1. Discover God’s laws for human life and how they work
The Way to Life
Lesson 7
Discover God’s laws for human life and how they work

2. Preparation questions If you think it is too private to answer, you don’t need to share your answers
When you were a child, what were some rules and practices you had to follow in your home?
Do you think that your parents (or whoever was head of the family) had the right to set rules for the children? Did they have the right to require certain practices? Why?
What would happen if you did not do your duty and did not obey those rules?

3. Before we study God’s moral laws we need to look at God’s main characteristics
He is holy
He is love
He is just
He is merciful

4. What does the Bible tell us about God’s laws?
To learn about God’s basic laws, we must study more than one reference in the Bible:
1. Romans 1:18– our basic responsibility to God
2. Matthew 22:36– God’s moral law or moral requirements, given to us
3. Romans 1:16–2: our response to God’s moral laws

5. Understand the vocabulary for Romans 1:18–23
The “wrath” of God (1:18) is God’s justified anger about evil. That includes the judicial action which God takes to punish evil, as justice requires.
“Godlessness” (1:18) is excluding God from a person’s thoughts, heart (values and love), and actions. It is disregard for God, not caring about God, not being responsible to God. It becomes defiance of God, and resisting or rebelling against God. When people exclude God from their minds and hearts, they lose God’s good character, laws and their power to do good.
“Wickedness” (1:18) is immoral, evil living: breaking God’s laws of right actions and attitudes.
“Eternal” (1:20) means something that has always existed and always will. The eternal God has no beginning or end to His life. He has the power of life in Himself. He is the cause for everything which exists in time and space. He Himself is not caused or produced by anything, and He is beyond, or outside of, time and space.

6. His “divine nature” (1:20) is infinitely powerful and intelligent, and perfectly good. It is the nature of a Being who has created the universe, and is greater than anything in it. The use of personal pronouns, “His” and “Him,” rather than the non-personal “it,” shows that God is a personal living being, not just an impersonal force or principle. As a living being, He has intelligence, will and purpose in what He does and makes. He is able to have personal qualities, such as love, moral goodness, rights, justice, righteous anger, and the ability to communicate with us.
To “glorify” God (1:21) means to give God the honor and respect that He deserves. It is recognizing that God is worthy to be honored and obeyed because of His greatness, goodness and authority.
“Immortal” (1:23) refers to something/somebody that never dies and has the power to live forever.
“Mortal” (1:23) refers to something/somebody that is under the power of death and eventually must die.

7. Read Romans 1:18-23 in English and Chinese
NIV 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
NLT 18But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

8. People can know that God exists and know what His basic nature is
People can know that God exists and know what His basic nature is. Where does that information come from? How is it communicated to all people? See 1:19–21.
What do people do with the information that God gives them about Himself? See 1:18.
Therefore, people have no excuse for not ______________________________. (Complete the sentence.) See 1:20.
What response from God do people cause by their wickedness and suppression of the truth about Him? See 1:18.

9. Understand the vocabulary for Matthew 22:36–40
“Commandments” (22:36, 40) are God’s laws to teach us right attitudes and to govern the ways we live.
“Heart,” “soul” and “mind” (22:37) together refer to a person’s inner being and are different from the body. The human personality includes reason (thinking and understanding), emotions and will (the power to choose values and actions).
“The Law and the Prophets” (22:40) is a term the Jews used to refer to the part of the Bible written by their time. Christians call that the “Old Testament” section of the Bible. “The Law” was a general term for the first five books of the Bible. “The Prophets” was a general term for the rest of the Old Testament that was also written by prophets. Prophets were men who wrote the messages God told them.

