Orphan or child of God. One week’s worth of no gossip, criticism or defensiveness. What is justification and sanctification and how in the world does it apply to me? Lack of repentance means no relationship with Christ. Daily sacrifice to the idols that are not made of stone, but are as real as if they were.
All these topics and more in the Sonship course left me wondering how Christ could love me enough to die on the cross. I grew up hearing about Christ, even confessed him as my God and Savior. Somehow, through the progression of this Bible study, I began to understand the reality of how much I am loved by God, and how much He desires to bring us to Himself. Some weeks were more pertinent than others, yet there was not one week in which my soul was not touched by some truth from the Gospel. I learned how to pray specifically for myself and others. I am humbled by the lives of Christians like Paul, who called himself “chiefest of sinners.” If he is the chief of sinners, then what does that make me?
Forgiveness was the topic that stood out to me as one of the best chapters to meet a need in my life. Why forgive someone who hasn’t asked for forgiveness? What is forgiveness? How do you forgive someone that has hurt you? I learned that forgiveness is not about healing yourself and ridding yourself of anger towards someone. Who knew that the goal of forgiveness is to bring repentance and reconciliation to God? That is best illustrated by God’s forgiveness of our sin and His goal is to draw us to Him. “It’s not about me” would be the theme of forgiveness. It all comes back to the idea that our purpose as Christians is to live out Christianity before others in every way we can. If we’re angry, how can we possibly love out Christ in our lives? I learned that the sin against me is paltry in comparison to what I have been forgiven. This lesson gave me a starting point to try to forgive those that I am angry with. At the end of the lesson about forgiveness, I began to pray differently and think differently about those I needed to forgive. It has changed my focus completely, and some day I hope to be able, through Christ, to truly forgive for real and for always.
I view this 16 week Bible study as a new beginning for me. Many weeks I left discouraged and feeling like I would never be mature as a Christian. But the reminders were constant that we’re on a journey and one day, in eternity, we will be like Christ. I am hungry for the process, and confess discouragement at my many failures, but I’m assured that Christ does love me.
No matter what your relationship to Christ is at this time in your life, or if you don’t have a relationship with Christ at all, this Bible study is for you. The study is based on the book of Galatians. Paul wrote that book to Christians who had allowed false teachers to tell them they had to go back to living with rules, when Paul had previously taught them that they were free in Christ.
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