~snapshot of week 4, BHT study~

Snapshot of week 4 of 10: Lesson 3 ~ "Before His Throne" GCC Women's Bible Study
http://www.solagrace.org/growing2gether
Submitted by Leah Page on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 7:36pm
WEEK FOUR OF TEN
Before His Throne: Lesson 3 ~ Beholding & Honoring God as Father and Master

1st half – The first indictment God raises against his people in Malachi is that they have not honored him as Father or feared/respected him as Master. We talked through the line-graph in the book, seemingly pitting our relationship with God as “child” (Romans 8) against that of “slave” (Romans 6) when in fact BOTH are true of us. How quickly we swing from one extreme to the other. [We visited 2 Cor. 10:3-5 by way of talking about how when we are merely looking at ourselves, as if to assess how we “feel” about God at any given moment, we are at best limited in our scope, and at worst, subject to lies and our own self-deceit. Rather, we need to “turn our eyes upon Jesus,” and take every thought/feeling captive and make it obedient to Christ.] We need to trust God’s self-revelation which is, in short, that God’s “mastery” demands our holiness, AND God’s “fatherliness” gives us that holiness by giving us his own Son, Jesus, who became our substitute – both as the “perfection” God required and as, then, that perfect “blood sacrifice.”

So we continued the discussion by talking through some of the Levitical requirements for the quality of the sacrifice. We listed the various qualities we found in Scripture: the sacrifice was to be pure, unblemished, not blind, not lame, not diseased, not mutilated, and even the specifics of the sacrifices’ anatomies were attended to (ie: not “unfruitful!”) in God’s requirements. He had given his people everything they needed to know, and repeated himself again and again as if to say, “Ok, let’s be clear! THIS is what I mean by this, and THAT is what I mean by that....” But the people repeat their pattern of rebellion and refuse to worship as God has instructed them. By this time, the people have endured multiple exiles, have returned to the city of God – Jerusalem – and have rebuilt the walls of the city (cf Ezra and Nehemiah), but we find the people still fail to honor God as Father and Master. [note: In Ps. 51 we saw that ultimately, God desires the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart and spirit. Notice, even David, at the end of this Psalm expresses longing for a “rebuilt Jerusalem” because then (finally?!) right sacrifices will be offered.] It was as if the external conditions were about as perfect as they could get, and they still could not “be holy” as God required. And this is how the OT ends, as if the people of God are crying out “Who will save us from this body of sin and death?”

2nd half – We talked about how JESUS is the unblemished sacrifice, the only one that can satisfy God on our behalf. [Sidenote: The Gospel call is NOT “you need to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior;” the Gospel call is to REPENT! God needs to accept Jesus on our behalf!] We talked through what it means, then, if JESUS is the means by which we can know God in that perfect balance as both “child” and “slave” ~ (our “standing” is SURE if we are “in Christ”!) ~ what does God require of us NOW? [“Being precedes function.”] We reviewed Romans 12:1-2, and talked about what it means to be a living sacrifice. This included reviewing our exercise in Colossians ch. 3 ~ putting off the old and putting on the new. We revisited talking about what it means to “take the name of the Lord in vain.” More than mere “apathy” – “taking” is intentional. We are quick to say “Oh, I didn’t mean that,” or “That doesn’t mean anything,” as though these are sufficient excuses for our cavalier attitudes; but in fact, we have just confessed we’ve broken God’s commandment! What, after all, does “vain” mean, but that the thing is meaningless, empty, etc. Instead, what would it look like if we were intentional about living in such a way that ALL we do is “in Jesus’ name.”

In summary:
If we are in Christ, our standing with God is sure – he is both our Master AND our Father – and he lovingly disciplines us and molds us into the likeness of his Son for our good and for our joy. Jesus is the perfect, all-satisfying sacrifice, and in him we have the fullness of life. So now we are to let the peace of Christ rule our hearts, and the word of Christ dwell (abide!) in us richly. Because we ARE (being) children of God in Christ, we DO (function) live wholly surrendered to him out of love. And so, if we do everything we do “in Jesus’ name,” even the most mundane task can be transformed into an act of worship.


“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face!
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace!”
~

Groups: Women of Grace