“Because of Jesus… I Can Live For Righteousness”
Sunday, January 21, 2024
How Am I Made Righteous?
Romans 3:21-22 (NIV)
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Unrighteousness clearly revealed by our Character, Conversation, and Conduct.
Now, made completely righteous through no part of our own… but through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and His sacrificial atonement.
How Do I Live Righteously?
Because of Jesus… I Can Live For Righteousness.
I Peter 2:24 (NIV)
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness… [To sins I have died… to righteousness I can live!]
Dealing with Three Enemies that are NOT willing to give up your soul so easily:
- Satan Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
“Our struggle… is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in this dark world.”
- The World John 15:19 (NIV)
“…you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
- My Flesh Romans 7:17-18, 24 (NIV)
“As is it, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What a wretched man I am!”
Because of Jesus… We Are Righteous… thank you for the cross, Lord!
Because of Jesus… We Can Live Righteously… thank you for your indwelling presence!
HOW?
I Must Reason
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Romans 6:1-9 (NIV)
- What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised form the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
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2 Peter 3:17-18 (NIV)
- “…be on guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
- Hosea 4:6 (NIV)
- “…my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”
- I Corinthians 2:1-2 (NIV)
- “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing… except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
I Must Reckon
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Romans 6:11 (NIV)
- In the same way, count [recon]yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- James 1:13-15 (NIV)
- When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
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Romans 6:12-13a (NIV)
- Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness…
I Must Replace
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Romans 6:13b-14 (NIV)
- …but rather offer yourselves to God, to those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but grace.
Are you giving your new master as much time… as much attention… as much effort… as much of you as you used to give your old master?
- Romans 6:15-23 (The Message)
- So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
- I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing – not caring about others, not caring about God – the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
- As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
- But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.