I fully expected “the study” to corroborate what I previously understood. After all, I had been studying the Bible for many years and had a solid understanding. I simply expected a deeper understanding of the truth of what I already knew. The sense that God wanted us to study the Bible in its entirety, without any preconceived notions, to allow us to understand without doctrinal interference, was clear and compelling.

The single most important understanding from the entire study is how much God loves us and wants the best for us.  Like children, we don’t usually know what is best for us, so we don’t make the best decisions according to the most useful information.  God, knowing the most useful information, provides us instructions to help us to have the very best.

The second most important understanding from the entire study was how much God wants us to love Him in return. God wants us to trust him above all, and to obey him out of that trust. Obedience is important to the relationship between mankind and God. The understanding that when God gives you instructions, you are to follow them without wavering is abundantly clear. To not follow God’s instructions (disobey) is the simple definition of sin. It is through obedience that God experiences our love for Him.

The next most important understanding came from the countless times when God gave instructions, and others contradicted those instructions. Because those receiving the instructions from God listened and to someone other than God — following them instead of God — they were punished by God. They and those who persuaded them to sin were punished.

Before the study I understood sin to be a list of rules that we follow “because God said so” and they were bad things to do in general.  Through the study, I learned that it’s all about the relationship between us and God, and that the instructions are meant to provide the very best for mankind. We ARE to follow them because God said so, but more importantly; God said so because God knows what is best for us, and God loves us enough to provide  instructions for us.

end part three

Synopsis of the Old Testament | Between the Old and the New Testaments | Synopsis of the Gospels | The Acts of the Apostles