Sept 7 Chapter 1 The Righteousness of Christ
Sept 14 Chapter 2 The Motivation of the Gospel
Sept 21 Chapter 3 Gospel Enemy #1: Self-righteousness
Sept 28 Chapter 4 Gospel Enemy #2: Persistent Guilt
Oct 12 Chapter 5 Leaning on the First Bookend
Oct 19 Chapter 6 The Power of the Holy Spirit
Oct 26 Chapter 7 Dependent Responsibility
Nov 2 Chapter 8 The Help of the Divine Encourager
Nov 9 Chapter 9 Gospel Enemy #3: Self-reliance
Nov 16 Chapter 10 Leaning on the Second Bookend
September 7 - Chapter 1 The Righteousness of Christ
Scripture: Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
Summary: Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life. He never sinned and he always obeyed fully and perfectly, in spite of being confronted with the most intense temptation. The epitome of his obedience was his willing sacrifice on the cross, in which he endured separation from his Father. Jesus endured the cross to take the guilt and punishment for our sin, so that we could be forgiven and credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ. That is justification. Once we are justified, God always sees us to be as righteous as Christ himself.
The righteousness of Christ is the first bookend of the Christian life. But sometimes we don’t live as though we have this bookend in place; instead, we act as though we have to earn God’s blessings by our obedience—or we think we’ve forfeited God’s blessings by our failure to live a good life. Both those attitudes are wrong; instead, we must continually, by faith, renounce any trust in our own performance as the basis of our acceptance before God, and we must rely entirely on the righteousness of Christ as the basis of our standing before God.
Discussion: Faith involves both a renunciation and a reliance. In terms of the first bookend, what kind of renunciation is required of us? (p. 28, paragraphs 1-2)
What does it look like when we stand in the present reality of our justification every day? What difference will it make in our day-to-day, moment-to-moment lives? (p. 27-30)
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