Ephesians 3
Feb/100
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%203&version=NIV
Location: Jeannie’s house
Q: What does the administration of God’s grace mean?
The administration of grace is Paul’s calling (task) to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.
v3: mystery made known to me by revelation - God spoke directly to Paul - not from others or from his own intelligence.
Paul is under house arrest for having taken an Ephesian (”Trophimus”) into the temple area which was out of bounds for the Gentiles. Paul was probably on notice already for preaching to the Gentiles at all.
sidenote: if Paul had a direct revelation to preach to the Gentiles, then why did Peter have an argument with them? (tabled))
v9: the mystery was kept hidden - why? God would reveal it in His perfect time. Wasn’t there even a prophecy? Reena’s Bible points to Rom 15:9-12 which points to Isaiah 11:10 that refers to ‘nations’ (implying the more than just the nation of Israel).
v10 talks about how God’s intent was that this mystery (unity of Jews & Gentiles) be revealed through the church (the Jews & the Gentiles being one body together with Christ as the head).
The Believers Bible Commentary has a metaphor of a classroom where God is teaching the angels and we (the church) are the object lesson.
v14-19 is a prayer for the church.
Notice:
- how wide/high/deep/long is Christ’s love for us
wide: the whole world
long: eternity to eternity
high: raise ALL men to heaven
deep: enough to rescue people from sin
- power through his spirit, power to grasp Christ’s love, it’s HIS power at work in us
(contrast “power” with Tower of Babel story)
February 1, 2010: Ephesians 2:11-22
Feb/100
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:11-22&version=NIV
Location: Jeannie’s house.
Eph 2:11: “Therefore” … therefore what?
Eph 2:1-10 is basically a summary of Romans. (law, sin, grace-salvation). Reena’s Bible explained that with the word “therefore” Paul is moving from a discussion of individual salvation to a group-based discussion - salvation of a people (the Gentiles).
v14 refers to a barrier - Teena read an explanation that referred to an actual wall that separated the citizens of a place from foreigners. So, Paul is describing how there is now NO difference between Jews and Gentiles - Christ reconciled both. He “utterly destroyed the wall of hostility” between the two groups.
v15 - “abolishing the law” ?? Christ abolished the resentment caused by the law, abolished the separation … he made the law ineffective. (cf Matt 3:17 where Jesus says he did NOT come to abolish the law…)
In Matt 3:17: he uses 2907 [2647] katalu/w, katalyoœ, v. [2848 + 3395]. (tr.) throw down, abolish, destroy; (intr.) to be a guest, rest, find lodging
In Eph 2:15 Paul uses 2934 [2673] katarge÷w, katargeoœ, v. [2848 + 1.1 + 2240]. to nullify, abolish, make ineffective; (pass.) cease, pass away
So, here Paul isn’t contradicting Jesus. The law is not destroyed but it is made ineffective - Christ took away the effects of the law (resentment, separation) … it is no longer sufficient for our salvation. (Implied is that only Christ’s grace is sufficient for our salvation).
He points this out because now the Jews (the law followers) are on equal footing with the Gentiles (the uncircumcised) because both need to satisfy the same criteria: saved by grace through faith, not by works.
Also in v15 + v16: Paul talks about “one new man out of two” … this continues to be a commentary on the unity of the church - “one new man” is talking about how both the Jews and Gentiles form a single body.
Question: Paul is talking about the unity of the Jews & Gentiles. Can we extrapolate that to today - where churches divide for all kinds of reasons? For example - consider that churches (denominations?) have different views on baptism and whether or not it is essential for salvation. Is Paul saying here that we should NOT be divided on these issues, but that all those who are united in their faith in Jesus should be united, period? (I think so…)
September 3rd 2009 Screwtape Session
Sep/090
And we are back, apparently know one else knows how to blog Screwtape Sessions, sorry about that for those of you who keep in touch with the blog
Romans 8: 1-7
Guilt and the consequences it has on us, is guilt necessary for us humans to know that we have done wrong (Guilt).
But the outcome of guilt can be Satan using that guilt to get you depressed and away from God.
Regret about your wrongs after the fact you have repented is that wrong/right ? should we still feel regret about what we did, if God has forgiven us and wiped our slate clean. Regret does not mean remembering what your wrongs are and feeling bad about it.
Verses 5-7
Our state of mind and how it should be aimed or focused on what the Spirit desires. ( Romans 6:6-8, Eph 4: 22-24, Col 3:3-15)
August 13, 2009 - Romans 6
Aug/090
- Summarize Romans 5:12 - 21.
