Safe in the Good Shepherd’s Fold

The Doctrine of Eternal Security 

Jesus’s teaching in John 10 describes the safety and security believers experience as sheep who follow the Good Shepherd. Those who put their faith in Christ’s finished work do not have to speculate about their eternal future. Salvation cannot be obtained through human works, nor can it be forfeited when we falter. This is true because right standing in God’s sight rests solely on Christ’s perfection, not ours. The Holy Spirit “seals” or guarantees the eternal salvation of all people who put their faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice.1 When God initiates the good work of salvation and redeems a sinner, He continues perfectly unhindered until salvation’s glorious consummation.2

How do we explain people who first profess Christ as Savior, then later walk away from Him? While we cannot accurately assess anyone’s relationship with Christ, God can. Scripture teaches that God holds fast those who genuinely trust Him for salvation. In this life, believers continue to struggle with sin and doubt. However, God’s grip on the true believer is stronger than sin’s pull, feelings of doubt, or the enemy’s opposition.3 When doubts arise, our best focus is to passionately seek the Lord. The promises of Scripture stand firm as an anchor for the soul. Salvation is God’s work from start to glorious finish.4

Many people believe their salvation can be lost. Some walk away for a time and then return. Others who walk away may never have had real trust. We cannot know—only God knows. However, if salvation depends on our wavering obedience, we live life facing eternity without certainty. We do not adequately grasp Christ’s unconditional love and sustaining grace. Struggles that come when we sin cause doubts. Christ’s righteousness, not our own, secures salvation.

What a relief to understand that our soul’s security rests in Christ, not ourselves! We regularly experience the darkness lingering within our hearts. We recognize that we often love our sin more than our Savior. But we also recognize that we are sheep who hear our Shepherd’s voice. When we stray, Jesus comes after us. When we falter, He holds us up. Jesus carries us through. We will persevere in faith, not because we are strong, but because Jesus is mighty.

1. Christ’s sacrifice: Ephesians 1:13-14
2. Secure until salvation’s consummation: Romans 8:29-30
3. No separation: Romans 8:38-39: Philippians 1:6
4. God’s work in salvation: Romans 8:30; Philippians 1:6

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 14, The Gospel of John

Jesus Christ Gives Sight to the Blind

The Doctrine of God the Son 

At his first encounter with Jesus, the newly healed, formerly blind man did not realize who Jesus was. Newfound sight, pressing opposition, and growing understanding led this man to recognize the truth. He soon bowed before Jesus in belief and worship. The Lord Jesus Christ is none other than God’s own Son who came to seek and save the lost.1 Equal to and co-existent with God from eternity past, Jesus came into the world to live, die, and rise again.2 Only Jesus can rescue sinners and give eternal life to all who put their faith in Him.3 

Your response to Jesus determines whether you are spiritually blind or sighted. Like the man born without sight, we are all spiritually blind from birth. Only God can open blind eyes. The eternal destiny of every human rests on their response to God’s Son. One day, Jesus will return to earth and every knee will bow before Him.4 God has exalted His Son and given Him the right to judge sin and grant eternal life.5 To refuse Jesus is to choose spiritual blindness, which tragically results in an eternity separated from God. 

No one remains neutral about Jesus. Throughout history, the name of Jesus has divided humanity.6 The Pharisees denied evidence of Jesus’s divine authority as well as His healing power. Today, people continue to resist Jesus while ignoring the truth about Him. Spiritual blindness remains in those who fail to recognize who Jesus is and the saving work He accomplished on behalf of sinful humanity. To refuse Jesus is to turn away from the only true hope that exists. 

Believing in Jesus means seeing what matters most. When the Lord opens our eyes to behold Jesus, we see glimpses of His glory that will be magnified and celebrated throughout eternity. 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of the powerful transformation God sets at work in the lives of those who believe in Jesus: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” What do you now “see” because Jesus has opened your spiritual eyes? How does gazing at Jesus give you a refreshed perspective on your life and the world around you? Seeing Jesus leads us to worship Him. The Son of God, exalted by the Father, will reign for eternity without rival. 

1. Seek and save: Luke 19:10 

2. Equal to God: Philippians 2:5-11 

3. Only Jesus saves: Acts 4:12 

4. Jesus’s return: Matthew 24:30; Acts 1:10-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11 

5. The Son’s judgment: Matthew 16:27; 26:64 

6. Outcomes of belief and unbelief: John 3:36

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 13, The Gospel of John

Saved from the Death We Deserve

The Doctrine of Salvation from Sin’s Penalty 

Jesus encountered massive crowds and performed spectacular miracles as He walked among sinners. Yet, He sought out individuals. He also willingly revealed Himself to His resistant enemies. The self-righteous, proud, and indignant Pharisees exemplify sinful rebellion. Even so, to fully understand sinful nature, we need only look into our own hearts. Every human is born with a sinful nature inherited from Adam and Eve. Our sin convicts and condemns us, separating us from our perfectly just and holy God. We face the well-deserved punishment of death to pay the penalty that each sin we have committed deserves. 

God sent Jesus to die in the place of sinners to make atonement for the sin of all humankind. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid in full death’s penalty on our behalf. Jesus’s outpouring of amazing love saved us from the righteous wrath of God.1 Through faith in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice, all believers experience salvation. We are freed from sin’s power in our lives and given eternal life with Him. 

