We have such a tendency to look at the Sermon on the Mount and turn the entire sermon into a list of do’s and don’ts.  For example: “If I’m really meek I will inherit the earth” or “If I mourn I will be comforted”, etc. We place thoughts like these right along side “I need to try and be salt and light.” This only proves that we love the law. We run back to it every chance we get. We love the imperatives (commands) more than we love the indicatives (statements of fact). This is one reason we have such a hard time, in our Western culture, resting in Christ. We even take His statements and promise of blessing, that he accomplished for us, and turn them into things we must do or strive to earn! Jesus says: “You ARE blessed” and “You ARE salt and light” because of Him.

Yes, we are supposed to strive for obedience to His commands (Eph 4:1). But, that obedience comes from a heart of gratitude knowing that no matter how horrid our performance… we are blessed, loved, forgiven, accepted. All of this is because of Christ’s work on our behalf! Don’t ignore the fact that even on your best day, when you’re obeying like a champ, you still fall infinitely short of His standard of perfection. That’s good news! Christian, rest in the fact that Christ obeyed FOR you. So, live a life that is pleasing to Him in the strength of the Holy Spirit and rest in the fact that your acceptance has nothing to do with your performance!

Rest in Christ! | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

Theology and studying doctrine can sometimes seem a bit intimidating or overwhelming simply because there are some big words we have either never heard, seen, or understood. Taking the time to dig into the Word, commentaries, and other theological works from trusted men will help us break these large words into smaller, more manageable parts. As we begin to understand the parts, we can then begin to understand how they relate to the whole, and the next thing you know we magically know what we believe about an issue and why we come down where we do on it.

As an example I will be using my knowledge of websites (you can insert your understanding of a hobby or job to get the sam effect) throughout. I understand the parts and the language used in the development of a website. Though I’m not an expert, this is extremely helpful in many ways.

Studying the Bible and understanding doctrine gives us a deeper love and appreciation for God, how He reveals Himslef to us, who He says we are, what He has done for us in Christ, etc. The more we find out about this God we love, the more we love Him. The same would be true if you and I were to look at the same well done website. You would be able to appreciate the look and functionality, sure. But I would be able to appreciate those qualities along with an admiration of the skill, knowledge, and time required to build it. My love for the site is not better than yours, just deeper.

A better grasp on theology helps us as we try to teach others about God. The better we understand a topic, the more aptly equipped we will be to instruct others who are interested in knowing more. Our knowledge must not terminate on us, though. I mean that our knowledge is meant to bring glory and honor to God by increasing our worship of Him and be passed on to increase others’ knowledge of Him. If it is not, it will puff up. Back to the website. If I understand the base language websites are built on I can easily teach it to others so that they may build upon that and continue learning on their own.

A deeper knowledge of Christian doctrine will give us more confidence. I’m not talking about obnoxious pride here. I’m talking about a confidence that will help us in discussing issues with our brothers and sisters as well as give us the assurance we long for when we are asked by unbelievers to defend our position on a matter. For instance, someone may tell me that they believe X or Y will happen when they click on a certain link because they have clicked on links like this before. But, I have the ability to look at the source code and tell them exactly what will happen and why it will happen that way. As in the code below I can tell you that there is an image that when clicked will take you to another page as well as open that page in another browser window.

<a href=”http:www.example.com/webpage” target=”_blank”><img src=”images/webimage.jpg” /><a>

Lastly, though I’m sure there are more, a better understanding of the Bible through studying theology and doctrine will help us recognize falsehood and error. Being a student of the Word equips us to see heresy or harmful doctrine that would infiltrate our churches and homes. Too many well meaning Christians have been led astray by teaching what “seemed right.” Had they been equipped to pick up on the danger they would have seen the little things that ruin the whole. Little falsehoods matter when you’re talking about big, eternal concepts. Take the website code referenced above. It looks good at first glance. If you built websites you might be tempted to put it on your site because it feels right, but placing this code on your site would surely break this link and possibly break your entire site. Why? One missing character out of 88. The <a> tag at the end is not closed properly. It should be </a>.

The little things matter on the whole. Seemingly pointless studies matter when done to the glory of God and out of a desire to know and please Him.

Theology and HTML Code? | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

Atonement

What is it?

