True or False: Bad Things Happen, God Is Dead

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13. Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:2-4 state that trials are for a believer’s good. In a brief paragraph, describe how you would explain this spiritual truth to someone who has lost hope in an extremely difficult trial.

Gold is not naturally purified. It takes a lot of heat to melt it so the dross separates and can be scraped off the top. The gold may not find the heat to be at all comfortable, but that’s because it doesn’t have the bigger perspective. God is purifying us, and He uses difficult trials to accomplish a great purity in us; if we persist in faithfulness, he will grow us to maturity–a new creation in which Love is fully formed!

 

True or False: Eternal Life is Earned by Being a Good Person

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2. Explain how a person can receive the gift of eternal life, citing at least three scripture references to support your explanation.

A person receives the gift of eternal life when they turn from their own ways and follow Christ.

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 cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 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. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming pages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:1-10

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because she has not received in the name of God one and only son. This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen that what he has done has been done through God. John 3:16-21

 

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. Colossians 1:21-23

 

True or False: Jesus is not the Only Way

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1. Write one verse in its entirety (and reference) that shows a person’s hopelessness apart from salvation provided through Jesus Christ. (Lesson 1, Pages 2-4)

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23b-24

…and a bonus:

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12