1. Earning our salvation? Do you ever encounter Christians who honestly believe that we earn our way to heaven? If that is not your belief, how  do you explain the importance of obeying God’s commands if we want to join Him in heaven? Our lesson guide places the text from Ephesians (2:8-10) at the top of the lesson guide for the week. What fundamental teaching is clearly presented in these verses telling us exactly how we are saved? If you were writing that text today, would you at least think about saying, “By our works we show the world that we are saved”? Or would you think about saying, “Works don’t matter. Just believe”? Or do you have a better way of explaining how we become more like Jesus as we accept His plan for us?  
2. “For God so loved…” Interesting, isn’t it? that the word “kosmos” translated “world” from the Greek, includes much more than God’s created human beings. The world God loves goes beyond us humans and includes everything He created in nature. Birds, fish, animals of the jungle, butterflies and so much more are part of God’s world that is promising to restore to a perfect existence. Amazing, too, that God loves mean-spirited people and people who are grumpy or too sick and weak to enjoy life as His followers and friends. From sunny skies to rain-blessed gardens and so much more, He is the Creator of all that lives, including us, and the author and designer of everything that makes our “kosmos” so full of evidence that He is the Master of the sun and the stars as well as our Savior and Friend. 
3.  Compassion and repentance. Our good works help us earn heavenly points that qualify us for everlasting life. Is that true? Those who do plenty of helpful and good things are going to make it to heaven. Isn’t that true, too? If good works don’t earn our salvation, what’s the point of trying to live an unselfish and helpful life? It’s hard for many of us to think of the Christ, our eternal Friend and Savior, being battered and bruised and accused of horrible sinful deeds and then crucified on the cruel cross. Can our helpfulness and love to those around us help us handle the sadness we feel deep inside as we contemplate the sacrifice of Jesus for us?
4. Our common humanity. Our lesson uses the term, “radical inclusiveness” to describe God’s chosen people. What does that mean? How radical are you and I willing to be in our pursuit of the gospel commission in these tumultuous times? Or do you consider these times to be tumultous? Our lesson guide places a verbal halo around the theme of the Good Samaritan. How does that story illustrate for you and me people in the common element of humanity we are privileged to serve? Are you ready to put on your hiking shoes or lay out a supply of postage stamps or in some other way ready yourself to encounter people along life’s busy way who could be drawn closer to Jesus by your friendship and ministry to them?
5. The everlasting gospel.  Judgment. Worship. Creation. These three subjects are presented as themes highlighting the gospel message we have been invited to share with those around us.  Today we learn of horrible persecution of God’s followers around the world. We see evidence on every corner of life of hardship and suffering. We hear about circumstances changing for the worse in so many ways. But we hold on to the “everlasting gospel,” don’t we? God gives us a message of hope, and we rally to share that message wherever and however we can. Let’s carry on as friends of Christ and friends of others in Christ.

Amen!(0)

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Key Thought: God’s love in the life and sacrifice of Jesus offers us forgiveness, life, and hope. This gospel moves us to serve others especially those in need.

September 7, 2019

1. Have a volunteer read Romans 8:20-23.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does the whole creation groan under the bondage of corruption?
3. Personal Application: How should our attitude towards others and their circumstances be when we recognize them as being created and loved by God? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “I think that some people think that by helping others that they are gaining merit with God and that they are better than others.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 2:8-10.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. Do these verses show us a relationship between faith and works, or do they show a division between faith and works?
3. Personal Application: What works do you think God has ordained you to walk in? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “We are saved by grace, not by good works. So we shouldn’t be trying to do good; that’s works. All we have to do is have faith in God.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Luke 19:41,42.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What moved Jesus to compassion in these verses?
3. Personal Application: How can we have more compassion that is softened to the pain around us? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “I don’t think that we need to look very far to find pain and sorrow and disobedience. I think we can find it in our own lives, our own homes, our own neighborhoods. I think we might be part of the problem. The question is, how do we become part of the solution?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 14:6,7.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. What aspects of the gospel are found in the first angel’s message?
3. Personal Application: How can we find ways of ministering to those in need while also sharing with them the warning found in the three angel’s messages? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

Amen!(0)

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Summarize Ephesians 2:8-10 in your own words. What do these verses tell us about the relationship between grace and good works?

