Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

The Church Foreshadowed in God’s Plan

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Welcome in the strong name of Jesus Christ! After your reading, study, discussion, and application of the materials in this lesson, you will be able to: • Explain how the Church is foreshadowed in God’s exalted purpose, that is, God’s determination to bring glory to himself through a new humanity through the covenant he would make with Abraham. • Recite relevant Scripture and concepts connected to the Church foreshadowed in the unfolding of his gracious plan of salvation, his goal to unveil the grand mystery of his inclusion of the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. • Detail and tell how the Church is foreshadowed in God’s revealed plan of Scripture, that from the beginning, God’s intent was to create for himself a unique and peculiar People, the laos of God. • Give a biblical definition of salvation and understand how it relates to participation in the Church. • Recite frommemory a Bible passage that describes the Church in light of its relationship to the Old Testament people of God. Read 1 Peter 2.9-10 . The word “church” can bring many images to our mind. For many people the first thing they think of when they hear the word “church,” is a building with a cross on top. But that is not how the Apostle Peter thinks about the Church. For Peter the Church is that unique group of people who have been chosen by God to serve him and to represent his name in the earth. In these verses Peter uses the language that God spoke to Israel back in Exodus 19.5-6 when he told them: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” And Peter, knowing that he is talking to a church that includes Gentiles, is quick to add, “Once you were not a people, but now you are A Holy Nation

Lesson Objectives

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Devotion

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