Questions College Students Ask (I)

As our Engedi subscribers know, I spent the last semester in Vienna, Austria, instructing thirty-three university students. Their learning, however, was not confined to the classroom, but gained experientially as they traveled through Europe and as they confronted the Viennese culture and history every day.

As one of my responsibilities, I led a daily chapel. My focus was to give them some of the basics of the story of human redemption in regard to the holiness, justice, and grace of God, the sinfulness of fallen man, the hopelessness of his plight before the holy and just God, and the expression of God’s grace in Christ. We looked at Christ’s role in earning perfect righteousness through His obedience and the significance of His atonement, and then we spent some time examining the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, while noting that saving faith produces fruits of obedience and righteousness.

At the end of the semester I left some time to answer their questions, for I told them that I wanted to address their personal concerns as well as the topics that I believed to be of paramount importance from God’s revealed Word. On a given day students were allowed to submit questions, if they wished, and I spent the rest of the semester, in all a little over a week, answering these questions.

I told them that their questions were intelligent and relevant and that I might well use them as devotionals for the ministry with which I am involved. Thus for the next few weeks I shall deal with these questions and the answers that I provided in the belief that they hold relevance and interest for our readers. Perhaps some of you have children, grandchildren, or know of young people in your church who might benefit from these topics, assuming that you are in agreement with my responses. We shall turn to these questions and answers in next week’s devotional. In the meantime, may you all have a blessed week!

-Soli Deo Gloria
-David Lawrence