Satisfaction Guaranteed

Principle 5: Satisfaction Guaranteed – Accepting God’s righteousness as a gift satisfies our hunger to be right with him.
(Romans 3:21-26)

Basic Principle by Questions

  1. Describe the last time you can remember doing something for which you personally felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
  2. If you can’t think of something you’ve done, what might you imagine you could do that would be very satisfying to you?
  3. In what way(s) is satisfaction in life linked to performance (yours or others)?
  4. In what way(s) is feeling really satisfied connected to whether or not we feel accepted by others?
  5. What happens to our satisfaction when we want something badly but can’t seem to earn it or achieve it? Into what other feeling might satisfaction turn in such cases?
  6. What do people do to be accepted by God and how much of it has to do with obedience to laws? What are some of those laws or what do the attempts to be good involve?
  7. In what ways would you be frustrated or how would you feel if you knew you could never be good enough to be acceptable to God?
  8. Does that seem intuitively accurate to you to realize you could never really be good enough to be acceptable to a perfect God? Why or why not?
  9. Consider how amazing it would be if a right relationship with God could be a gift to you rather than payment for your good behavior. How would you react?
  10. What difference would it make if you knew that your parents loved you no matter what you did even though that meant at times you’d have to be disciplined/told “no”?
  11. What difference would it make if you always knew deep in your heart that your parents loved you more than they loved their own lives?
  12. What if you knew God loved you that way and offered forgiveness and acceptance by faith, not by works? Would that help you achieve a real sense of satisfaction? How?
  13. Since God does love you unconditionally and offers to accept you into His family by faith in Christ Jesus, describe how hope could replace hopelessness in your heart or in the hearts of others who come to this truth.

Irreducible Minimums

  • Religions falsely offer a right relationship with “god” by directing us to adequately perform a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” This provides a stark contrast to God’s offer of unconditional acceptance through faith in Jesus Christ as THE provision for our sin.
  • We are of great worth to God and He desires that we come into a right relationship with Him by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2: 8 -10)
  • Prison of Self-Condemnation: Ideas about being right with God that contradict Christ’s offer of loving acceptance create prisons of selfcondemnation and performance-based relationships, hindering love from being received and given. (Galatians 2:21)
  • Pursuing God’s righteousness results in the conclusion that His righteousness must be received as a gift because it could never be earned. (Matthew 5:6)
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