The Bible tells us that among other things, we were created to worship God and to serve others. Only in our imagination can we try to understand what these acts would be like in a sinless environment.

Grace

For now, because of sin, we know only a broken and fallen world. Fortunately for us, God’s grace, expressed and enacted in Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the world, opens the way for forgiveness and healing. Thus, even amid athis broken existence our lives become more fully God’s workmanship, and God uses us to partner with Him to seek to heal and restore the damage and hurt in the lives of others (see Eph. 2:10). “Those who receive are to impart to others. From every direction are coming calls for help. God calls upon men to minister gladly to their fellow men”. – Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 103.

Again, we do not do good works—care for the poor, lift up the oppressed, feed the hungry—in order to earn salvation or standing with God. In Christ, by faith, we have all the standing with God we will ever need. Rather, we recognize ourselves as both sinners and victims of sin who are, nonetheless, loved and redeemed by God. While we still battle with temptations to self-centeredness and greed, the self-sacrificing and humble grace of God offers a new kind of life and love that will transform our lives.

When we look at the Cross, we see the great and complete sacrifice done for us and realize that we can add nothing to what it offers us in Christ. But this does not mean that we shouldn’t do something in response to what we have been given in Christ. On the contrary, we must respond, and what better way to respond to the love that has been shown us than by showing love to others?

Read 1 John 3:16-17. How do these verses so powerfully capture what our response to the cross should be?

Amen!(2)

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The intermingled stories of salvation and the great controversy call us to acknowledge a truth about life that is foundational for our understanding of our world and ourselves, and that is: we and our world are fallen, broken, and sinful. Our world is not what it was created to be, and though we still bear the image of the God who created us, we are part of the world’s brokenness.

Compassion

The sin in our lives is of the same nature as the evil that causes so much pain, oppression, and exploitation all over the world.

Thus, it is right for us to feel the hurt, discomfort, sorrow, and tragedy of the world and of the lives around us. We would have to be robots not to feel the pain of life here. The laments in the book of Psalms, the sorrows of Jeremiah and the other prophets, and the tears and compassion of Jesus demonstrate the appropriateness of this kind of response to the world and its evil, and particularly to those who are so often hurt by that evil.

Read Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14, Luke 19:41-42, and John 11:35. What was it in each of these verses that moved Jesus with compassion? How can we have a heart that is softened to the pain around us?

We also need to remember that sin and evil are not just “out there”, or the result of someone else’s brokenness: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, NIV). In the understanding of the biblical prophets, sin was a tragedy not primarily because someone had broken “the rules”, but because sin has broken the relationship between God and His people, and also because our sin hurts other people. This may take place on a small or large scale, but it is the same evil.

Selfishness, greed, meanness, prejudice, ignorance, and carelessness are at the root of all the world’s evil, injustice, poverty, and oppression. And confessing our sinfulness is a first step in addressing this evil, as well as a first step toward allowing the love of God to take its rightful place in our hearts: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NIV).

Amen!(0)

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John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world … ” (NIV)—and the original Greek word is kosmos, meaning “the world as a created, organized entity”. – The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 929. This verse is about salvation for humanity, but the plan of salvation has implications for the whole of creation too.

Read Romans 8:20-23. What does this teach about the broader issues in the plan of salvation?

Image © Kevin Carden from GoodSalt.com

Of course, on one level, salvation is about each one of us in our personal relationship with the Lord. But there’s more. Justification is really not just about getting our sins forgiven. Ideally, it should also be about how, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord creates the family of God, who celebrate their forgiveness and assurance of salvation by, among other things, being witnesses to the world through their good works.

Read John 3:16-17. How does verse 17 contribute to a broader understanding of verse 16?

We can accept that God loves people other than just ourselves. He loves those we love, and we rejoice in that. He also loves those we reach out to, and our recognition of this truth is often our motivation for our own reaching out to them. But He also loves those whom we are uncomfortable with, or even afraid of. God loves all people, everywhere, even those whom we might not particularly like.

Creation is one way we see this demonstrated. The Bible consistently points to the world around us as evidence of God’s goodness: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45, NIV). Even life itself is a gift from God, and regardless of the individual’s response or attitude to God, every person is a recipient of that gift.

Amen!(0)

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