Study 11 of 13 on Christ and His Law
“Want to get varying sets of perspective….leave your ministry to your apostles. Yes, there was a consistent gospel that was preached…but there was also disagreement that created some factioning. Even today…we have those who want to stick to ways that seem so 1800s and others that want to move….well….some place…..But all of this study about law leads us back to the beginning….For God so loved the world…if we forget that love is the basis of God’s law…if we continue to name call on message boards and insist our ways are better than their ways…we…the myriad sides of the debates…forge our own ways away from God’s way of love…love for even those we disagree with. Lawlessness…especially on message boards…even cloaked in anonymity…is a sure sign that sin is banging on our collective souls.”—Falvo Fowler
Scriptural Basis: John 15:1–11; Acts 10:9–14; Rom. 3:31; 6:15; Heb. 3:7–19; James 2:1–26; Jude 5–7.
Key Text: “The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12, NKJV).
1. Is righteousness just the absence of sin, or is it something more? Explain.
2. What, according to John, has always been the essence of the law? Why? (See 2 John 6.)
3. Why can’t we claim to keep God’s commandments if we don’t demonstrate practical acts of love?
4. How do James’ and Paul’s writings help us to avoid the two false extremes that people can go to concerning the law?
5. How can a Christian strive to serve the law of God with a free conscience and not be plagued by guilt?
6. How do our lives provide the context for what we are trying to preach?
