Video EBlast for Sunday, June 17, 2018

Back to the Basics: Justification

This week, while you meet with your Faith Formation Group you may want to reflect on the sermon using the following Scripture and questions as a way to begin a conversation.  

Read Galatians 2:15-21

Gal. 2:15    “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. ¹⁶ Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”

Gal. 2:17    But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸ Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. ¹⁹ For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. ²⁰ My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

To begin to apply this passage to our present-day lives we have to first understand that Paul is writing this letter to first-century Jewish Christians. The people of Galatia were steeped in the doctrines and practices of their Jewish upbringing. While they are not at all like most of us, 21st century Christians, we can relate to their struggle to break with the beliefs and foundations of their early faith. As you reread the passage above and as you work through the questions that follow, ask yourselves what you carry into your current place of life from your formation as a Christian or your formation of life.

• In verse 17 Paul gets to the heart of the struggle for these Jewish Christians––can they leave behind their dependence on the Law to live into the fullness of salvation through Jesus Christ alone? Think about and share some of the things from your past that you have interpreted as fundamental to your salvation. Do these things keep you from fully committing to the Lordship of Christ? Do you feel guilty/worried that you might leave behind some things that you have interpreted as fundamental? 

• Paul contends in verse 16 that our salvation comes not from the Law (or you can add anything that you may have inserted from the last question) but from faith in Jesus Christ alone. What does it mean for you to fully accept the idea of faith through nothing other than the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone? What do you have to give up to fully live into this reality?

• Scot McKnight, an authority on the New Testament, asks the following questions from this passage, “We need to examine if we are letting the gospel of God’s grace have its full implications in our life. Are we shunting off the gospel racially? Are we preventing other racial groups from enjoying God’s grace? Are we discriminating against other cultures or other social groups? Are we building walls between the sexes? Or are we allowing the full message of the gospel to have its complete force?” At the heart of McKnight’s questions is the call to not force my foundations of faith on any other people. Take some time to react to his questions and discuss them in your group. 

• Ultimately Paul is calling the Galatian Christians to a life of full surrender to Christ (literally he tells them that his life has been “crucified with Christ”) and he is telling them that this is what it takes to be saved. How can we fully surrender our lives to Christ today? What does it mean for you to be “crucified with Christ”? How can we encourage each other to live at this level of faith?

As you meet this week, we encourage you to also take time to open yourselves up as a group and dialog on the following Wesley Challenge question:  Do I thank God that I am not like others? (Pages 95-98 in The Wesley Challenge)