10. Read Matthew 22:36–40 in English and Chinese
36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  38This is the first and greatest commandment.39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
These obligations and relationships involve which three people?
God, your neighbor and yourself
Many people ask: “Who is my neighbor?”
Once an expert in the Law asked this question to Jesus.
Then Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan, as you find it in Luke 10:25-37

11. Understand the vocabulary for Romans 1:16–2:16
“Salvation” (1:16) is rescue by God. God wants to save us from all the destructive consequences of our evil, inner nature, evil way of living, and broken relationship with Him. It is a work that God does. It is a process that changes our hearts and lives more and more. It develops good character in us and a good relationship with God. It heals our corrupted minds. It saves us from a deserved everlasting punishment after death. It gives us joy and peace with God in our present world. That joy and peace becomes perfect in eternity when God gives us new life after our physical death.
A “Gentile” (1:16) is anyone who is not a Jew.

12. “Righteousness from God” (1:17) means that God gives us a status in His sight that fulfills the requirements of His law, justice and holy character. This is a free gift of His mercy that He gives to all that believe in Him. God’s gift of righteousness frees us from guilt. Therefore, the Highest Judge, God who judges all people, will not have to condemn and punish us. Then, God can accept us and live with us even though He is perfectly truthful and good in character.
“The law” (2:12) in this verse refers to the commands, or moral standards, that God gave to the nation of Israel through His prophet, Moses. He put these commands into writing in the Jew’s Bible, the Old Testament.

13. Read Romans 1:16–2:16 in English and Chinese
Romans 1: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

14. What do we see in the Bible and around us in this (broken) world:
people first reject God and his laws
then they create false Gods
they reject God's sexual laws and degrade their bodies with each other
people continue to reject God’s sexual rules even further to the point of homosexuality
The Bible is very clear that this is not the natural way God designed for men or women to function. Not only this but every dishonorable and evil behavior entered the human race. 
God has designed sex between one man and one woman only inside the marriage covenant. In the following verses God speaks about sexual immorality in general, and describes homosexuality as an exponent of evil practice. God loves everyone, also people with homosexual thoughts, but is disgusted about evil practice. Christians who follow God love sinners, but hate sin. God is loving, forgiving, and healing!
Listen to the next song.

15. Fire of God  Light of the world shine your light into my heart  God of love, pierce my soul with your mercy  So we might know your glory,  so we might see your face  So we can feel your heart beat,  and hear You call our name  Fire of God, burn away, what is not holy  Jesus, take our hearts and make them new

16. Romans 1: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29They 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, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

17. Romans 2:1-8
1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 

18. Romans 2:9-16
9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11For God does not show favoritism. 12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

19. In Romans 1:18-31, notice the sequence that develops from these evil acts or conditions and answer the following questions:
Although humankind knew God, what did they fail to do? See 1:21.
That “wickedness” led them to do what? See 1:18.
If you can, describe or give examples of how people do that today.
Rejecting God and the truth about God affects people’s thinking in what ways?

20. Group discussion about questions related to Romans 1:18-21
God created humankind and gave them everything they have in the world (that He made). Therefore, what basic obligation do people owe to God? In what way should people respond to God?
Remember how Adam and Eve responded to God in Genesis 2 and 3 in the third lesson we studied. How are people (as described in Romans 1:21) like Adam and Eve in their attitude and actions toward God?
Group discussion about questions related to Matthew 22:36–40
Jesus summarized the Old Testament laws that God gave about 1,400 years before. From Jesus’ summary, explain in your own words what God requires of us.
Have you done what God commanded? Do you fulfill those two most important responsibilities?

21. Group discussion about questions 12 through 15 related to Romans 1:16-2:17
In Romans 1:21–32 we see the results of people putting God out of their minds and lives. Notice that each result offends or damages one of the three whom Jesus cares about in question 8 above (God, one’s neighbor and oneself). These people’s actions show how they violate each of God’s two basic laws—to love God first, and to love people like they love themselves. Do they offend God, their neighbor, or themselves in 1:21a? Who do they hurt in 1:21b, 22? Who do they hurt in 1:29–32?
Does the Bible here describe only other people, or do you see yourself in that description?
Why do you think God wants us to know this about ourselves?
Can you know God’s standards—what God requires of you? And, can you know whether you have lived up to that standard or failed it? Look for the beginning of the Bible’s answer in Romans 2:4–12 and 1: Summarize the answer in your own words.