We were in the third week of our series in Student Quest this week on the book of Romans.  We’re using The Complete New Testament Resource, Volume 1 from Youth Specialties as a launching pad for the series.  Sean M led the middle school while George F led the high school group.  If you want to follow along, you can listen to the high school teaching on our student ministry podcast.  In this third week, we took a close look at chapter three, in particular verses 20-28.  This passage was specifically written to deal with the issue of how we get to heaven; that it’s only through Jesus, not through works, not through rituals, or any of the other ways that people were claiming.  In a lot of ways, Romans was written to help the Jewish and Gentile (non-Jewish) believers follow Christ together.  It’s harder than it sounds; both groups were approaching Christianity with a history of cultural beliefs, expectations and traditions regarding God.  The easy out would be to have Jewish churches and Gentile churches, but that’s not God’s ideal.  A great follow up activity would be to read 3:20-28 together and use the following discussion questions:

• What is the bad news Paul writes in the passage we just read?  What is the good news?
• What does the Bible say is the only way we can receive forgiveness from God? How do you respond to the view that there are multiple ways to get to God?
• What makes it so difficult for many people to believe we can gain God’s forgiveness by faith in Christ alone?
• Why does God offer his forgiveness and righteousness free to every person?
• What does it mean for someone to put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ?