1. What are the consequences of the first man’s sin (v 12)? 2. What difference does it make whether or not people know God’s commands (v 13-14)? 3. In what way was Adam “a pattern” of Jesus (v14)? 4. What words are used (in the whole passage) to describe the one thing Adam did, and the one thing Jesus did? 5. How does Paul signal (in the whole passage) that the grace of Jesus is stronger than the sin of Adam? 6. How does the one thing Jesus did affect all Christians? 7. In verse 17, who or what are the two alternative rulers of the world? 8. How did God’s law make things worse (v20)? 9. In what ways do we feel the pain of a world under death? 10. The Bible teaches that all this pain is the result of being in a world under sin. How do our responses to pain and death often ignore this, and how can we help one another to respond in a way that takes account of needing rescue from sin? 11. How is it different to say, “I sometimes commit sins” from saying, “I am a sinner”? Why is the latter so much deeper and more serious? 12. Why do we find it hard to believe that Jesus’ one act of obedience can change us from sinners to righteous? Why would our pride prefer this change to be done in some other way? 13. What difference does this teaching about a new humanity make to the way we treat one another in a church? 14. How does overflowing grace change the way we think about those outside of the church?
1. Romans 4 tells us that Abraham believed God and his belief was credited to him as righteousness. How would you describe the concept of credited righteousness? 2. What kind of belief did Abraham have? What did it take for Abraham to believe in God’s promises? Was this an easy belief in God’s promises or was it a deep belief that entailed actions? If so, what were those actions? 3. Can you think of recent ways that you have acted in faith when it was hard? Are you being called to do so right now? 4. Martin Luther coined the term “simul justus et peccator” (simultaneously sinful and righteous). How is this possible? 5. David’s sin left him to throw himself on God’s mercy. There was no sacrifice for what he had done so David cries out to God in remorse and repentance in Psalm 51:16 - “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” What does this teach us about how we too should repent? What confidence does this give us in God’s forgiveness?
1. When was the last time you worked on your resume? What kind of things do you include on it? Experiences, character etc. 2. Being declared righteous is not just having your slate wiped clean but it’s also like being given the medal of military valour. What are your thoughts about that? How does that make you feel? How does that change the way you approach God? Is that a new realization for you? 3. Have you ever found yourself in seemingly insurmountable debt? Have you ever been “redeemed” from a debt by another person? Have you ever paid off a massive debt? If you answered yes to any of those scenarios, how did you feel once the debt was gone? 4. In Christ, your debt has been paid, through shed blood the wrath of God turned away from you and on to Jesus. When you accept that sacrifice God now looks at you and sees you as he sees his very own Son. What does that do to your heart? What does that do to your boasting? 5. This week we learned that forgiveness is a form of suffering. Have you ever suffered in order to offer forgiveness? How does this provide you with a deeper appreciation for Christ’s work on the cross and God’s sending of His only Son?
1. This week we looked at the fact that sin is literally “missing the mark”, a term borrowed from archery. Have you heard this before? What do you think of the statement that Pastor Jeremy made that said “it’s not the failure to shoot a good and productive shot but rather that the aim was off from the beginning.” How does this correlate to the sin in our lives? 2. We talked about repentance a few weeks ago but it came up again this week with a wider description. Repentance was spoken of as not only an acknowledgement of doing bad things or a failure of doing right things; but also repenting of the reason why we did anything right. What do you think the difference is? Why are both necessary for true repentance to take place? 3. How do you respond to the truth that God sought you out before you sought Him out? 4. A portion of time was given to the teaching that a proper fear of God is essential in the cure for sin. What does the fear of God mean to you? How has your understanding of the fear of God changed over time? See Deuteronomy 10:12, Psalm 119:38, Psalm 34:1-9
1. Talk about a time when you felt judged; wrongly or rightly. 2. Has the judgment of God been something that has brought you fear, anxiety, hope or confusion? 3. What are the sins that you are tempted to excuse in yourself while condemning them in others? 4. What difference does truly finding rest, hope and honor in God alone make in someone's life, do you think? Verses 6-11 5. Verse 15 speaks of how our conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse us. We are not able to come up with any sort of consistent law to be judged by or to judge others by. Have you ever changed your belief about something? Something you thought was wrong but now believe is right or something you thought was right but now believe is wrong? What does this tell us about God’s judgement and how we are ultimately made right? 6. At some point this week, read through the short paper on repentance by Timothy Keller and the prayer of repentance by George Whitefield. Pray accordingly. (link found on the website). All of Life is Repentanceby Tim Keller
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