Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
Summary: This chapter presents three examples of people who were profoundly motivated by the gospel: the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet, the prophet Isaiah, and the apostle Paul. Each of these people had a powerful experience in their relationship to God, and their experiences had three elements in common with each other: 1) an acute awareness of their sinfulness and God's holiness, 2) an understanding and assurance that their sins were forgiven through Jesus' death on the cross, and 3) gratitude, love and commitment to God. All believers should respond in the same way to the mercies of God, with deep gratitude and lives of committed service to God. We should remind ourselves daily of the love and grace God has poured out on us, so that our gratitude and love for God grows, and does not diminish.
Discussion: None of us loves Christ the way he deserves to be loved. Discuss the two reasons for this identified in the first paragraph on page 34.
What were the three steps common to both Isaiah's experience and that of the sinful woman of Luke 7? (36, paragraph 2) When you think of the last paragraph in the section on Isaiah (37, paragraph 1), what can you do to grow in your experience of the motivating power of the gospel?
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