v.39: Identity claim. The Jews claim their identity by who their father (Abraham) was. Jesus redefined their identity by who they are children of. Which is identified by what they do, not by their title.
During the discussion, there's an allusion to how Christians deal with a still sinful lifestyle. The general response even from the pastor were that all credits are from God's grace, not by work at all. So, when we sins, it just the way it is.
I would emphasize that though by grace alone all merits come, but there is a fruit to be seen.
05/01/2015
v.48~
On cheap grace: There's an allusion to evangelicals for making the gospel too easy and cheap to accept for the sake of number. I'm with Dr. Wu, when the other critiqued that he criticized the evangelicals too much.
It should have been "God's grace is free but not cheap".
There's a key that's missing in today's discussion which is the Lordship of Christ as a theme. In Mark 10:17~, the rich young ruler did "obey" the word (from OT) of Christ, however, he called him merely "teacher" and not Lord. Eventually, he had to depart sadly, though not angrily, because his alternative would be to call Jesus Lord. His struggled between a "noble" character and one where Christ is truly his king, he chose himself, but sadly, meaning that he knew the price that he was unwilling to give up.
v.56: The ancient commentator Ephrem has a good point - That Abraham Saw Christ in the Lamb. Then we have Gregory the Great's "Abraham saw the Trinity (3 angels as prefiguration)", and many more!
Some contradictions I noticed:
1. At first the direction of the teaching/discussion was about how the Jews were so ignorant that they couldn't see Jesus is Christ, God. Then at the end, Dr. Wu emphasized on how the they already knew that Jesus was claiming to be God and they had been pushing Jesus to admit it so that they could stone him.
2. etc.