• The work of Christ in His perfect life and death on the cross to earn our salvation.
• Not just that He died for our forgiveness – that would have only made us morally neutral.
• But also He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father in all righteousness (Mt. 3:15) so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ (Phil. 3:9, 1 Cor. 1:30).

What were the causes of the Atonement?

• The love of God (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8).
• The justice of God (Rom. 6:23, Gen. 2:17, Rom. 3:23).
• In our culture, especially in my generation and younger, we tend to place so much emphasis on the love of God that we forget that He hates sin so much that He sent God the Son – perfect, spotless, sinless, blameless, holy, who enjoyed perfect communion with the Father and Spirit for all eternity – to die on a bloody cross taking the full force of the Father’s anger, wrath, and hatred.

Did Christ have to die?

• Yes and No.
• No. God did not have to save anyone. We all deserve Hell. There is nothing in us that obligates God to save us.
• He didn’t spare the angels when they rebelled (2 Pet. 2:4).
• Yes. Because of His choice to love and save sinners Christ had to die.
• Blood is required for the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22).
• The blood of bulls and goats isn’t enough (Heb. 10:4).
• A better sacrifice was required (Heb. 9:23).
• Only Christ’s death was able to take away our sins (Heb. 9:25-26).

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

• This is the term for the position I take.

Penal – Punishment.

• There must be a penalty paid for the wrong we have done and the sins we have commited.
• We have sinned and rebelled against an infinitely holy and perfect God. Our sin is worthy of infinite punishment (Rom. 6:23).
• We cannot even begin to fathom God’s holiness, how different He is than us, how perfect and pure He truly is!

Substitutionary – Christ died in our place, for our sins.

• “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous…” (1 Pet 3:18).
• “…he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Heb 9:26).

Atonement - Because of Christ’s perfect obedience and Him taking our place under God’s wrath, God can now propitiate our sins.

• Propitiation – Having God’s wrath removed by placing it on another.
• 1 John 4:10
• This was symbolized in the Old Testament by the use of the scapegoat in atonement ceremonies.

God’s Plan

• All of this was God’s plan form the beginning.
• Isaiah 53.
• It pleased God to do this – Mind blowing!
• He did this for His own glory and for His Name’s sake.
• We are the benefactors of God choosing to glorify Himself through us.

The New Covenant

• We are under the New Covenant established by Christ.
• It is not nullified if we don’t “hold up our end of the deal.”
• Contracts can be nullified, not covenants.
• We brought nothing into this covenant except our sin.
• God initiated it (just as He did with Abraham), not us.
• God is the One who sealed it in blood, not us.
• He started it. He keeps it. He will finish it.
• He gave us salvation. He sanctifies us. He will glorify us. (Phil. 1:6)

The Atoning Work of Christ | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

So, we find ourselves in this crazy cycle that started somewhere in the mid 20th century when men slowly began to abdicate their responsibilities of leading, teaching, and instructing their children in the ways of God to the church. The church, in turn, instead of rebuking the men and teaching them how to lead their homes began to enable them and accomodate them. Because of decades of this, we now have complete generations of men and women who grew up in the church and were never taught what it looks like for the dad to lead and instruct the home.

Now that the effects of this have come full circle we are finally beginning to realize that our current approach to ministering to children and students isn’t working. We get caught in this cycle of saying, as the church, “We know God has commanded the parents to do this job, but they won’t do it so we will.” Do you see how that’s a cycle? The church has been telling dads for years “We’ll take care of this for you. Just drop them off at children’s church. Just drop them off at youth group. Just let them come to college and career.” Now we see that’s not working, because 70%-80% of church-going young people will leave the church by the end of their freshman year of college, and what do we say to that? What’s our answer? Well, they’re not doing it so we’ll do it for them.

They haven’t been taught! They don’t get it. Our older men in the church aren’t calling our young men on the carpet and telling them to grow up in the faith, take their God-given responsibility, and be a man. And younger men, truth be known, most of the time we do know God has called us to lead our homes and we are either too lazy to do it because it’s hard, or too proud to ask for help, afraid someone might think we don’t know it all or have it all together.

This has to stop. We are robbing our wives and children of the blessings God wants to bring to them through us. Men, we set the spiritual temperature in our homes. It is our job to cultivate our marriage. A good marriage doesn’t just happen. It takes work. It is our job, not the church’s to teach our children about our faith, who God is, what the Bible says, how much He loves us, etc. We cannot give our children salvation, but we can give them a solid biblical foundation that most of us didn’t have growing up.

