October 12 Chapter 5 Leaning on the First Bookend

Scripture:  Luke 19:10  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Summary:   The righteousness of Christ is all-sufficient for believers; it cannot be lost. But too often we tend to depend on something or someone else. Whenever we find ourselves depending on anything other than the righteousness of Christ, we must consciously shift our dependence back where it belongs. Three focal points will help us to do this:  1) seeing ourselves as desperately lost sinners, 2) seeing the righteousness of Christ as all-sufficient for us daily, and 3) seeing and rejecting our functional saviors. Functional saviors are anything that we depend on and turn to for our sense of security and significance. As we learn to identify and reject earthly things that we value too highly—things that we treat as more important to us than Christ—we grow in joy, love for God, and dependence on the righteousness of Christ alone.

Discussion:  Read all of page 68 and the first half of page 69. In what ways does the list help you “see” Focal Point #1?

Read the first paragraph on page 70 and think about specific areas you desperately need the righteousness of Christ to substitute for your sin and failure. Is his righteousness sufficient for even that? How does this realization make you feel toward him?