Talked about how Adam’s sin through disobedience was the reason death came into the world. Because of the one man’s sin, death reigned….
Question: If we are dead to sin, if we are new creations, but we still sin, and there are certain things that we do out of habit that cant’ stop - why do we still feel in bondage?
Ans: Every being created/born is born in sin or in other words the “flesh”. When man becomes “Christian” or in Christ he has the Spirit introduced to him. But being human, his flesh remains, and in the man, a battle wages on between the “Spirit” and the “Flesh”. The Spirit will always have power over Flesh because we are in Christ and death no longer has dominion over Christ. In other words, being in Christ grants one the privilege of eternal life as the Flesh has lost the battle to the Spirit in Christ. (JITHIN’s theory) As to why we feel that we remain in bondage to sin is probably because the flesh has to us, seemed to be winning the raging battle within ourselves. Of course, Satan’s greatest tool is deception and this feeling of being in bondage is probably him deceiving us. However, as Paul points out, being in Christ does not mean that we cannot become in bondage to sin. The battle between the flesh and the Spirit is just that, a battle and while we remain in sin, the flesh prevails, but at the same time does not at any point, overpower the Spirit as the Spirit has already won the battle.
Question: Do we have freewill in heaven?
Answer(possibly): There is a passage that says that angels stepped down from heaven and married earthly women - this could only have been possible if they had free will, right?
Romans 6:17
Does Jesus sacrifice mean nothing because if you chose to obey teachings even before we were in Grace, that came as a result of his sacrifice for us?
COMMENT: God deserves our highest form of love - more than our father, mother, sister, friend because (Cello said this :D) he loved us so much that he was willing to sacrifice his son so that we may be saved.
July 24th 2009 Screwtape meets JTAchen
Jul/090
Open prayer session
Critical Encounter- ‘Come Follow Me’ Luke 5:1-11 after reading a thought - God is about to unfold His plan of action and this is how He does it, simply in Galilee, Jesus was not interested in going to the metropolitan areas, in the most ordinary place in the world , the Saviour of the world
Jesus, approached 2 fishermen, not anyone who was in power, or anyone influential.
Even though Peter slips, and Peter is know to put his ‘foot in his mouth’ throughout the gospels, even though he had direct contact with the voice of God it was not a silent whisper, even then he slipped when he denies Jesus. Still Jesus never gave up on him.
example from Princess Diana’s story, on the day of her marriage, she winked at Prince Charles, and Queen Elizabeth have her a look the next days headlines were “The Look Said it All”, the look says it all, Jesus gave him only one look and Peter being a tough strong fisherman broke down like a child, the look says it all.
Instance where the woman with the illness touches the hem of Jesus’ robe, she was a lonely soul all she heard was Jesus was passing by. All she could do is touch the hem of His garment, and Jesus stopped and said ’somebody touched me’ the people were surprised and Jesus was not about the crowd, He wasn’t concerned about the crowd He was only concerned with the person who he felt touch Him, not about who she was not her background or any of those things.
Making a difference, the person behind the name is what matters, what are we doing as Christians today in the world, are we making a difference, with our languages, and our living, are we living off the world ? The Critical Encounter…. !!
The things we do, and how we act in the world , reflect on who we are ?
Through the critical encounter, unusual actions occur, all it takes is obedience from us to God’s voice.
July 9th 2009 Screwtape Session
Jul/090
Romans 4
Vs 1-5: Faith is the key, for God’s approval, not works, that does not mean that works should not be done. Paul just addresses that works alone will not do. He also builds upon what the Jews already believed, that their beliefs before accepting Jesus Christ is not discounted, but that their faith in God in the past was approved by God.
Vs 6-8: Righteousness in works is not what God looks at, or sees as faith. Doing good works for the sake of getting into heaven does not guarantee your passage. But your faith in God makes you righteous in God’s eyes.
Defining Faith: loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person & complete confidence in a person or plan
Being perfect is only through Jesus.
Vs 9-25 Talks about the promise given to Abraham and then ties it all up at the end about the Faith that we have in Jesus, common factor = Faith
July 2nd 2009 Screwtape Session
Jul/090
Tabled Topics discussion
Evil for the Greater good
-on moral grounds, if the doing of wrong, for a good moral stand is right, (side discussion on what bible version should we trust etc)
-is Good and Bad || Right and Wrong
-God is good, it is by His moral standards that we are judged, or justified.