Without faith in Jesus, people walk through life dead in sin.2 Deceived by the allure of temptation to sin, death haunts at every turn. Tragically, those who bear sin’s punishment on their own await not only physical death but also spiritual death, which culminates in eternal condemnation and separation from God. Life is lived without hope. 

When we place our faith in Christ and His redemptive work on the cross, Christ sets us free from sin’s death penalty. The sin for which Jesus died will never rise to accuse or haunt a believer.3 Believers are also set free from sin’s present power over their lives. However, even forgiven Christians continue to sin.4 The Holy Spirit leads the believer to confess specific sins and grow in personal holiness.5 Believers are saved not only from sin’s eternal debt but also from a wasted life. How will you celebrate this wonderful gift?

1. Saved from wrath: Romans 5:9 

2. Sin’s penalty: Romans 6:23 

3. Death of sin: Psalm 103:11-12; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34 

4. Continue to sin: Matthew 6:12; Romans 7:14-25; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8 

5. Confession: Matthew 6:12; John 1:29; Ephesians 2:1-5; Hebrews 9:23-28; 1 John 1:9

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 12, The Gospel of John

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — One God in Three Persons

The Doctrine of The Trinity

As humans, we struggle to understand the width and breadth of God’s all-encompassing nature.1 The unity of purpose that exists and operates within the three persons of God is equally beautiful and mysterious. In John 7, Jesus revealed that He spoke on behalf of His Father. He promised the indwelling Holy Spirit as the source of living water to satisfy the soul-thirst of all who believe in Him. The unity among God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit continues to humble and baffle us.

The Bible clearly upholds the union of the three persons of the Godhead. Though distinct, all three are fully God and work harmoniously with one another to accomplish God’s plan. As God reveals His truth to us, we increasingly come to appreciate the majesty of the triune God we worship. God the Father sent God the Son into the world to save sinners.2 God the Holy Spirit sparks new life within believers; seals them as God’s children; and provides ongoing, indwelling power to live for God.3 The past, present, and future aspects of salvation involve all three persons of God.4

Anyone who fails to appreciate the beautiful cooperation and community among the three persons of God misses an awesome glimpse of God Himself. Though human limitations do not allow us to grasp the totality of wonder surrounding God, whatever we understand is more than enough to humble us before His greatness. Many attempt the impossible—to confine God to the boundaries of their intellect or personal approval. In Jesus’s day and ours, most people reject truth they cannot understand.

Jesus came representing His Father’s heart, accomplishing His Father’s will, and demonstrating His Father’s authority. The Holy Spirit draws us to Christ and gives us the power to surrender with obedience to the Father. Believers can rejoice in the boundlessness of God that exceeds the confines of their own minds. The simple unity, complex diversity, and amazing cooperation within the three persons of God should lead us to worship a God who surpasses us in every way. If you are a believer, will you marvel at all God has done to save you? If you have not yielded to God, in all His infinite wisdom and wonder, will you do so today?

1. God’s higher ways: Isaiah 55:8-9
2. The Father sent the Son: 1 John 4:14
3. The Holy Spirit: Acts 2:38; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30
4. Three persons: Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:30-36; Ephesians 1:3-10; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-4

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 11, The Gospel of John

“Rightness” Before God

The Doctrine of Righteousness

Righteousness refers to the perfect and unblemished “rightness” of all God is and does. God’s perfect righteousness means that He cannot tolerate sin. Jesus Christ is the only person who has lived a perfectly sinless life.1 Everyone else has sinned and continues to sin.2 When Jesus offered His followers Living Bread, He offered them Himself. Through Jesus’s achievement and not their own, those who believe in God’s Son receive eternal life.

Believers continue to sin like all other humans, but Jesus’s blood and righteousness cover their sins. People who believe in Jesus are justified—declared right with God and thus able to have eternal life in His kingdom. The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers believers to recognize and repent from sin. Through this ongoing process, called sanctification, the Holy Spirit imparts practical righteousness as God’s children grow to be more like Jesus.

People often fail to recognize the seriousness of their own lack of true righteousness. Comparing themselves to others and not God, they feel satisfied if they deem themselves better than someone else. No one realizes their need of Jesus as Savior without first acknowledging their inability to live up to God’s righteous standards. This serious matter should not be deflected or ignored.

In love and grace, God sent His own Son to rescue us from our desperate state. Jesus paid sin’s penalty on behalf of all who put their faith in Him.3 The Holy Spirit awakens dead hearts to recognize their debt of sin and turn to Jesus for salvation.4 Through Jesus, believers gain right standing with God, not because of what they offer, but based on Jesus’s perfect righteousness. In Jesus, God provided the righteousness He requires that we could not offer. For eternity, God’s people will praise His Son for His indescribable gift.5

1. Jesus’s sinlessness: 1 Peter 1:18-19, 2:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5
2. Everyone sins: Romans 3:10; 1 John 1:8
3. Jesus’s sacrifice: John 3:16; Romans 5:8
4. Holy Spirit’s conviction: John 16:7-8
5. God’s indescribable gift: 2 Corinthians 9:15

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 10, The Gospel of John

Chosen by the Father

The Doctrine of Election

Jesus said, “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). God’s providential sovereignty stands behind the challenging doctrine of election. Before God created the world, He chose those who would respond in faith.1 Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son….” However, God’s sovereignty in election does not negate each person’s responsibility to believe.2 God offers an invitation for all to believe. When God draws people through His Spirit, He works through their individual faith.3 

Sin has so ruined humanity that no one truly seeks God.4 Our fallen state renders us utterly unable to respond to the gospel in faith unless God first enables us.5 Consider salvation as a door. A bold invitation is emblazoned on the outside of the door: “Whoever will may come.” Those who take hold of God’s promise walk through the door by faith to see another bold sign inside the door: “All those the Father gives me will come to me.”

