Understanding Your Religion
7 Major Doctrines that Define Christianity
God's New Vision of Mankind
The Sub-Doctrine of Perfection
指導方針
The focus of this lesson is on why and how God now sees us as His redeemed children. Of special note in this lesson is God’s view of perfection.
学生の学習成果
- Know: Understand how God sees us as His redeemed children.
- Feel: Value the new vision God has for us.
- Do: Live faithfully as God wills.
レッスンの本文
討論の質問
以下は、授業の指導付き討論部分で使用するための提案された質問です。また、学生がさまざまな概念を理解するのを助けるための質問への提案された回答も含まれています。これらは討論を支援するために提供されており、「正しいまたは間違っている」回答とは見なされません。
Justification states that we can stand before God acceptable according to His standard. We become acceptable when God places (imputes) acceptability on us.
We are justified by faith, expressed through our repentance and baptism. We do not earn it or accomplish it through any action on our part other than accepting it as a faithful response to God's grace (Ephesians 2:8-10).
It is the quality of the condition of those who are in Christ. This differs from the secular (dictionary) definition which states something that is entirely without flaw or defect, something that satisfies all the requirements.
It is an expression communicating healthiness, completeness, wholeheartedness; but not sinless perfection (I Kings 8:61). It expresses the idea of not wavering from one's faith rather than living a sinless life (Colossians 1:27-28).
The only way to reach perfection (wholeness and spiritual ripeness) is through Christ.
Romans 3:20-24 and I John 1:1-10 both teach that we sin. To one it might seem as a futile effort to live life as God wills since we are incapable of sinless perfect.
God understands this so made a way to Himself through Jesus.
John goes on to explain that as we live faithfully to include making the effort to obey our Lord and repenting when we realize our failures, God sees us as faithful and continues to forgive. This is not based on our efforts, but is the gift of grace given to those in Christ.
Nothing we might use to attain perfection has any value in making us perfect.
One could say that they might even contribute to our imperfection since we're relying on something other than God to achieve perfection. We use what God gives us for His glory and to accomplish His will for us, but not to attain perfection. We are made perfect through our response of faith to the sacrifice of Christ.
Perfection can be seen from the perspective of a timeline or continuum. We are made perfect (whole and without sin in our lives) through our obedient response to the gospel. We then continue to seek to serve God according to His will (faithfulness).
We grow in our knowledge of God's will and its application in our lives. This is a spiritual maturation process that enables us to grow closer to God and consequently know Him more perfectly which is the essential experience of eternal life (John 17:3).
Being made perfect through our response to the gospel is only a beginning. We must continue to do our best to live faithfully as servants of God because this process leads us to experiencing here on earth the promise of eternal life when we resurrect at Jesus' return.