Striving for Righteousness

We will be a student ministry who is Firmly Rooted in the faith, establishing our lives on the Word of God, and the salvation that is a Gift of God through Christ Jesus. It is because of this gift that we will Pursue God, be Unified with the Church, Strive for Righteousness, and be Ambassadors of the Gospel to our neighbors, city, and around the world.

We Are…Pursuers of God

We Are…Unified with the Church

We Are…Striving for Righteousness

We Are…Ambassadors of the Gospel

We Are…Striving for Righteousness

What does it mean to strive?

It means to make great effort towards something.

Striving does not mean perfection. It is not something that is going to be perfect either, but it means working towards. It means failing and trying again with the knowledge that you learned from your failures.

Striving typically does not generate from something that we just happen to think of, or some random goal, but rather from some other external force. It is hard to strive for something that you do not believe in. It is hard to strive for something that you have not set your heart to first.

This is why we started with Pursuers of God because this is where everything begins.

Striving for Righteousness begins with salvation.

We need to start here because the reality of everything is that the world is in sin. The world is full of it, and throughout the Bible we see this stated.

In Ephesians 2 Paul talks about “the way you once lived” as in the way that you lived prior to being saved. Meaning that there is a life that is called to be different than the world. This also means that there are different “laws” if you will for those that believe in Jesus and those that do not.

The truth is that we all once lived in this way

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Prior to salvation, this is how we once walked. This is the life that we once lived

But there is a new call on our lives.

Ephesians 2:4–9 (ESV)

Ephesians 2:4–9 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

You see, it starts here with Christ. Paul says that we no longer live in the way of the world, we no longer live according to our fleshly desires, but rather we have been saved by Grace alone, through Faith alone, and it is because of this that we now walk in step with Christ striving for Righteousness.

This brings us to this new big word

Sanctification

The action of making or declaring something Holy

You see, you if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior are first justified by accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior. Meaning that we are in that moment, no longer an enemy of God, but a Child of God.

Now we walk through this life going through this process of sanctification to be made Holy. To be made more like Christ.

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We are called Holy in the sense that we are set apart because of the Blood of Jesus on the cross. Now we walk in that holiness by removing the things of this world to be made more like Him.

This is why Paul writes this in Romans 6.

Romans 6:15–18 ESV

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Paul, knowing that because of Christ’s blood, we are no longer under the law, but now under the law of grace, knows that we are no longer called to still continue to live in sin, but rather to walk in the light. To walk in righteousness.

John Macarthur says this about what Paul writes in Romans

“For Paul, the doctrine of justification by faith is a powerful incentive to holiness.”

Paul understood something that we must as well. Because of Jesus blood on the cross, we should be striving to live a life of righteousness.

This is why Paul also writes so severely in Colossians what we are called to do, and a really practical road map to sanctification

Colossians 3:5–10 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Put to death…

Death is final, death is getting rid of permanently. Death means that you are getting rid of it once and for all, burying it six feet under so that it does not come back again.

That sounds harsh, but really, Jesus gives the same principle when He speaks to believers in the sermon on the mount

Matthew 5:29–30 ESV

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Deal with your sin harshly

Paul pulls the same principle here when talking to the church in Colosae…Paul just gives some practical help here as well.

Colossians 3:5–10 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Then Paul gives some practical things to turn to as well

Colossians 3:12–17 ESV

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Even here, you can look back to what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount where Paul pulled this from.

Jesus desires our sanctification. He desired it so much that He taught about it when He was here on this earth, and still desired it so much that He gave the words to Paul and the other apostles to continue to teach the church.

Since this is the case, we need to take it just as seriously. We need to be in the habit of putting to death our sin, and walking in the light. This is where we also look back and being unified with the church.

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

We need the church to help us in this. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ to be able to come along side us and help us live Holy lives. This means that we also need to take seriously verse 9

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We should be in the constant habit of confessing our sins with one another. This is what puts it to death. This is what kills is, because not only is it bringing it out into the light, but also how you keep it from growing back again.

Sins greatest power is in its secrecy…

Let us drag it to the light and kill it. Let us be people that strive for Righteousness