God’s ways are inconceivably bigger, higher, and more perfect than humans comprehend. We easily miss the harmony between the twin truths of divine election and human responsibility. We should not dismiss infinite truths we cannot fully understand. God’s choice in eternity past does not remove personal responsibility for unbelief in the present. The seriousness of rejecting Christ remains a sober warning. 

The wonder of salvation humbles and amazes us. God imparts life to dead hearts. Knowing this truth compels us to confidently share the gospel with others. Salvation, from start to finish, is God’s work. All glory belongs to God. However, the responsibility to turn to Christ for salvation is ours. Will you trust God who loves perfectly and always acts righteously?

1. Chosen before time: Ephesians 1:3-14
2. Human responsibility: Psalm 81:11-12; John 8:24
3. Call to faith: Matthew 11:25-30; John 6:37-40
4. Sin’s damage: Psalm 14:2-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:10-18
5. Drawn to faith: John 6:44

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 9, The Gospel of John

God’s Rightful Rule as King of Creation

The Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God

God is sovereign. This means God alone controls everything. He rules every sector of the universe He created.1 God’s decrees govern history.2 God’s sovereignty includes the calling of those who will be saved by Him.3 God determines the outcome of all things according to His wise purposes. God controls and guides all events for His glory and our good.

Like their ancestors centuries earlier, the people of Israel desired a king.4 They recognized Jesus’s authority and correctly speculated about His identity. However, they wanted a king who ruled on their terms and satisfied their desires. They stood before eternity’s sovereign King seeking to mold His agenda to meet their demands. Because of humankind’s inherited sinful nature,5 we long to exercise sovereignty that belongs only to God. People long to control what only God controls. We desire autonomy more than submission. God rules rightly, justly, compassionately, and eternally. His sovereignty remains steadfast despite our rebellion and utter failure to understand His character and purposes.

Without a proper understanding of God’s absolute rule over time, history, and every earthly event, we flounder in uncertainty. People’s whims, the world’s constantly changing landscape, and our own lives seem to careen randomly forward. Certainly legitimate questions arise as we attempt to interpret the chaos around us. However, failure to recognize God’s present purposefulness leaves us without the rudder we need to direct our lives.

The truth about God’s sovereignty stabilizes our thinking in many ways. We do not need to fully comprehend what God expressly controls. When our understanding fails to grasp all that God is doing, we trust the infinite perfections within His character. Knowing that God will one day eradicate evil, end injustice, and reign without rival offers hope when current events trouble us.6 Recognizing God’s right to reign over everything helps me relinquish my own desire to rule what I cannot control or to mold God to fit my image of Him. Surrendering to the Sovereign God who rules time and eternity is always right. How will you find comfort today recognizing God’s wise rule over this world and your life?

1. God’s authority: 1 Chronicles 29:11-12; Psalm 47:7
2. God governs history: Daniel 4:34-35; Acts 2:23; 17:24-27
3. God’s call: Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2
4. Israel’s desire for a king: 1 Samuel 8:4-5
5. Sinful nature: Genesis 3; Isaiah 53:6; 59:12-13; Romans 7:14; 8:7
6. God’s eternal rule: Revelation 21-22

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 8, The Gospel of John

The Father and Son—Equal in Power and United in Purpose

The Doctrine of God the Father

How can we understand what God is like? God the Father, the author of creation, can only be known and understood through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.1 The unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit represents a mystery that transcends human understanding. Jesus came to earth to reveal His Father’s heart and accomplish His work of redemption on our behalf. Out of abounding love, Christ’s costly sacrifice made a way for sinners to enjoy restored fellowship with their Creator. Believers delight in calling God “Abba, Father,” the same name for God that Jesus Himself used.2

Failure to look to Christ for salvation means living life and facing eternity with a broken relationship with God. Our heavenly Father created every human with an eternal soul designed for communion with Him. Words cannot fully capture the present and eternal loss that results from rejecting God’s love through Christ. You cannot know God without receiving Christ as His Son and your Savior.

God created all people in His image—made to be in relationship with Him. Knowing, worshiping, and glorifying God represents your highest calling and greatest joy. You can intimately know God’s immeasurable greatness, unconditional love, and amazing grace when you come to Him through His Son. How has Jesus opened your eyes to His provision of rich fellowship with God the Father? In what ways does Jesus’s sacrifice reveal God’s infinite majesty to you? The Holy Spirit awakens our hearts to embrace Jesus’s sacrifice, which opens the way for rich fellowship with God the Father. What amazing truth! What an amazing God!

1. Jesus reveals the Father: Matthew 11:27; John 1:14, 18; 14:6-11; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 2:9-10; Hebrews 1:2-3
2. Abba, Father: Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 7, The Gospel of John

God’s Lavish Blessings to the Undeserving

The Doctrine of Grace

Everything God does reflects all that He is. His actions toward humanity reveal His character. By nature, God is gracious—inclined to offer blessings and favor to the undeserving. God’s grace refers to His bestowing of benefits that are not earned or merited by human effort. By God’s grace, the beauty of His creation reveals His creative power and majesty to all humanity. Believers and unbelievers alike experience sunrises, sunsets, and rain that waters dry ground. The most powerful expression of God’s grace is seen in the sacrifice of God’s Son to redeem people enslaved by sin and death. God extends grace to the unworthy by offering salvation and spiritual blessings that cannot be earned.

