Small Group, Grace

23 November, 2013

Reading:
Chapter 4 of Max Lucado’s book Grace, More Than We Deserve, Chapters 2 in both Boice Books, the Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace and  Doctrine of Grace, Chapter 4 of Galatians and Psalm 38.

In Galatians 4, Paul tells the Galician church that they have forgotten the gospel message. He points to the path of the law which is slavery and death and the path of Jesus’ atoning death and following reconciliation to God. He further states the first path leads to isolation and sectarianism and the second path leads to joy, freedom and abundant public presence.
He illustrates his argument with Sarah’s history contrasted to Hagar’s; that one’s sons inherit the kingdom while one’s sons inherit desolation.
Paul here uses Scripture to illustrate his point about grace, that we are saved not by our own works or by a combination of works righteousness and Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, but by the full efficacy of Jesus’ death on the cross. That His sacrifice frees us from the bondage of the law and the death of sin. Jesus’ sacrifice cancels our debt in full without additional credit or remaining balance.
In Psalm 38, David knows the depth of his sin in separation from God. He grieves his unholy state and seeks forgiveness and reconciliation.
Lucado speaks of grace perfectly sufficient to our needs. He says we may rest in Jesus, no longer grieving separation from God, because through Jesus we are again reconciled.
Boice speaks passionately for the church and against the culture that chips away at the need for Jesus and the truth of our sin. In The Gospel of Grace, Chapter 2, he establishes the patterns of this age: secularism, humanism, relativism, materialism, pragmatism, and mindlessness. He defines each of these and then illustrates how these cultural segues have infected the church. Finally he implores us to use our minds, to think through our faith.
In the Doctrines of Grace, Boice discusses the history of Calvinism as it relates to the rise and fall of the church. He Speaks of Calvin’s Geneva, the Puritans in England, the Great Awakening in America, and ends his illustrations with Kuyper in Holland in the late 1800's.
Boice moves from these illustrations to a discussion of Calvinism falling to cultural weakening and eventually to liberalism and an understanding of faith that is neither faithful or grace-filled. He ends the chapter with a discussion of the present evangelical crisis, pleading with the church to restore sound Biblical teaching and concomitant doctrine from which freely flow evangelicalism.
Thank you for reading. See you soon. The internet is down, no doubt due to ice. I will post this when I am able.
Blessings BEV