-Law of Society and Law of Faith, You follow Law of Faith which leads to obeying Law of Society because OUR law of faith demands that from us. (Luke 23:2)
-Going back to Rohits orginal scenario: Hijacker takes over plane, takes a baby as a hostage, if you try to do anything to stop the hijacker, baby dies, and you have the opportunity to save everyone on the plane, if you dont act, everyone in the plane eventually dies, no matter what. So is your action based on the greater good. so PRAYER would be an ACTION, to ask God, and then an action could or would present itself.
No resolution as expected !!
Nature vs Nurture which is more important length or width of a rectangle.
Salvation? is Christianity and believing in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us.
Table Table Topics
-Abortion
-Response to Prayer ?
-Absolute Truth (Anne Frank analogy)
-Islam, other Religion Vs Christianity
July 2, 2009: General discussion, Grace’s house
Jun/090
Hello my screwtape friends… I have missed you!
The good news is Thursday is just around the corner. This week we meet at Grace’s house for a very special edition of screwtape. We’re going to pause our study of Romans to catch up on some of the “tabled topics” that have come up over the last several weeks.
We will start with the list on the site: http://marthomayouth.com/screwtape-blog/tabled-topics/
- Nature Vs Nurture (the internal moral compass, the Law)
- Sacraments
- Holy Communion
- Circumcision
- Evil for the greater good
then go through any additional topics that we forgot to list in our notes… and then, if we have time, open up for general discussion.
Please take some time before Thursday to gather some thoughts, verses, etc and pray about these topics so we can have a productive discussion.
See you then!!
June 25th Screwtape Session
Jun/090
Romans Chapter 3 : 9-31
- Romans 3:9-18: Skimmed through, no one had any issues, we all agreed that no one is righteous
- Romans 3:19-20: Absence of sin does not make you righteous - When you know about the law, you are conscious of sin, so by following the law then you can be free of sin, but Paul says no one will be declared sinless/righteous, if the law is followed .Thus absence of sin does not make you righteous. Refer to Jithin’s Questions:
- Romans 3:21: God has given us an avenue to be righteous apart from the Law, that is through Faith in Jesus Christ (Basis of Christian Faith)
- Romans 3:22-24: Justified? –> Being Declared not guilty ex: When a judge gives the ruling of acquittal, he is freeing you of your crime. So, legally it is as if there was no crime committed. Similarly God through Jesus Christ justifies us, if we accept Jesus as Saviour then all our sins are washed away and God looks at us as though we have never sinned. Thus through Jesus Christ God has acquitted us.
- Romans 3:25-26: If God left sins unpunished, what happened to the people during Noah’s time, and Sodom and Gomorrah etc discussion about Purgatory came up and what happens to those people pre Jesus Christ. But through JC time is not a factor.
- Romans 3:27-28: For we maintain that man was justified by faith apart from observing the law. Why does God save us by faith alone
- Faith eliminates the pride of human effort because faith is not a human deed
- Faith exalts what God has done, and not humans
- Through Faith we are asking for help, admitting that we cannot observe the law
- Faith is based on a relationship with God as opposed to performance for God.
- Romans 3:31 - Do we nullify the law by this faith?……We uphold the law - Paul is asking what a Jewish critic would ask ” Does faith wipe out Judaism, cancel our Scriptures, end our customs? If we are saved by faith, does that mean we no longer need to obey God’s laws?” Paul answers - no!!! In fact, only when we trust Jesus can we fulfill righteous requirements of the law. The law is not something that only the Jews can “do” for gOD; the law is for both the Jews and Gentiles and can only be “done” through faith in Christ. Faith returns the law to its proper place and role in God’s plan for people. Faith does not wipe out the Old Testament; rather, it makes God’s dealings with the Jewish people understandable.
Jithin’s QUESTION:
Table Topic
- Evil for the Greater Good
June 18th Screwtape Session
Jun/091
Pre-Discussion (follow up from the previous week)
Recap of Chapter 2
- Circumcision
- Baptisim
- Going through the ceremonies of Christianity does not make you a Christian at heart
Romans Chapter 3: 1-8
- Vs:1,2 Paul questions the importance of circumcision, goes on to say that it is because the Jews were the first ones to receive the revelation and the convenant
- Discussion Topic, why the Jews had to get circumcised in the OT? Because, of God’s covenant with Abraham!
- VS: 3, 4 God’s Faithfulness and how its unfailing.
- Vs 5-8 God’s judging, and human perception that when man sins, it shows God’s righteousness(this is human thought). God judges by his character, not by any other standard.