Salvation in Christ comes by grace through faith.1 If human goodness or works could earn salvation, it would not be by grace. Because God is the author of salvation and provides everything a sinner needs to receive eternal salvation, all the glory goes to Him. Sinners are saved because of God’s unmerited favor toward us in Christ—which cannot be earned.2 God’s grace not only brings sinners salvation, but also sustains them in life and for eternity.3

To fail to understand or appreciate God’s grace means living life trying to earn God’s favor or completely ignoring Him. Because the best we can offer God is flawed and inadequate, attempts to earn His favor will always come up short. We try to feel better by comparing ourselves to others we deem worse than we are. Without seeing God as inherently gracious, we wrongly think He is harsh and punitive rather than kind and welcoming.

God’s posture toward humanity is utterly gracious. He knows the depth of our neediness. He moves toward us to meet us where we are and give us what we need. To relish God’s grace, we must realize we deserve nothing but judgment. When God opens our eyes to recognize His grace, we see His ongoing care and provision in salvation and daily life. Proper understanding of God’s grace regularly moves our hearts toward humility and worship. We experience peace because of God’s grace. We depend on God’s grace and trust Him for all we truly need. By grace, when God looks at a believer, He sees only Christ’s imparted righteousness, which cannot be earned. All praise and glory belong to the God of all grace!

1. Grace in salvation: Romans 3:21-24; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11
2. Salvation cannot be earned: Romans 4:1-8
3. Sustaining grace: John 1:16; 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16; 2 Peter 3:18

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 6, The Gospel of John

Transformed Into New Life - Part 2

The Doctrine of Redemption

The Samaritan woman lived an empty life carrying an empty jar. Then she encountered
Jesus—the One who offers life to the full. Enslaved by her sin and seeking fleeting
satisfaction, this outcast woman’s life seemed to offer little value in a broken world. Yet Jesus found this woman precious in His sight, and He graciously gave of His time, His love, and His life. Like this woman, all people are broken by sin and ripe for redemption.

The term “redemption” comes from the ancient world of commerce where enslaved people were bought and sold. Jesus has purchased, or redeemed us, from sin’s slavery. Jesus died in our place. His blood frees us from sin’s penalty and power—and ultimately sin’s presence. He transforms our lives, declaring us righteous in His sight.

The Old Testament story of Hosea’s purchase of Gomer exemplifies this transaction.1 In the New Testament, Peter advances this truth in 1 Peter 1:18-19: “It was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” At the moment of our redemption, we become Christ’s possession.2 We are redeemed from our empty lives and for belonging to Jesus.

Failure to accept Christ’s redemption leads to an empty life void of God’s forgiveness and unable to experience God’s love or wisdom. Those who refuse Christ’s sacrifice remain under God’s wrath and will live separated from God forever.3

Understanding the price Christ paid for our redemption magnifies His grace for sinners. God did not abandon us to our helpless estate.4 Only through faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, can our lives be redeemed and transformed. The Holy Spirit seals and indwells believers, who are reborn into a new life and can live a life filled with joy even in the most difficult circumstances. God’s children live as salt and light on earth,5 sharing the good news of the gospel. The redeemed are assured they will worship in God’s presence forever.

1. Hosea and Gomer: Hosea 3:1-2
2. Christ’s possession: Romans 6:22- 23; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 1:7
3. Eternal separation: Mark 16:16; John 3:18, 36; 5:28-29; 8:24; 15:6; Revelation 21:8
4. God did not abandon us: John 3:16-18
5. Salt and light: Matthew 5:13-16

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 5, The Gospel of John

From the Darkness of Death to the Light of Life

The Doctrine of Salvation

Nicodemus did not realize he was a man in need of Jesus’s salvation. Nicodemus and all people enter the world as sinners deserving death. Jesus, our only hope, died in our place. As we are born again through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive God’s gift of salvation. The sins for which Jesus died will never rise to accuse or haunt believers again.1 Salvation in Christ brings freedom from sin’s penalty, power, and presence. Sin results in death:2 physical death and spiritual death—eternal condemnation by God and separation from Him. Through His death on the cross, Jesus bore sin’s death penalty for all who place their faith in Him. 

Salvation from sin’s power describes the present dimension of salvation. The Holy Spirit works within a believer to recognize and overcome sin in daily life.3 This gradual victory over sin’s power will not be complete until we are glorified. Although we still struggle on earth with sin’s pull and power, all Christians anticipate a future day when Jesus ushers in a new creation and they are forever delivered from sin’s presence.4

To ignore or reject Jesus’s gift of salvation means you must bear sin’s penalty and live under its present bondage without hope of eternal deliverance. If Jesus does not pay the price for your sin, you must bear that burden yourself. Purpose in life and assurance regarding eternity rest on Jesus Christ and His gift of love. Without faith in Jesus’s atoning sacrifice and resurrection life, the grave beckons without hope.

God did not ignore our perilous state as sinners but sent His own Son to die a death He did not deserve to give us life we could not earn. Because of Jesus, believers face the challenges of life and the certainty of physical death with unquenchable hope. Sin’s cost is paid. Sin’s tyranny is broken. Sin’s stranglehold will end. The glory of Christ and the wonder of His love bring a heart of humility and gratitude for such an indescribable gift. Jesus came to earth so we could walk in the light with Him. What a wonderful Savior!

