The Free Gift of Life

The Free gift of life is a small book containing 8 interactive bible studies for small groups and individuals. We have just started this book a few weeks ago at the ladies bible study I have just started to go to.
An interactive Bible study is a bit like a guided tour of a famous city.The studies will take us through Romans 1-5, pointing out things along the way, filling in background details and suggesting avenues for further explorations (as quoted by the author Gordon Cheng)

These are my notes of the study so far. They are notes so please excuse the briefness of some sentences. Maybe they might be of help to somone out there so I thought I would share.

The first study is called The Gospel according to Paul. Romans 1 :1-17
This was quite a large chunk to cover and was split over two weeks.

We were asked to investigate

1) what was accupying pauls mind
1-17
Paul was itching to bring the gospel to the Romans
v2-6 Intordution and authenticating himself
v7-8 Thankful for their testimony
v9 Thanking always in prayer.Paul serving God with his whole heart.
v10 Longs to see them
v12 Mutually encouraging one another
v13 Preparation. Hugely encouraged by them .How the Gospel is handled.
v15 Reaching out to ALL types of people
v16-17 Concerned about the gospel of Christ , to preach Christ crucified.Wanting to reach both Jew and gentile.

Romans 9 1-6
Pauls Love. Massive distress for the people.List of Old testament traditions all been superceeded by Jesus.
Willingness of self sacrifice (v3), he wishes he was cursed and them saved. (what love!)
v4 Most priveledged people on the face of the earth(chosen by God to be Gods people)
v5 Redemptive history (David Solemon etc)
v6 Not all saved. Gentiles are not second class citizens. (Many Jews viewed them as this.)

Romans 15:14-33
Concerned about spreading the Gospel to places that have not already heard of Jesus.
Holds Christians he is writing too in high esteem.

2) what do we learn about Paul himself from the following verses?

Romans 1:1
A servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle by God.
No longer his life but the Lords life.
Emersary of Jesus
He is called and set apart by GOD.
Does totally what the Master desires.

Romans 15 14-33
v16 God given role.
v15 Full of grace
Cocerened for His people..All credit to God.
Always putting himself last in all he does.
Conscious on how the Gospel is handled.
v32 Gods will out pouring.
Slavery to the right Master is a very good thing and what a Master he had! Priviledge to serve.
Joy in service

3) in verses 1-4 , Paul moves straight from the greeting to the heart of the gospel.

Who is the gospel about ?
Lord Jesus crucified and his resurrection

What do you larn about the person whom the gospel is about?
Descendent of David in the flesh.
Son of God- ressurection
Human nature and divine nature.

4)According to Romans 1:5

What is the right response to the gospel.
Grace alone. Obedience of faith and submission.
We recieve grace freely.Belong to God. To trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and not put faith in works.
Who is the gospel for ?
Everyone :Jew and gentile , greek barbarian wise and foolish.
First the Jew and Gentile.

5) Read verses 8-17.Why does Paul want to visit Rome? What specific to him as an apostle, and what can we copy from this example.
To thank God for his saints. Wanting fellowship. To pray more often.
Fellowship- spiritual gift to strengthen you.
Encouragemenet by each other faith. , to know brothers and sisters in Christ, encourage and enpower. Graeful for one another, faith and obedience.

We stopped here on first session and I felt so comfortable and confident with the small group of ladies and got totally involved in the discussion.

6)Look carefully at how the repeated worg 'for' links together the idea's in verses 15, 16 and 17.
Why was paul eager to preach in Rome?
Reap some harvest among them.Rome is peak of civilisation of the World. Casade effect. Paul is not ashamed to preach the word.It will be as effective here than anywhere else.
Why is he not ashamed of the gospel?
For it is the power of God for Salavation. We all should be eager...
Why is the gospe the power of God for Salavation?
Because it is a life changing message , in it God's righteousness is revealed.
The word righteousness is a major theme of book appears over 30 times in one form or another.Righteousness is the state or condition of perfectly conforming to Gods perfect law and Holy charater.

The next session mainly covered that many Jews thought human works made them right with God, how Paul preached the word and how we can learn about the nature of the Gospel and how we should respong to it.
In your own life?
Your small group?
Your church?
Reasons why you should be involved spreading the Gospel to others.

Then finally . According to the Romans 1 1;17
how are we saved ? How should this view of salvation affect:
Our view on ourselves>
We should be thankful and prayerful
We are sinners and cannot be right with God without the Lord Jesus Christ paying the price of sin and making us right in Gods eyes.(not of human works)
Putting God first in out lives.
our view on other?
All are equal and need the saving grace of the Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take away our pride. Not better than anyone else. Salvation used 5 times in Romans a key word.


This to many look like a mass of words that at times make no sense, these are my notes from the meeting and I came back from meetings full of life eagerness and Joy.