By James Boice
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: A Different Kind of Righteousness
There is a fourth reason why human righteousness is unacceptable to God, and it is most important. Human righteousness is actually a different kind of righteousness from that which God requires. God asks for divine righteousness, and human righteousness is not divine righteousness at all.
Most people think of goodness much in the way we think of light. That is, they acknowledge that it takes different forms and has varying degrees of intensity, but they believe that basically it is the same thing wherever you find it. At the bottom, there is light that you cannot even see. A little higher up the scale there is the dull light that you might find in a cave somewhere that comes from decaying bacteria. There is the kind of l
By James Boice
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: Christ and the Law
The first great public utterance of the Lord Jesus Christ on Scripture not only set forth its complete authority, as we saw last week. It also contained the categorical statement that the Scriptures were to be fulfilled in their entirety by him. Jesus said, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:17-18). We are now to ask: In what sense did Jesus fulfill the law and in what sense did he fulfill the prophets?
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Theme: Christian Leaders
In this week’s study, we look at the office of elder and deacon, and note the importance of Christian leadership, both in the church and in other callings we have received from God.
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:1-13
We could characterize these first two chapters of 1 Timothy as being marked by strong doctrine. In chapter 1, Paul contrasted the sound doctrine of Scripture with what is false. He knew that there were false teachings circulating and he wanted Timothy to be on his guard against them to make sure that the churches with which he was involved maintained biblical teaching. Paul talked about it in a personal way because after encouraging Timothy to remain strong in doctrine, he goes on to show that this is the very doctrine that had produced his conversion and delivered him from his mistaken zeal for God in persecuting the church, which was actually working against God and his saving plan.
By James Boice
Theme: Paul the Pharisee
In this week’s lessons, we look at how Paul viewed himself apart from Christ, and the great change that took place because of God’s mercy.
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-20
The first passage where Paul talks about his past is Galatians 1:13, where he writes, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.” Paul believed that by working against the church he was serving God as a faithful Jew. He, of course, did not realize at that point that the same God he was claiming to follow was establishing the very church Paul was persecuting.