1. Sin forgiven: Psalm 103:11-12; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34
2. Sin’s wages: Romans 6:23
3. Overcoming sin’s power: Romans 6; 8:1-17; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:13-14.
4. Sin’s presence removed: Revelation 21:1-8

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 4, The Gospel of John

Transformed Into New Life - Part 1

The Doctrine of Regeneration

God created human beings for an eternal relationship with Him. However, beginning in the garden, sin fractured that sacred bond with our Father and Creator.1 Because God is completely holy and perfectly righteous,2 sin is incompatible with His presence.3 In our natural sinful state, we are like a heart that is not beating—dead to God. We can do nothing to revive ourselves and restore our relationship with Him. No noble act, payment, right thinking, or self-help program will do what only God can do.4

Only God regenerates. In mercy and love, God sent His Son to die on the cross and pay sin’s penalty for us.5 Through faith in who Jesus is and what He did, the Holy Spirit regenerates those dead in sin to life everlasting. God brings new, eternal life to those born again as only He can. Like the empty jars at a wedding in Cana or the cleansed temple court in Jerusalem, Jesus regenerates a dead heart and a meaningless, empty life into one filled with peace, joy, celebration, worship, and a renewed, eternal relationship with Him.

A dead heart cannot turn to Jesus for salvation. Without the Spirit’s regeneration and creation of spiritual life within, you will not seek God or recognize the depth of your sin.6 Your feeble attempts to clean up your life and be a better person can never satisfy God’s righteous standard.

Only God can spark spiritual life and regenerate a dead heart. The Holy Spirit awakens us to new hope and vitality. Jesus died so we do not remain dead in our sin. God raised Jesus from the dead so He could raise you from sin and death to live a vibrant new life in His power.7 Jesus’s life-giving power regenerates dead hearts with new life.8

1. Sin’s damage: Genesis 3; Ephesians 2:1-6
2. God’s holiness: Isaiah 6:1-6
3. Incompatibility with sin: Psalm 5:4
4. No human effort: Ephesians 2:8-9
5. Jesus died for us: John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 8:32
6. Dead in sin: Romans 3:10-18
7. New life: Romans 6:1-14
8. Jesus’s regenerating power: John 3:6-7; 4:10; 5:24

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 3, The Gospel of John

What is Speaking in Tongues?

 

Believing What God Has Declared as True

The Doctrine of Faith

John’s Gospel, from start to finish, calls people to faith in Christ. At its simplest, faith is believing God and acting upon that belief. Biblical faith involves more than optimism, blind hope, or only intellectual agreement with facts. Even demons recognize undeniable truth but refuse to surrender to what they know.1

Saving faith requires three important elements. First, specific content—actual truth God has revealed about the gospel of salvation—must be believed. John the Baptist and Jesus’s first disciples embraced specific truth about Jesus.2 Secondly, conviction leads to personal trust in Jesus.3 Thirdly, commitment to repent and follow Christ brings willingness to surrender to Jesus’s right to control and direct one’s thoughts and actions.4 If I trust someone then I respond to what they say.

True faith involves more than a casual acknowledgement of Jesus with no bearing on daily life. Failure to recognize Jesus for who He really is comes with great cost. Without personally receiving Jesus as Savior, sin’s deserved judgment must be carried yourself.

However, faith in Jesus offers more than escape from judgment. Without Jesus and God’s unchanging truth as the anchor for life, this world’s fleeting pleasures and ever-changing voices place your feet on constantly shifting sand.

Knowing and believing what is true about Jesus changes your life forever. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, genuine faith yields a deepening understanding of salvation’s wonder, a growing love for Jesus, and an ongoing surrender to Him in the moments of life. Faith in Christ is not a benign influence but a transforming force in an individual’s life. Like Jesus’s disciples, how has Jesus called you to believe in and follow Him? How has following Jesus transformed your life?

1. Demons: James 2:19
2. Gospel truth: Matthew 16:16; Acts 4:12; 16:31
3. Personal faith in Christ: John 1:12; 3:16; 6:37; Acts 16:14
4. Commitment to Christ: Matthew 11:28-30; Luke 9:23; 14:25-27; Acts 3:19; 20:21; Romans 12:1-2

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 2, The Gospel of John

Jesus Christ—Son of God and Son of Man

The Doctrine of God the Son

Jesus Christ is God’s Son—the second Person of the eternal, divine Trinity. As John’s prologue affirms, Jesus, the eternal Word, is fully God and has always existed. From eternity past, God the Son enjoyed complete union and communion with His Father. At the point in time God determined, He sent His Son into the world to redeem humanity from their sinful state. Jesus humbled Himself and came to earth as an obedient servant—dying on a cross to save sinners. Because Jesus is fully divine, He could offer the perfect sacrifice God required and bear sin’s penalty for an infinite number of people. God has given Jesus a name above every name and promises that every knee will one day bow before His Son.1

Jesus will return to earth to take His people to glory and bring final judgment to the world.2 To many people, Jesus Christ is a familiar name perceived to wield little impact on their daily lives. Some are comfortable with the idea of “God” but shrink away from the message and mission of His Son, Jesus. Failure to recognize Jesus as God means forfeiting the greatest gift offered to humanity. There is no true and lasting hope to be found without receiving the gift of salvation Jesus came to provide. The truth about Jesus cannot be avoided forever. One day every tongue will confess who Jesus is—even those who deny or ignore Him now.

