- What has most stuck with you from Sunday?
- What was your impression of the word “holiness”?
- What challenged your previous way of thinking?
(from Sunday)
- Leviticus – aimed at former slaves coming out of Egypt
- Israelite people set apart – didn’t even know it
- Holiness: Set apart for a special function
- Don’t act like a slave anymore
- Everything we do reflects our position & view of God
- We are distinct from God but walking statues of God – represent Him, like a billboard, movie trailer
- What else is holy: 7th day, dirt, Israelites – look the same but set apart
- Profane = outside the temple
- Gravitational pull of slavery pulling us outside the temple
- Holiness is not the goal but the pathway
- Will our identity be marked by our outward appearance, or behavior, our image management, or will we actually believe what God says about us – will be embrace the life he has for us and take on his identity?
- The opposite of holiness is not unholiness or immorality, but slavery
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New International Version)
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Justification: God gives us right legal standing before him
Sanctification: A progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.
Justification
- Legal standing
- Once and for all time
- Entirely God’s work
- Perfect in this life
- The same in all Christians
- Internal condition
- Continuous throughout life
- We cooperate
- Not perfect in this life
- Greater in some than in others
- Leviticus 18:1-5
- Leviticus 22:31-33
- Ezekiel 37:21-28
- Ephesians 4:11-24
- Romans 12
- John 8:31-36
- Romans 6
- What motivates you to live a “good” life?
- In what ways do people become “slaves to sin,” and how can a person escape this bondage?
- What does it mean to be “dead to sin?”
- If Christians are “dead to sin” why do they still sin?
- What pattern of sin should we observe throughout the life of a Christian?
- What does it mean to practice the teaching in v 11-13?
- What’s the result of slavery to sin?
- What is the benefit of slavery to God and its result?
- What are the obstacles to embracing freedom?
- How do you feel about being a slave to God? Consider the 1 Corinthians verse above.
- What is the appeal of life (or parts of life) lived "outside the temple" (profanely, or Pro Fanus)
- Why is this often easier to see in others than in the self?
- What changes of thought are required going forward?
- What changes of behavior/attitude seem necessary at this point?
- What does discipleship, or real, Biblical sainthood, cost?
- What does the opposite (slavery) cost?
- In what ways are our hands “equally skilled?” God’s hands?
Reflect
- What decisions are individuals making based on Christ's invitation for exodus from that which enslaves?
How miserable I am
I feel like a fruit-picker who arrived here
After the harvest
There's nothing here at all
Nothing at all here that could placate my hunger
The godly people are all gone
There's not one honest soul left alive
Here on the planet
We're all murderers and thieves
Setting traps here for even our brothers
And both of our hands are equally skilled
At doing evil, equally skilled
At bribing the judges, equally skilled
At perverting justice
Both of our hands
Both of our hands
The day of justice comes
And is even now swiftly arriving
Don't trust anyone at all
Not your best friend or even your wife
For the son hates the father
The daughter despises even her mother
Look, your enemies arrive
Right in the room of your very household
And both of their hands are equally skilled
At doing evil, equally skilled
At bribing the judges, equally skilled
At perverting justice
Both of their hands
Both of their hands
No, don't gloat over me
Though I fall, though I fall
I will rise again
Though I sit here in darkness
The Lord, the Lord alone
He will be my light
I will be patient as the Lord
Punishes me for the wrongs I've done
Against Him
After that, He'll take my case
Bringing me to light and the justice
For all I have suffered
And both of His hands
Are equally skilled
At ruining evil, equally skilled
At judging the judges, equally skilled
Administering justice
Both of His hands
Both of His hands
Are equally skilled
At showing me mercy, equally skilled
At loving the loveless, equally skilled
Administering justice
Both of His hands
Both of His hands
Bibliography
- "Serendipity Study Bible for Groups"
- “Life Application Study Bible, NIV”
- Grudem, Systematic Theology.
- Crosspointe Life Group Leaders notes
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