Lesson 9 | Takeaways: discerning the key teaching points

A critical juncture: life transformation

You have probably heard the phrase, “This is where the rubber meets the road.” In other words, this is the point where ideas become action.


In this lesson we make a significant shift in task: having done the work of gaining a sound understanding of a passage of Scripture within its original context, and then testing that understanding by restating the text in your own words, we now move to discerning the specific implications of the text for the here and now. This should not be a drastic shift, because it is quite likely that you have been thinking about the implications for your life throughout your reading and study. No doubt the Holy Spirit has been giving many prompts all along the way. The shift is simply that this now becomes the focus of your attention.
This new focus seeks to discern the key teaching points for your life. In other words, the central question is: What life transformation is the Holy Spirit seeking in me?
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

—Romans 12:1-2 ESV
…to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

—Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV
Both of these passages address this vital issue of life transformation. We are no longer to live in conformity to the world’s patterns and values but to do the will of God. And the will of God is all that is good and right and holy. Our wills need to be conformed to God’s will. This transformation is worked out practically in two spheres:
A change of mind. What patterns in my thinking need to be renewed into the likeness of Christ and in accord with the truth of his word? Is there blatant error that needs correction?
A change of heart. How are my affections misaligned, needing to be conformed to God’s? Are my loves, hates, delights, griefs, joys and treasures in line with God’s?
Let me make an important clarification, for this is one stage of Bible study in which many believers go sideways. All sorts of unbiblical thinking and decisions have come in the name of being “led by the Holy Spirit.” Principles for living are formed with little regard for what the text of Scripture is actually saying, as though the Holy Spirit’s work to bring conviction occurs entirely apart from Scripture.
The complete opposite is true, namely, the Holy Spirit never works apart from the truth of Scripture. Moreover, the word of God is precisely the tool the Holy Spirit does use to bring about life transformation.
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. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

—Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

—Ephesians 6:16-18a ESV
And so, all the work of reading well and digging into the text of Scripture culminates at this critical juncture. On the one hand, if I do all that work to gain a clear, accurate understanding of Scripture—and walk away unchanged—it is worse than if I had not read it at all, for I have actually taken steps to harden my heart to the Spirit. On the other hand, having done all that work in reading and study, I am in a position to truly reap the benefit and give the Spirit a free hand in my heart.
In the steps that follow, we will explore a few specific categories of takeaways we should be looking for. Here is where the earlier focus on links - the words that connect ideas - will really pay off. It is in these links that we will discover not just the commands of Scripture but also the motivations, means, and anchors for those commands.