Life changes forever when you understand who Jesus is and how deeply He loves you. Worship flows when you recognize that Jesus left heaven’s glories, not for a faceless humanity—He did this for you.3 John’s awestruck words about Jesus resonate deeply, not merely as lofty truth, but as a transforming reality rising from eternity past to change your present and future. Your response to Jesus matters. One day you will join every human ever born in offering Jesus the adoration He rightfully deserves. In humility and gratitude, you assume heaven’s posture now, adoring Christ and seeking to honor Him in this life. Jesus, God’s own Son, died for you. Human words cannot fully express that wonder. Serving and following Jesus becomes your greatest joy and privilege.

1. Jesus humbled and exalted: Philippians 2:5-11
2. Coming glory and judgment: Matthew 16:27; 26:64; Acts 1:10-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; Titus 2:11-14
3. Jesus’s humble sacrifice: Philippians 2:5-11

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 1, The Gospel of John

God’s Written Revelation

The Doctrine of the Bible 

The Bible stands apart from all human literature. The accuracy, divine authority, and power of the Scriptures remain constant, despite opposition. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, more than 40 human authors recorded God’s revelation of Himself to humanity.1 The eternal God speaks to the people He created in words they can read, hear, and understand. The Bible reveals the heart and mind of God Himself. Because God cannot lie,2 the Bible, in its original manuscripts, speaks only truth. As flawed humans, any challenges we sense in reading God’s Word reveal our limited human understanding. The Bible has stood the test of time and can be trusted. 

The Bible tells one grand story of God’s redemption of humankind and His plan for eternity. Beyond recounting important facts and history, God’s Word offers truth about God, humanity, and the world. We can build our lives upon this steady foundation. The Bible contains two main sections—the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament records the creation of the world, humanity’s fall into sin, God’s work through His chosen nation of Israel, and His promise of redemption. The New Testament starts with the arrival of God’s promised Deliverer—His own Son, Jesus—who came to die as a substitute for human sin and restore what sin had damaged. John wrote his Gospel to clearly reveal Jesus as humanity’s Redeemer. We approach this great book with humility and expectancy that God will speak timeless yet timely truth into our hearts and lives. 

Without the Bible as our anchor, we live through the ups and downs of life without God’s eternal perspective. When we depend on the fluctuating tide of human opinion, our lives rest on shifting sand; our deepest yearnings and most earnest questions land on this world’s limited sources for answers. If we see the Bible as an ancient and outdated book, we miss God’s current work and eternal plan. By refusing to read the Bible or ignoring its truth, we overlook the gracious and loving lifeline God has extended. 

God’s words carry more weight than the flood of printed and pronounced words we hear and read every day. The Holy Spirit gives perspective on life to and through the words of the Bible. We read Scripture, but in many ways Scripture reads us. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit reveals our sin and offers certain hope. The teaching of Scripture leads us to God and prepares us for eternity. As we study the Gospel of John this year, God intends much more than filling our heads with facts. Through every passage and glimpse of Jesus, God extends an opportunity for wonder and worship. Will you approach this study with anticipation that the God of eternity will personally reveal His great love for you? The profound truth in John’s Gospel awaits, whether this book is new or extremely familiar to you. What will God do this year through His Word? 

1. God’s very words: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21 
2. God cannot lie: Numbers 23:19; 2 Samuel 22:31; Proverbs 30:5; John 17:17

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Introduction Lesson, The Gospel of John

Is It A Choice?

 Is being a homosexual a choice? I don’t think it’s about choice and I don’t think it’s about being born this way either. It’s more complex than that. There are multiple influences in one’s life that contribute to it. For instance, when one is exposed to sexuality at a young age. I don’t want to use this term, as it’s over used in society today, but I will have to say that I fell victim to pornography as a teen and was therefore exposed to something that shaped my understanding of sex. In other words, I was programming my mind with my first experience of sexual behaviour I had learned from pornography.

It’s true. There is more than just our gender. We are more than just men and women. We are our souls. Part of it is “I am a man”. I’m made in God’s image. God has given me personhood and identity. We believe not only that it’s intrinsic and deep down inside of ourselves but it’s extrinsic. To identify myself by my sexuality is reduction of my humanity. God is the one who gave us our identity and purpose. 

When we look at ourselves in the mirror and despise what we see we really reject ourselves and God’s design and purpose. I want to be careful with the word purpose. I don’t mean the purpose of your life but the purpose of your body.

The question of choice is do we concentrate our bodies to God? Do we give our purpose to the one who knows us? He not only made us but knows our purpose. It’s not about us. It’s about Him. Our bodies were made in His image and to reflect His glory. 

Sin’s Sorrowful Impact on This World

The Doctrine of Suffering

Jeremiah’s agonizing expressions recorded in Lamentations remind us that sorrows abound
in this world. People all around us face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain. Life’s
natural course involves losing people and things we love. Our human fortitude wanes. Our
comfort zones are constantly tested. At times, we feel paralyzed with anguish. Jeremiah personally
experienced the consequences of Judah’s unrepentant rebellion against God. The heavyhearted
prophet expressed the raw physical and emotional pain he felt when God’s judgment fell on his
beloved city, Jerusalem.

God Keeps His Promises

 The Doctrine of Covenants

Covenants play an important role in the Bible. Most simply, covenants are promises God
makes to an individual or group. Some covenants, such as God’s covenant with Israel
through Moses, were conditional – dependent on the people’s response. God promised
abundant blessings if the people obeyed His commands. Other biblical covenants stood on
God’s unchangeable commitments to fulfill His promises. God’s vow to make Abraham’s
offspring into a great nation and land rested on God’s resolve to form and deliver His
people.

