ST NICOLAS, NEWBURY

HOME GROUP QUESTIONS

FROM SUNDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2008

ROAMING ROMANS SESSION 11: ROMANS 7:1-6

1. What happens when we see a sign that says 'keep off the grass'? Why is this?

2. Read Romans 7:1-6 together.

3. How does what Paul says about 'the sinful passions aroused by the law...' ring true in your experience?

4. What does Paul mean by 'God's law'? How does Romans 2:14-15 expand our understanding of this?

5. To what extent is your picture of God influenced by the idea of a figure with a book of rules in one hand and a big stick in the other? How common is this way of thinking about God?

6. Why can't this way of seeing God help us very much? Look at Romans 3:20 to see how Paul brings this out.

7. Now look at Romans 3:21-22. What has God done to resolve the problem of our inability to live as he intends us to?

8. Coming to Romans 7, what truth is Paul's reference to marriage actually illustrating?

9. Having shown how unsatisfactory it is to see God as a figure with a book of rules in one hand and a big stick in the other, with what does Paul replace it?

10. What differences are there between serving 'in the new way of the Spirit' as opposed to 'in the old way of the written code' (verse 6)? What is Paul driving at here?

11. Pray for one another and for the wider church family in the light of this passage.

David Stone
14 February 2008