The following audio clip is by Voddie Baucham. It is a 10 minute snippet from his message “The Centrality of the Home” You can find the full message HERE.

Raising Children: Parents’ Role vs Church’s Role | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

New Content

Videos from Doug Wilson on biblical masculinity - In the Videos section.

Catechism For Boys and Girls – In the Articles section.

Watch Your Conjunctions In Parenting – In the Articles section.

Family Shepherds by Voddie Baucham – In the Recommended Reading section.

The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller - In the Recommended Reading section.

Featured Content

Social Resources – Guys or websites I follow for resources.

God In The Dock by C.S. Lewis - In the Recommended Reading section.

What Family Leadership Looks Like in My Home by Chad Gray – In the Blog section.

Have any resources you’d like to recommend? I’d love to hear about them. Just leave a comment below. Thanks!

New Content 2-25-12 | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

Having said all of that, none of these are good excuses to not have consistent times of family worship. By the way, not every time will be difficult. Though “family worship times” are not commanded in Scripture, this is a discipline that has proven beneficial for children and parents for thousands of years. I can tell you from experience and from listening to older dads who raised children having family worship that there is no better way to raise your children in the fear and instruction of the Lord (which is commanded).

Tonight in our family worship we had one of those difficult nights. After it was over, I exclaimed to my wife, “I get it. I understand why so many men don’t do this or have a hard time being consistent with it. I get it.” Tonight wasn’t even one of our teaching nights. We were only going to sing two songs, pray and be done. That’s it! We have “rules” or “guidelines” the kids are expected to abide by:  no toys during worship, sing with us, pay attention, etc. In that short span of time, I had to reiterate those rules several times, confiscate toys, separate the older two because of bickering, constantly redirect the two year old away from my desk before everything was in the floor, warn the middle child for sticking out his legs to try and trip the two year old, stop and discipline said child for disobeying and actually tripping the two year old, and wait as my wife put the crying two year old to bed. And all I wanted to do is sing two songs to Jesus as a family!

So, again, let me say I understand the frustration and excuses why dads don’t lead their young families in worship. But they are just that…excuses, not valid reasons to excuse us from our God given mandate to pass on our faith to our children. Dads, man up and be a blessing to your children. That’s why He  allowed them to be born into a family of believers, so they would learn the faith and have the biblical foundation they need in this life lived for the glory of Christ!

In a previous post I tell What Family Leadership Looks Like In My Home and offer resources to help dads make this a regular part of family time together.

Family Worship Is A Discipline | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

• God’s glory (majesty, holiness, apart-ness). – Eph. 1:6, 12, 14
• God’s wisdom in working His plan and purpose. – Eph 1:5, 8, 9, 11
• God’s love for His children and the blessings we have in Christ. – Eph. 1:3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13-14, 19

In looking at these verses and themes, if you pull any of them out of context or out of the whole and base your doctrine or theology on those, you could run into one of a couple of ditches.

Bless-Me Theology

You could end up thinking that God is all about you or us as humans. This theology focuses on God’s blessings toward us and thinks that God exists to bless and make much of us. God is all about making you feel good, making you successful, blessing you with a great job or lots of material things. Some things you might hear people who believe this way say are:

• “Just look at all the riches we have in Him.”
• “I’m a child of the King, therefore I deserve this or that.”
• “We are blessed with blessings in the heavenlies.”
• “See God’s love for you. He would never let anything bad happen to you. It’s not his will.”

When God is all about you, you are all about you and everyone else should be all about you also. When this is your attitude, if you don’t get your way, you get angry at the people around you and upset with God because He didn’t give you what you wanted or “deserve.”  Of course we would never say this is what we believe, but our actions, or rather reactions, when we don’t get what we want sometimes prove otherwise.

Worm Theology

In this ditch God is always and ONLY about Himself and never involves us at all. He is a distant force that does whatever He wants with no regard for His creation. You don’t really pray much because you don’t want to bother Him with your petty little life and problems. In this way of thinking God becomes a cold, heartless dictator. Some of the thinking that accompanies this theology are:

• “I’m a loser.”
• “I’m worthless.”
• “I’m nothing at all.”

