study in this topic.

Wednesday
The Restoration: Part 1

Yesterday, we saw that despite our desperate situation, God did not leave us without hope. On the contrary, we have been given great hope through Jesus Christ, who has paved the way for each of us to return to what we would have been before the Fall.

And the process begins now. The gospel isn't just salvation; it isn't just a change in our legal status before God. The gospel is also restoration. We were originally made in the image of God; the plan of salvation is the process to bring us back to that state. This isn't just something that will happen at the Second Coming: It's a process that begins now. The Holy Spirit is working in us to restore in us what has been lost through sin.

Read 2 Peter 1:2-8. How do these verses, particularly the part where Peter talks about being "partakers of the divine nature;' help us understand the work of restoration that is going on in us right now? How do these verses relate to Genesis 1:26, 27?


Imagine what your life would be like if you more and more reflected the character of Jesus. What immediate changes would take place, particularly in your relationship with others, were you to start reflecting that character?

I want to backtrack to Sunday's study and ask the question there, namely that "Genesis 1:26, 27 says that God created man and woman in His own image. What does that mean, being created in the image of God?"

The text below gives one answer:

Quote:

---

1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

---

Being created in the image of God means having the capacity to love.

Could it also be said that Hate is opposite to being created in the image of God?

Tuesday lesson.

Last evening at Sabbath opening, my daughter ask me a question which is quite difficult to answer.

The same I read in this Tuesday lesson: Think about what it means to have a "second probation." Were you ever given a second chance at something?

What is this 2nd chance all about?

That Christ came to redeem man from his sin or that Christ came to be our sin redeemer to save us?

Is Christ redemption on the cross to redeem men from his sins or to redeem the sins of men in order to save them? This is exactly the question of my daughter, which I hope I didn’t give a wrong answer.

In His love

James S

Adam & Eve at creation were given a period of probation, the first chance, to show themselves obedient to the will of God, which is really the reason for the one and only tree that they were told not to eat from.

They failed.

Then the Plan of Salvation went into effect, giving man a second chance, a second period of probation, based on the fact that Christ secured that second chance for us by doing as the second Adam what the first Adam failed to do.

We are now still in that second chance of probation, also known as the period of God's grace, by which we are saved per Eph. 2:8-9.

Christ redeemed man from the consequences of his sins: that is , save us from eternal death which results from sin.

The second probation is by God's grace to live for Christ rather than oneself - righteously and not sinfully. That Jesus saves us from death also means he can save us from sinning since his righteousness changes us and empowers us to do righteously.