The Five Tools of Personal Bible Study

TOOL #4: THE 10 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT MESSAGE

There is a simple way to learn and remember the Gospel and the message of

the New Testament. It can be reduced to 10 Essential Elements . These 10

elements are more easily

memorized when we employ

numbers, colors, one- or two-word

names, and a memory help that

says we have 2 ends, with 4 pairs of

elements that go back and forth

between man, God, then man, then

back to God again.

The first point stands alone and is

RIGHTEOUSNESS . God requires

righteousness of every person. We

can define righteousness as

holiness, purity, complete goodness, or perfection. We can use such verses as

Romans 1:17, 3:21-22 and Philippians 3:9. It seems to be written on the

conscience of every person that they know that they must be good enough if

they are going to live forever. We use white to represent God’s righteousness

and purity.

The first pair of “essential elements” is about man .

The second point is man has a problem with God as it relates to

righteousness, because we have SIN . Sin is falling short of God’s requirement

of perfection. It is often called transgression, which is to violate a command of

God’s not to do something. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and makes

this point.

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