The Glory Cycle

There is a biblical balance here. God is about God, to be sure! Yet in His wisdom, glory, and grace He has chosen to glorify Himself by saving and adopting sinners. This is really Good News! This has been His plan all along. If you are a believer in Christ, God initiated the whole process. You can see this all throughout Ephesians and especially in chapter 1.

• God created you. – Ps. 139:13-16
• God came to you in Christ knowing that we are hopeless without a Savior. – John 1:11-14, 29
• God died for you. – 1 Cor. 15:3-4, Rom. 5:8
• God drew you to Christ through the Holy Spirit. – John 6:44
• God gave you the faith to believe. – Eph 2:8-9
• God saved you. – Eph. 2:4-5
• God made you a new creation. – 2 Cor. 5:17
• God holds on to you. – Rom. 8:39, John 10:27-29
• God began, sustains, and completes your salvation. – Phil. 1:6
• God will glorify you. – Rom. 8:30

This is how God has decided to glorify Himself. We get to be caught up in this glory-cycle! We are the benefactors of God’s self-glorification. Yes, we are sinful, wicked, rebellious, and pitiful AND yes, He has chosen to lavish His love on us, giving us His riches, and through adoption making us heirs with Christ of a glorious inheritance.

Application

Any pride that you and I may have in ourselves because we are saved or we know the Bible or we’re moral people is absolutely sinful and a slap in the face of Christ. We are saved by Him. We desire to know Him through His Word and live a life that pleases Him ONLY because He has placed His Spirit within us and made us alive. A prideful Christian is an oxymoron. If we have a boast it is only in Christ’s power and our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9, Gal. 6:14).

Don’t focus so much on God’s blessings that you forget why He saved you in the first place. Don’t focus so much on God’s sovereignty that you forget that He does love you and calls you His own.

Thoughts From Ephesians 1 | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

So I decided I would pull back the curtain and let people know what it looks like in my home for me to lead out spiritually. This is in no way meant to be braggadocious on me or my wife. All credit and glory belongs to God alone. I wish I had time to tell of the immeasurable healing and restoration that He has brought into my family! Nor is this me trying to tell other men exactly how they should lead in their homes. Every home is unique and as such will operate a bit differently.

I’m merely trying to call attention to the fact that as men, we are the pastors of our families! This is our calling in life. It is our job to pass on our faith, teaching them who God is. We ARE leading our families whether we know it or not. The question is: Where and to whom are we leading them?

In this post I will focus on what family leadership looks like in regard to my children. I’ll deal with leading our wives in another post.

Most week day mornings before I go to work we sit down for just a few minutes after breakfast (or during) and start the day off with some Biblical truth. We just finished going through the book “Big Truths for Young Hearts” where the kids would memorize our “big idea” for the week (the chapter titles) and the verse that went along with it. We would spend just a few minutes talking about what the big idea and verse actually meant and how it applies to our lives. Then we prayed and I left for work. That usually took less than 10 min each morning. We just started going through the “Catechism for Boys and Girls”. I ask them a question and they give a memorized answer. Then I read one of the verses that go with the Q & A, we talk for a minute or two about it, pray and that’s it.

Family worship in the evenings is also very important. If the only times your kids see you sing, pray, or look at a Bible is in church on Sunday mornings you’re telling them by your actions how important God is to you and your family and nothing you say to them to the contrary will overturn that! Don’t let the term “family worship” scare you. You don’t have to have a full blown 1 hour worship service! Make it simple, make it short.

We usually try to have family worship/devotions about three nights a week. We don’t always follow the same format. Sometimes we sing a song, read our devotion, and pray. Sometimes we just read our devotion and pray. Sometimes we just sing a few songs and pray. The point is to make it a regular event to worship Jesus in your home as a family! When the older two kids were younger we would read a story from “The Jesus Storybook Bible” and they loved to act out the stories. Currently we are going through a book called “Long Story Short” where each devotion is laid out for you, points everything to Christ, and only takes about ten minutes.

Above all, don’t get discouraged if you have a few bombs. Trust me, you will have them. You will drop the ball! Don’t get discouraged if you think that your kids aren’t getting it or that they just don’t care (anyone who thinks this doesn’t happen has never tried it with a five year old boy). Be consistent! Keep going. Keep doing it.

