Fight the Good Fight of Faith, English Edition

 • Fight the Good Fight of Faith: Playing Your Part in God’s Unfolding Drama

a. Read Colossians 1.24-29. Choose the best answer. What is the mystery that Paul said was kept hidden for ages but now revealed to us?

i. The day and hour of Jesus’ return ii. Christ in us, the hope of glory iii. The kind of death Paul would experience

b. Why do you think the news that Christ among the Gentiles (non Jews) is viewed as such a great revelation among the believers of Paul’s time?

The apostles in the New Testament testify that every believer in Christ has been joined to him and his work, by the baptizing power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has placed us into Christ, linking us with his death, burial, resurrection, and new life. In Jesus, we are no longer objects of God’s wrath, and have no fear of being punished for the many transgressions (breaking of God’s commandments) which we have committed. God has provided us in Jesus with an entirely new status and relationship with himself, and has blessed us with numerous, wonderful, and gracious benefits and blessings in Christ. Of the many wonderful gifts we have received, one of the most significant is our new membership and place in the Church, the Body of Christ. God has joined us all in Christ, and therefore, now, to all other believers, and granted us both the privilege and responsibility to live and grow together as God’s family (1 John 3.1-3), as Christ’s body (Rom. 12.4-8), and as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3.16-17). We were never designed to live our Christian lives in isolation, just as a human body cannot function effectively with only feet or only hands. No, all the members are important in order that the body might grow and mature, and fulfill the work it was meant to accomplish. As such every believer is to view himself/herself as a heavenly citizen, one who is joined to Christ and to the living hope of his return to earth. In this vein, every local church can be understood as an embassy of the Kingdom of God, an outpost of the heavenly realm, where believers gather to grow, worship, and serve the Lord with other growing Christians. From the beginning, the Holy Spirit has led Christ’s people to identify, confess, and defend the core teachings and practices of the apostles, as laid out in the Bible and taught through the years by the Church. This Great Tradition,

Summary