Life Group Guide

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LIFE GROUP GUIDE This Is Your God #4: “Glorious in Mercy” Tips for Leaders For the next few weeks, these tips will be connected to the Everyday Voices “Attributes of Scripture” blog posts that are coming out on Monday mornings. Why not have a look before reading the rest of the guide? The Bible is clear. The Church of England explains this really well in the following: "Not everything in Scripture is plain or clear to everyone. However, everything that is necessary to be known, believed and kept for salvation are so clearly put forward that not only educated people, but also uneducated people, by using normal means of studying the Bible, can grasp a sufficient understanding of them." A verse that illustrates this is 2 Timothy 2:7: "Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this." This should really encourage us. Praise God that we can understand the Bible! Of course, clear doesn’t mean easy, and although it might not feel very “spiritual”, there is no substitute for working hard when it comes to understanding what a Bible passage means. Even if our passage this evening isn’t clear to start with, we and our Life Groups can be encouraged that as we work hard to understand it, God will steadily make it clear to us! CONNECT UP: give God an opportunity to speak to you through his Word Passage: Romans 3:9-26. Summary sentence: “There is no one righteous, but God demonstrates his own righteousness by being both just and the one who justifies.” 1) Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZMpKDRAHwI In what ways have you felt like the man on the tracks? 2) Please read Romans 3:9-20. Which particular images stand out the most to you? 3) In our passage, Paul strings together 8 Old Testament passages to hammer home one crucial point. What do we think this point is? [Leaders note: there is no one righteous! This has been Paul’s sustained argument in Romans since 1:18.] 4) All of us, before we become Christians, are in this position. Being completely honest, how do we feel about this? 5) What on earth does this passage have to do with God’s mercy?! [Leaders note: our deserving God’s justice and God being merciful to us are two sides of the same coin; the more we appreciate the one, the more we appreciate the other.] 6) Read Romans 3:21-26. On four sheets of paper, have “righteous”, “justified”, “redemption” and “atonement” written down. In order to understand the riches of God’s mercy, we have to know what these words specifically mean. Can we provide a definition for each? [Leaders note: righteous = being in the right with God, justified = a legal term for being declared innocent, redemption = being bought back at a price, atonement = wrath-bearing sacrifice, like the “scapegoat” of Leviticus 16:6-22.] 7) According to our passage, how is God both just and merciful? [Leaders note: look at verse 25. God is just by punishing sin by punishing Jesus. He is merciful by Jesus taking this punishment in our place.] 8) Using the passage, spend time thanking God for his glorious mercy! You might want to sing a song together that focuses on God forgiving us through Jesus on the cross. CONNECT IN: discuss the implications of what God says to you as a Life Group 1) Because God has shown us such extravagant mercy, we also must show mercy to others. Is there anybody in the church that we hold something against that we need to show mercy to? 2) Memorising passages from the Bible is an incredible way to have God’s Word make us more like Jesus. Read Romans 3:23-24 four times together. Can we memorise this before next Life Group?

CONNECT OUT: discuss the implications for your interactions with the world around you 1) When our friends are happy, well-paid or satisfied in their relationships we can secretly think that they don’t really need to know Jesus. How does our passage change this attitude? 2) When our friends live blatantly sinful lives, we can secretly think that they don’t deserve God’s mercy. How does our passage change that attitude? 3) Turn into threes. Share three names of people you know who don’t yet know Jesus. Maybe that’s you! Discuss how we can take steps to share God’s glorious mercy with them, and pray for them. Share these names in our Life Group group chat (if there is one!) and pray for the names throughout the week. [Leaders note: use this as an opportunity to teach into how to share the gospel. Whether it’s starting this journey by praying for non-Christian friends, or whether somebody has been doing it for a long time and needs fresh encouragement to press on, here’s the opportunity!]