Study Notes

Refer to www.desiringgod.org/labs/how-can-i-change Excerpt from webpage: Principle for Bible Reading Turn Bible Study into Prayer We all need to be reminded from time to time that the Bible is not a text to be merely dissected, analyzed, and mined for new insights. God dissects us through his Word: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” ( Hebrews 4:12 ). Therefore our Bible study must be inseparable from prayer. Our engagement with a text is not complete when we understand the passage. Pray God’s Word. Pray prayers inspired by God’s Word. Pray that God would change you by his Word. Study Questions How have you sought to change in the past? What has worked? What hasn’t? (I have often tried to change by my own strength, my own will and my own mind. In large measure, all these have failed) From the context, what is the freedom that comes from the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17 ? What does this freedom have to do with us changing? (Refer to the phrasing below) How does 2 Corinthians 3:18 instruct us to change? How can you gaze upon his glory this week? (Refer to the phrasing below) Other Takeaways: I like how Pastor Piper starts out asking questions of the text like how is the LORD and the Spirit related to the freedom. What that freedom is and how is that freedom related to transformation. I am learning that asking good questions of the text is very helpful to seeing things from the text, I also like how Pastor Piper sees this text like a jigsaw puzzle, that the way to answer the above questions is to view each part separately, and turning them around conceptually to see how each part fits.

notes

Phrase

editing

NT

2 Corinthians 3:15-18

esv

Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read

a veil lies over their hearts.

But when one turns

to the Lord,

the veil is removed.

Now the Lord is the Spirit,

and where the Spirit

of the Lord is,

there is freedom.

And we all,. . .beholding

the glory of the Lord,

. . .with unveiled face,. . .

are being transformed

into the same image

from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes

from the Lord

who is the Spirit.

The LORD who is also the Spirit

gives me the freedom to...

...see Him and

to be changed.

Any other way of trying to change

just leaves me in blindness

and darkness.

phrasing