God’s Holy Hatred of Sin

 The Doctrine of God’s Wrath

Most people today ignore or reject the thought of God’s wrath, preferring to believe that God accepts anything and everyone equally. Like everything God is and does, God exercises His wrath in perfect balance with His entire nature. God loves everything that is good and right. Therefore, He opposes everything that threatens what and whom He loves. God’s wrath represents a deliberate response of His justice, holiness, and love against all that dishonours Him. Whereas God’s love flows intrinsically from His nature, His wrath represents His holy response to the ravages of sin. God does not exercise wrath in gleeful retribution or to “get even.” God’s holy anger stands as a protective and purifying expression of His divine love. 

The Bible offers many manifestations of God’s wrath: the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the plagues of Egypt to name a few. Nahum and Zephaniah warned of God’s wrath and impending action against unrepentant evil and idolatry. Judah, Israel, and foreign nations alike encountered God’s just judgment of their sin. Today, God’s wrath is being revealed against sin and ungodliness. In the future, God’s wrath will be poured out on the earth as He removes Satan and evil forever. Every person is born with a sinful nature and deserves God’s wrath. Anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice receives eternal salvation because He absorbed God’s wrath on their behalf. 

Despite Satan’s attempts to hide this truth, God’s wrath against sin cannot be dismissed or ignored. Without an understanding of God’s just response to sin, Jesus’ cross and the gospel do not make sense. Failure to recognize this truth minimizes the gravity of both personal and corporate sin and universal accountability to God. We cannot maintain a right view of God without understanding the seriousness of His wrath. Psalm 90:11 says, “If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.” 

The truth about God’s wrath helps us comprehend the amazing beauty and wonder of Jesus’ cross. God’s own Son came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and died a sacrificial death for sinners. In His infinite perfection, Jesus absorbed the full force of God’s wrath against the sins of countless people who trust Him for salvation. For every believer, God’s wrath has been fully satisfied – the debt of sin has been paid in full. As those spared from God’s wrath, believers should be particularly motivated to share the gospel with others. Multiplied voices in heaven will proclaim: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments” (Revelation 19:1-2a).

Resource: Bible Study Fellowship, People of Promise: Kingdom Divided, Lesson 24

Jesus, the Coming King

The Doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ 

Old Testament prophets saw end-time events from afar. Jesus’ first and second comings merged like two mountain peaks viewed together from a great distance. The Old Testament presented God’s entire timeline. The New Testament explains Jesus’ first and second comings as two distinct events. From where we stand today, we clearly differentiate between the two. We know that Jesus first came to earth to pay for mankind’s sin. Jesus Christ will come again to judge the earth and reign in great glory. 

“Her Sin Has Been Paid For”

 The Doctrine of Salvation 

Salvation means deliverance from danger, distress, destruction, or harm. This concept incorporates being saved, rescued, preserved, and even victorious. Throughout the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the word “salvation” often depicts deliverance from physical danger. For example, God brought Israel from slavery in Egypt and Judah from exile in Babylon. Ultimately, the Bible’s examples of physical deliverance point to humanity’s greater need for spiritual rescue. Salvation, in the spiritual sense, refers to deliverance from sin’s penalty, power, and presence. 

Questions to Ask

 • Do you believe in God?

Yes

• What kind of God do you believe in?
• Why do you believe in God?
• Do you identify with any organized religious group?
• Do you think your religious beliefs are true i.e., factually accurate such that if others disagree, then they're mistaken?
• Do you think that morality--what's good and bad--is fixed and objective, or is it just a matter of opinion, and people with completely different moral views can be equally right at the same time?
• Do you think it's possible to know the truth about God or religion, or is that just a guess or a leap of faith?
• What do you think happens when you die? Why do you think that?

No

• Why don't you believe in God?
• Who do you think Jesus is? What are your reasons for that?
• Do you think that the material, physical world is all there is, or do you believe in immaterial, non-physical things? Why, in either case?
• Do you think that morality--what's good and bad is fixed and objective, or is it just a matter of opinion, and people with completely different moral views can be equally right at the same time?

Bowing Humbly Before Our God Most High

 The Doctrine of God the Father 

The opportunity to gaze into Isaiah’s encounter with the living God offers us a profound privilege. We love thinking about God’s nearness and the intimate relationship we enjoy with Him. He is Immanuel – the God who came near to us. He remains actively present in our everyday lives. When we pray in Jesus’ name, God listens and acts on our behalf. As God’s beloved children, He inclines His heart and ear to us with lavish compassion and grace. 

Inadequate Substitutes for the One True God

The Doctrine of Idolatry

Christianity hinges on the exclusive worship of the one true God. Worship of anything else, whether nature, ideology, wealth, power, pleasure, or work, is called idolatry – a sin in God’s eyes. Is God selfish to demand undivided worship? God’s jealousy for our devotion rests on the fact that He alone is God and Creator. Worshipping anyone or anything other than God is a sin because only God deserves our worship. The prophet Isaiah confronted the foolishness of worshiping idols as he described a man who cuts down a tree and uses some of the wood to make a fire to warm himself and bake bread. With other pieces of the same wood, he carves an idol and prays to it. Powerless gods of our own making cannot save us or do us any good. 