Next, we simply talk about God a lot! My wife and I try to point them to Christ as much as we can. For instance if one of my kids talks about how good something tastes I will agree with them and then ask something like “I wonder who made this taste so good?”. They answer “God” and we eat lots of that good tasting food, giving Him thanks. If you watch a movie that has a hero in it, that should always remind us of the hero of the Bible and our hero, Jesus. You don’t have to get deep all the time and be weird, but make God-talk the norm around your home. Also, no question about God is “off limits.” If I don’t know the answer I simply tell them I don’t know. If it is a valid question I will tell them that I’ll find out or we could find out together.

When it comes to discipline we always talk about what they have done and why it’s wrong before we spank or ground them. When we talk to them we point out the fact that what they have done is sin that comes form a sinful heart. This gives us a chance to constantly reinforce the gospel and our need for a Savior. It is important that they know we are sinners too, who need God’s forgiveness just as much as they do. We also want them to understand that we are correcting them and trying to line them up with the Word of God and that that is our job as their parents.

Other ways I lead my family that they never really “see” is by praying for them and praying for God’s guidance as I lead. Also by researching, resourcing, and reading about family leadership. I like finding things out from other men who have been where I am or are where I am in life. This includes listening to sermons, audio messages, reading books, blogs, etc. I’ve not been the dad of a 7 year old girl, or a 5 year old boy before so new situations come up all the time.

All this leads me to my last point. If you try to do this on your own, without the power of the Holy Spirit, it will crush you. The weight of family leadership will either scare you off to where you do nothing, make you so depressed that you do nothing, or push you to Christ who tells you to cast your cares and burdens on Him. He is the One you are after. He is the One you are leading your family to.

Additional Resources

• Family Driven Faith - Voddie Baucham
• Family Shepherds – Voddie Baucham
• Shepherding a Child’s Heart – Tedd Tripp
• Give Them Grace – Elyse Fitzpatrick
• Biblical Parenting Series – Voddie Baucham
• Biblical Parenting Conference – Tedd Tripp
• Proverbs – Mark Driscoll
• Image & Glory of God – Matt Chandler
• More books on biblical parenting
• More audio messages on biblical parenting

What Family Leadership Looks Like In My Home | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

Our tendency is to completely overlook Paul’s first words of chapter 4: “I Therefore.” Meaning that he expects theses things to happen because of what he has laid out for us in the first three chapters. Paul spends the first three chapters of his letter reminding us of who Christ is and what He has done on our behalf and the blessings we have because of His sacrifice. In fact, Paul’s first command doesn’t show up until Eph. 4:1! He literally spends half the letter displaying the glory of Christ and the beauty of His gospel! We’ve got to understand the first three chapters (indicatives) before we move on to 4 and 5 (imperatives).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” - (Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV)

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” - (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV)

Christianity is not about what you do, it’s about what Christ has done for you (1 Cor. 15:1-4)! You don’t get saved by the gospel and then move on to the “deeper things” of the faith. That’s the whole reason Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians. We are to grow IN the gospel, growing in the love and knowledge of God in Christ.

Yes, the New Testament has commands for believers to follow. But, if separated from the gospel, you run in to major problems. There are a few ditches we need to avoid when talking about commands in the New Testament, or Old Testament for that matter.

Three ditches to avoid:

Despair

Law without the gospel will cause people to see the bad news that they will never measure up or be good enough for God, without seeing the good news that Christ has done this for them. They think that they’ll never be good enough for God, so they walk away from Jesus and the church. You see, the law did what it was meant to do – crush us and reveal our need for a Savior (Rom. 7:13). But, if no Savior is preached, people end up feeling hopeless or run off in to the next ditch.

Pride

Some will run to the law for confirmation that they are a good person and living a life on the outside that is pleasing to God. They believe that their obedience either saves them or keeps them saved, whether they say it or not. They usually obey the letter of the law while neglecting the spirit of the law. The prideful live a life in constant comparison with their fellow humans, allowing people to be their standard instead of God’s revealed will for their lives in His Word (Mt. 23:25-26). They prove they do not truly comprehend the gospel. The gospel says if they are truly saved, they used to be the very people they think they are better than and their salvation had nothing to do with their “goodness” (Eph. 2:1-5).

