From the Inside Out
A Grace Filled Life
The Four Cups (2|2)
Pages 48-55
Ephesians 2:1-5 (NIV) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NIV) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that 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. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 John 3:1-3 (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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Why do you think we sometimes underestimate the intensity of Jesus’ suffering in temptation? How does that impact the way you approach your own moments of weakness?
How does knowing that you are fully accepted and embraced by God through Jesus change the way you relate to Him, especially when you struggle with guilt or failure?
Why do you think so many believers still live as though their sin separates them from God, even after trusting in Jesus?
Why do you think many Christians imagine eternity as an escape from the physical world rather than its renewal? How might this misunderstanding affect the way we live today?