1. Prayer: Start with 5 mins of silence. No music or speaking just be still and focus on the Gospel, God’s free gift to you in Jesus.
2. Read Romans 3:22–28 (NLT). How many times is the word “right” used?
- Explain what it means to be “made right” with God (justification)?
3. Read Galatians 3:1-4 and then study the diagram below…
a) In what ways is spiritual growth (discipleship) separate from justification?
b) If the Gospel (justification) isn’t the ‘Effects of the Gospel’ then list what some of the effects are? (i.e. peace, church, personal calling, salvation)
c)How do we add “good works” to our faith but avoid our good works replacing our faith? (see James 2:14-20)
d) List the negative consequences of continually trying to smuggle good works into justification? (i.e. burn out, crisis of faith)
4. Read the story of the boy below (The Expulsive Nature of a New Affection)
a) How does the boy’s self-justification parade as heart transformation? (consider the more acceptable idols he pursues as a cover for self-righteousness).
b) Which cover or self-justification (from the story) do you struggle with most?
5. Video (6m): How do people change? (Paul Tripp) - CLICK HERE. We’ve discussed fake-change but this video will point you toward true godly change and transformation. (IDEAL TO WATCH AND DISCUSS AS A LIFE GROUP)
6. Deeper Reading: ‘Idols of the Heart’ (Tim Keller) – CLICK HERE. This reading is well worth your time to study it. It is a transformative article that will explain the competing affections in your heart. Why you love Jesus but why this love is often overshadowed by other desires, called idols that compete with Jesus for love and for your soul.
The Expulsive Nature of a New Affection (Thomas Chalmers)
[Why is this grateful love so important?] It is seldom that any of our [bad habits orflaws] disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldomthat this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning...or by the force of mentaldetermination. But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed—and one taste maybe made to give way to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affectionin the mind. It is thus that the boy ceases at length to be a slave of his appetite, but it is because a[more ‘mature’] taste has brought it into subordination. The youth ceases to idolize[sensual] pleasure, but it is because the idol of wealth has...gotten the ascendancy.Even the love of money can cease to have mastery over the heart because it is drawninto the whirl of [ideology and politics] and he is now lorded over by a love of power[and moral superiority]. But there is not one of these transformations in which theheart is left without an object. Its desire for one particular object is conquered—butits desire to have some object...is unconquerable... The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of anew one...It is only...when admitted into the number of God’s children, through faith inJesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured out on us—it is then that the heart,brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered fromthe tyranny of its former desires, and the only way that deliverance is possible.