Antinomianism

This is just a big word that means no law. This is more popular in our culture today than it ever has been, especially in the church. You hear it every day, but you don’t realize it becasue, on the surface, it sounds spiritual. It usually goes something like this: “We don’t need a bunch of rules and laws in the church. If we would just simply love God and love others, people would see our kindness and be led to repentance.” There are several things wrong with this approach, but we’ll walk through three of them.

First, YOUR kindness alone will not lead someone to repentance. Neither will your adherence to the law for that matter. God has ordained the preaching (telling/sharing) of the good news of Christ to be the means by which the Holy Spirit will awaken and save people (Rom. 10:14-15). Also it is in the gospel that people see the kindness of God (not you) that leads them to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

Next, the “love God, love others” bit. There are two things I see wrong with this statement when used in this context.

1. “Love God. Love others” is a summary of the Law! When Jesus siad that (Mt. 22:34-39), He was not giving us an “out” from obeying the rest of the law. He was summing it up. Those are the two tables of the Law.
• Commandments 1 – 4: Love God (Ex. 20:3-11).
• Commandments 5 – 10: Love others (Ex. 20:12-17).
2. This new “law of love” is an even heavier burden than the rules they are trying to run from. Which is more difficult: That I love my nighbor perfectly as the Bible says I should – sacrificing my wants and desires in order to help him, putting his needs before my own, and using my time, money, and energy to make sure I’m loving Him rightly… Or, not sleeping with his wife? Again, which is more difficult: That I love God fully, whole-heartedly, perfectly devoting myself to Him, worshipping Him at all times… Or, don’t get drunk? The point being, people who say this don’t want rules, yet place a heavier burden on themselves and others. The mantra then becomes, “It’s okay if you didn’t do it all right today, you can just try harder tomorrow.” Jesus showed us that the spirit of the law or the law of love is much deeper than mere outward obedience and much heavier than we could bear (Mt. 5:19-48). Though this is what we strive for as believers, we do so knowing that even our best efforst on our best days are tainted by our inherent sinfulness. This law of love Christ obeyed and fulfilled to the fullest (Mt. 5:17). This is the righteousness we receive as a gift when we trust in His work on our behalf.

Lastly, the third thing wrong with this popular antinomianism position is the most obvious one to see. There ARE commands and requirements in the New Testament!

We are to lovingly submit to Christ’s loving leadership just as He commands wives to lovingly submit to their husband’s loving leadership later on in the letter (Eph. 5:22-23). Paul isn’t just giving us a bunch of do’s and don’ts – he is showing us how we are to grow up in Christ, in our faith. We are not to remain children in our faith, tossed about by every wind and wave of false doctrine. Old, selfish, sinful habits have to be trained out of us (sanctification).

Once you have spent time digging through the first part of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and understand why he wrote that part first and you begin to comprehend God’s overwhelming love for His children, then you are ready to get to the imperatives of chapters 4 & 5 and walk in a manner worthy of your calling in Christ Jesus.

Pride, Despair, or Rebellion: The 3 Outcomes of Legalism | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood

The group is open to all men (married, single, young, old, etc.). We’d love to have you come by and hang out with us.

We’ll meet every other Thursday night at 7pm and the meeting places will be varied between the homes of some of the men in the group (see “Location” for meeting dates and “Maps” below for directions). We have a pretty intense study of the book of Ephesians to go through this season. I’ll outline the format and schedule below.

Meeting and Study Schedule

Meeting – 1.3.12 (Discuss new meeting time) – Location A

• Week one – Read through the book of Jude several times.
• Week two – Study the book of Jude.

Meeting – 1.12.12 (Discuss Jude and introduction to Bible study methods) – Location A

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter one.

Meeting – 1.26.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch.1) – Location B

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians again.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter two.

Meeting – 2.9.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch. 2) – Location A

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians again.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter three.

Meeting – 2.23.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch. 3) – Location B

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians again.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter four.

Meeting – 3.8.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch. 4)

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians again.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter five.

Meeting – 3.22.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch. 5)

• Week one – Read through the book of Ephesians again.
• Week two – Study Ephesians chapter six.

Meeting – 4.5.12 (Discuss Ephesians Ch. 6)

Location A

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Men’s Group Winter/Spring 2012 | BiblicalMen.com - Resources for biblical manhood