Saturday, February 8, 2025

February 16, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – Choose Life

Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 – New International Version (NIV)

11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

What “is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach” (verse 11)?

Why is it not in heaven (verse 12)?

Where is it not beyond (verse 13)?

What is very near to you (verse 14)?

What is “set before you today” (verse 15)?

When will you “live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess” (verse 16)?

When will you “certainly be destroyed” (verses 17 and 18)?

What are “the heavens and the earth” witnesses of (verse 19)?

Who “is your life” (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the law’s role in salvation?

Matthew 5:17-20 - New International Version (NIV)

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

What did Jesus come “to fulfill” (verse 17)?

What must be accomplished before the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen “will by any means disappear from the Law” (verse 18)?

Who will “be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19)?

Who will be “great in the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19)?

What has to surpass “that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law” before someone can enter the kingdom of heaven (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the law’s role in salvation?

In your opinion, how does Moses’s instruction to “now choose life” in his discussion that includes obeying the laws in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 help us understand what Jesus means when He says He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets “but to fulfill them”?

Romans 3:21-31 - New International Version (NIV)

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

What righteousness has “been made known” apart from the law (verse 21)?

How is this righteousness given (verse 22)?

Who is this righteousness given to (verse 22)?

Who has “sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (verse 23)?

Who is “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (verses 23 and 24)?

How is Christ’s sacrifice “through the shedding of his blood” to be received (verse 25)?

“Where, then, is boasting?” (verse 27)?

What does Paul maintain (verse 28)?

“Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith” (verse 31)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the law’s role in salvation?

In your opinion, how does Moses beginning his instructions about obedience with the command to “love the Lord your God” in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 help prepare us for Paul’s discussion of a righteousness that is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” in Romans 3:21-31?

In your opinion, how does Romans 3:21-31 help us understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 5:17-20 when He said, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven?

Galatians 3:19-27 – New International Version (NIV)

19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 

What was added “because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come” (verse 19)?

“Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?” (verse 21)?

What “has locked up everything under the control of sin” (verse 22)?

Who is given “what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ” (verse 22)?

When were we held “in custody under the law” (verse 23)?

What “was our guardian until Christ came” (verse 24)?

Why are we “no longer under a guardian” (verse 25)?

What have all the children of God through faith who have been “baptized into Christ” clothed with (verses 26 and 27)

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about the law’s role in salvation?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s statement in Galatians 3:19-27 that the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith” help us understand what Moses meant in Deuteronomy 30:11-20 when he said For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess”?

In your opinion, how does Galatians 3:19-27 help us understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 5:17-20 when He said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them?

In your opinion, how do Romans 3:21-31 and Galatians 3:19-27 show us how the law and faith work together to bring about salvation?

In your opinion, what do these Scriptures from Deuteronomy, Matthew, Romans, and Galatians teach us about how Jesus fulfills the law?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “choose life” today?

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