The Mind at War With the Body

Bioethicists acknowledge that life begins at conception. The evidence from DNA and genetics is too strong to deny it. So how do secularists argue their way around it? Well they divide the human being into two separate parts; the spirit and the body.

The Fact-Value Split

We know that physical matter has meaning. We know that God having created our body means that our bodies have meaning. Scripture shows us that our biological sex is meaningful. Our gender is not something we intuit by psychologically, it is something we derive from our biology. God made them male and female, and that is a biological distinction, not a psychological one. If your worldview is that matter is all that there is and that we only exist by chance and randomness it's very hard to come up with a coherent reason why it matters or has meaning.

Cultures throughout history have known that there is a natural order and there is a spiritual/moral order. And they always thought the two were connected. So when you made a moral statement it was the same as making a scientific statement. But then what happened was, in the modern age, in the rise of modern science people in the West began to say that the only reliable truth we have is what we know by science; empirically testable facts. So what happened to moral and spiritual truths? The two were split. Science was the only objective truth and morals and spiritual truths were considered subjective, private, personal opinions. This is the mainline underlying worldview driving abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and transgenderism. So the main obstacle for Christians is that the concept of truth has shifted.

The split for human beings is between facts and values; biology and personhood. Downplaying the body and overplaying the mind and soul. Demonizing the body and overspiritualizing the soul. If abortion advocates say the fetus is human but not a person until it acquires certain mental capacities such as having cognitive functioning, self-awareness, etc then it is not a person. And with euthanasia the opposite is applied, if you lose a sense of cognitive functioning then you are not a person.

High View of the Body, Low View of the Soul
Low View of the Body, High View of the Soul

There's more to us than merely our biology but we know there is more to us than only our external physicality. Our bodies tell us the truth about ourselves but also recognizing there is more to us than our biology. We find our value and identity through God because He created us. Man looks at outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart (Ecc. 3:11). The unique thing about sexual sin is that it harms the body. In 1 Cor. 6:18 Paul says, "No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body." Sex is meant to engage the whole of your personality. In God's design it is not meant to be just a physical act, it is meant to unite the whole of who you are with someone else. It is designed to be permanent, irreversible and exclusive; making two one flesh. It is meant to be an act of the totality of who we are. We are in a sense embodied souls. It has a far more deeper impact that any other sin. Not as much as idolatry, but idolatry has some involvement in it that we worship ourselves other than God.

Emotional Distress

At the heart of the debate is the idea that your mind is at war with your body. In the end your mind wins over your body. The body loses. The body is against your authentic self. Transgenderism teaches body hatred. There is consolation in knowing that God made you and has a purpose. He meant for you to be here, He had you in mind; He thought you up. That takes the pressure off us in trying to find our purpose and identity.

Creation, Fall, Redemption

From the very beginning of Genesis we see that God’s creation is real and good. Seven times God calls that which he made “good.” When he made mankind—male and female— he describes them as “very good.” “God made them in His image and likeness.” Knowing that you were created by a God who knows you and loves you and has a purpose for you is the answer. 

For those who are not happy with your bodies: You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. We must have a balanced view of appreciation for our bodies. We ought to praise God for our embodied life. My body is a gift even if that is a painful gift.  That doesn't mean we have to like what we see in the mirror. I am not a mistake. We should not despise what God Himself cares for and loves. The hope we find in our bodies is not found in what we can do with our bodies. It is found with what Jesus bought with His body for us. We now belong to Christ and honour Him with it on how we deal with it. If our bodies are ones with what God wants to dwell within with His Spirit then we ought not to despise it. We not ought to idolize it because it is not ultimate itself but a created thing.

The redemption of our bodies is mentioned in Romans 8:18-21. The body and mind and spirit come together. We do not need to fear our bodies will breakdown and decline. Our best physical existence lies upon the future bodily resurrection with Jesus.

Three Primary Principles of Interpretation

Hermeneutics: The Science of Interpretation

The purpose of hermeneutics is to establish guidelines and rules for interpretation. It is a well-developed science that can become technical and complex. The science of hermeneutics is the science of biblical interpretation. It deals with conveying a message that can be understood.

These three primary principles of interpretation are aids to our personal enrichment.

1. The analogy of faith

The analogy of faith keeps the whole Bible in view lest we suffer from the effects of exaggerating one part of Scripture to the exclusion of others. The rule is that Scripture is to interpret Scripture

Some scholars seem to think that the more skeptical they are, the more critical they are. But adopting an excessive and unwarranted skeptical stance is not more critical than gullibly accepting whatever comes along.

2. The literal sense

The literal sense offers a restraint form letting our imaginations run away in fanciful interpretation and invites us to examine closely the literary forms of Scripture.

The Bible does not take on some special magic that changes basic literary patterns of interpretation. To discern the difference historical narrative and metaphor, earnest supplication to God is needed to give us clear minds and pure hearts to overcome our prejudices.

Though a scriptural passage has one meaning, it may have a host of applications to the wide variety of nuances to our lives. Both the analogy of faith and the principle of seeking the literal sense are necessary safeguards against unbridled speculation and subjectivist interpretation.

3. The grammatical-historical method

The grammatical-historical method focuses our attention on the original meaning of the text lest we "read into the Scripture" our own ideas drawn from the present.

Sound interpretation demands a careful analysis of the grammar and historical context of a writing. This work must be done.

Historical analysis involves seeking a knowledge of the setting and situation in which the books of the bible were written. This is a requisite for understanding what the books of the Bible meant in their historical contexts.

Inspired text from Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul.