Do you believe that university life is about more than classes, assignments, studying and weekends? Are you interested in finding more meaning and purpose in your life? Do you enjoy listening to and sharing ideas with others? Then, please join our weekly Bible discussion group.

Campus Bible Talk meets every Monday during the school year (except during holidays and during Reading Week Breaks) at Athabasca Hall, Heritage Lounge, at 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

You may also email us anytime at campus.bible.talk@gmail.com

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Farewell to one of the members

On Monday, we said farewell to one of the Campus Bible Talk members returning to his home, China.  We took the time to fellowship and talk about memories of the time spent in Edmonton and plans for the future.  

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

What Does the Bible Teach About Sin?

The topic of our study last evening was "What Does the Bible Teach About Sin?"  We looked at Romans, chapters 3 and 6, and noted that everyone sins and everyone needs to make things right with God.  We discussed the fact that sin is not inherited: we are not born sinful creatures, but we learn how to sin because we are born and raised in a sinful world.  Everyone will be responsible for their own sins, not the sins of their ancestors or their descendants.  Finally, we saw that God has a plan for people to be forgiven of their sins.  God is willing to forgive our sins, but are we willing to except this God's forgiveness?

Please find below the notes of our discussion.


May 2, 2011
What Does the Bible Teach About Sin?
Opening question: What is something that makes you are not very good at?
No matter how hard people try to work or study or go about their life, there is always a time or more when we are not as “perfect” as we would like to be.  We do wrong things, sometime on a daily basis, and we try to correct them as much as we can.
What does the Bible teach us about sin?

1.         Everyone Sins (Misses the Mark) and Needs to Make Things Right
Romans 3:23-24 tells us that: 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.
What percentage of the population has sinned?  Well, all means 100 percent, so all of us, that includes me, you, them, everybody.
But what does it mean to sin?  To sin it means to “miss the mark” – as in shooting a basketball hoop, when you miss and you do not score.  So, to sin means to “fall short of what you can do.”
What are some types of sins or wrong things that we do or see people do?
Romans 1:29-31 gives us a few examples: 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

2.         Our sins are personal, we do not inherit them and we cannot leave them as legacy to other people.
Ezekiel 18:17-20 teaches us that:  17 He withholds his hand from mistreating the poor and takes no interest or profit from them.  He keeps my laws and follows my decrees. He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live. 18 But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people. 19 “Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. 20 The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.
Therefore, we are responsible for our own actions and not for the actions of the other people.  Of course, we are affected by the actions of the other people and we suffer the consequences of the other people’s actions.  However, God does not hold us responsible for what our parents, family members or friends have done or will do. 

3.         The Bible teaches that every sin is not only a wrongful action against another man or women, but against God. 
In verse 23, we are told that we “fall short of the glory of God.”  Since we are created in the image of God, we can act and do act at time like him.  We can be nice, good, calm, joyful, peaceful, helpful, kind and so on.  But on those times that we do not do these things or do other wrong things, we have not lived up to the standard that God expects from us. 
What happens when we do something wrong in our daily lives?  If we run a traffic light and a police officer or the camera catches us, we have to pay a fine.  There are greater punishments for criminal acts, greater fines or jail time.
When we sin, the consequences are death and separation from God.  Romans 6:23 tells us that: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The contrast here is between “death” and “eternal life”.  Our sins separate us from God, but in Jesus we can have eternal life.  The purpose for which Jesus came to earth was to save all the people from their sin.  He said in Matthew 26:28 that: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
God is willing to forgive our sins, but are we willing to accept this forgiveness?
In our next lesson, we are going to talk about how God gives us this forgiveness through his grace and what we need to do to accept it and to be forgiven of our sins.

Conclusions
While everyone sins and commits errors and wrong things in our lives, God has provided a way to forgive our sins.  We can study the Bible and learn about how the forgiveness of our sins is possible through the grace of God.

Campus Bible Talk 2011