Week 4 - FROM ENEMY TO FAMILY
CONNECT
What are you thankful for?
What challenge are you facing?
Have there been any answers to prayer?
Pray for each other.
Did anything stand out to you from last week’s follow-up Bible readings?
How did your “I will …” statement from last week go?
How did your sharing goal from last week go?
How’s your memory work coming along?
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV-1984)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!
DISCOVER
Let’s start with a review.
FROM ADAM TO CHRIST - Union with Christ
We were born into Adam. This means that whatever was true of Adam was true of us. But by grace through faith, we have been born again into Christ. This means that whatever is true of Jesus is now true of us. Therefore, we are no longer characterized by Adam’s sin and death but by Christ’s righteousness and life.
FROM DEATH TO LIFE - Regeneration
We were dead in Adam, but now we are alive in Christ. Because we share in Jesus’ resurrected life, we already have eternal life here and now. From our new birth, new heart and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can stop living for ourselves and start living for Jesus.
FROM GUILTY TO INNOCENT - Justification
On our own, we are guilty sinners, who have rebelled against God’s authority and broken God’s law. We stand condemned and deserve death. Jesus, however, took personal responsibility for both our obedience to God’s law and our disobedience of God’s law. He did this by living the life we should have and dying the death we would have. Now through faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, when God looks at us He sees His Son. And because Jesus is righteous, God sees us as righteous. God has acquitted us of our guilt and declared us innocent in Christ.
And now …
FROM ENEMY TO FAMILY - Reconciliation and Adoption
Ask God to speak to you as you read His Word.
Romans 5:1-11 (NET)
1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. 3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Have someone retell the passage in their own words.
What stands out to you in this passage?
What does this passage say about God (The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit)?
What does this passage say about people, including ourselves?
What does this passage say about the life God invites us to live?
Digging Deeper
We Were God’s Enemies
Romans 5:10 (NET)
For if while we were enemies …
Colossians 1:21 (NLT)
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
Why were we God’s enemies?
How has your life expressed hostility toward God?
Romans 2:5-6 (NIV)
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
Why is wrath an appropriate reaction by God to His sinful, rebellious enemies?
We Are Now God’s Friends
What does it mean to be reconciled to someone? Share an example from your life where you needed to be reconciled to someone. How did the reconciliation happen?
Romans 5:9-11 (NET)
9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Colossians 1:21-22 (NLT)
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
Why do we need to be reconciled to God?
How have we been reconciled to God?
What are the results of this reconciliation?
Romans 5:1 (NET)
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to have peace with God? What’s the difference between feelings of peace and being at peace with someone? Which one applies to our peace with God?
Through the gracious gift of His Son, God has removed His wrath and has reconciled us to Himself. We are no longer His enemies, but His friends. So to speak, God has signed a peace treaty with us using the blood of Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a wrath-removing-sacrifice for our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:19 (NIV)
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
John 15:15 (NET)
I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father.
What’s your reaction to this quote?
R.C. Sproul
The glory of the gospel is that the One from whom we need to be saved is the very One who saves us.
We Are Now God’s Family
God didn’t just reconcile us to Himself, He actually adopted us as His very own sons and daughters.
Romans 8:14-17 (NET)
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)—if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.
Galatians 4:4-7 (NLT)
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.
Romans 5:5 (NET)
And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
What role does the Holy Spirit play in communicating God’s Fatherly love?
How have you experienced the Holy Spirit confirming to your spirit that God loves you and has adopted you as His son or daughter?
1 John 3:1 (NIV)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
How could we pray for you to know God’s Fatherly love more?
We Still Suffer
Romans 5:3-5 (NET)
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Even though God’s wrath has been removed and we’re no longer God’s enemies but His friends and children, we still suffer. Because we’re not in Heaven yet, suffering is part of our life here on Earth.
How are you experiencing suffering?
James 1:2-4 (NIV)
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Why can you rejoice in your sufferings?
How has suffering matured your character?
How can we pray for your endurance and hope?
Pray
Pray for each other that the Holy Spirit would help you to know God’s Fatherly love so you could endure under hardship.
Foundational Truth
Here’s the FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH we discovered today:
Though we were God’s enemies because of our sinful rebellion, God has reconciled us to Himself as His friends and has adopted us as His very own children through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. He has also given us the Holy Spirit to assure us of His Fatherly love, especially when life is difficult.
Theologically, this is called Reconciliation and Adoption. Through faith in Jesus, we have been reconciled to God and adopted by the Father.
LIVE
What truth have you discovered from today’s Bible passage(s) and conversation?
What would stop you from believing and obeying this truth?
How will you live out this truth this coming week? Finish this statement: “I will ….”
Who else needs to hear this truth? How could you share it with them?
When will we meet again?
Who will facilitate that meeting?
Pray for God’s help as you seek to follow Jesus this coming week.
FOLLOW-UP BIBLE READINGS
Here are the Bible passages you are encouraged to read this coming week:
BUDDY SYSTEM
Connect with your buddy this week and ask each other these questions:
How are your readings going?
How’s your “I will …” statement coming along?
How’s your sharing goal coming along?
How can I pray for you?
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