In the last session we looked at some of the key ideas that inform how we think about atonement. This Session, drawing on chapter 3 of the book, will be looking at Atonement in the context of sin and the problem of evil.
The aim of this session is to look at these two areas as bound up with what it means to be human, their effect on our relationships and how they ultimately define a person’s relationship with God.
Opening Conversation
Spend some time re-connecting with each other. How has the last week been for you? Did anything that was said in the last session ‘stay with you’? It’s really important the group has a good basis of trust for these sessions, so listen to each other carefully and respect confidentiality at all times.
Watch the Video
Bible reading
Genesis 3: 1-14
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
Colossians 1:20
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Romans 6: 1-11
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Key Points
- God’s justice is re-creative, rather than retribution
- Atonement as ‘expiation’ rather than substitution
Discussion Questions
The nature of Sin
- Does the idea of sin need to be re-examined and re-evaluated for the times we live in?
- What are some of the things we might consider sinful today to which, in the past, people would have been indifferent, or even approving?
- What do you think are some of the things that enrich human life that have become commodified?
The Problem of Evil
- Are human beings inherently evil?
- What are the greatest evils around us today? How do we resist them?
- What do you think a breakdown of trust involves? What happens to the people involved? And why does it happen?
God, sin and evil
- What do you understand by the ‘fear of God’?
- How have your ideas of God changed over time?
The Cross as Sacrifice – conflict and triumph over evil
- Does the idea of expiatory sacrifice (‘rubbing out’ sin, so that it is as if the sin was never there in the first place) change the way you think about the Cross and God’s forgiveness of sin?
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