Life, liberty, and the pursuit of holiness: calling the pursued to pursue change

Romans 3:21-24;5:1-11

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Is there a real hope for change?

Most of us would say yes. Emphatically. But in our own lives, we don't know it practically and how it works. We have addictions for a long time.

We have "respectable" sins. Laziness, unthankfulness, materialism... And we count them as personality or just how things are. But there is nothing in your life that is unreachable by the gospel. We can all change to become more like Christ.

Have you given up? Has it been years our even decades of addiction? Have you made countless commitments to God to give up this sin, this addiction?  You are discouraged and tired.

Or maybe you aren't there. Maybe you don't care. You are comfortable with what you are doing now. And you have no heart to submit and follow God. To those, beware. Slavery is where your idols will take you. Life is only found in dying to yourself and living for God. You are short-changing yourself.

Change comes by faith. Not by works. God gives motivation, strength, and lasting change.

The doctrine of justification. Even though we have rejected God, we still have a touch of the divine. We are separated from God by sin. Regardless of whether we are religious or immoral, we are not righteous. We cannot reach God by ourselves, our own righteousness is insufficient. The grace of God in Jesus who lived the righteous life and died for us is the only way to be justified. By faith in Christ, we become perfectly acceptable in the presence of God credited with the righteousness of the life lived by Jesus and Christ takes the punishment on our behalf. That is justification. Sanctification is when God changes us to become what Jesus is, perfect. How are they related? Sanctification is powered by our justification.

1. Justification fuels our desire for sanctification.

Christ died for us, the ungodly, while we were still His enemies. We were pursued when we least deserved it. This is our motivation for change. Not fear, but love for Christ... Our hearts will then change, because of the sacrificial love of Christ. This is how God turns our hearts to Him from our idols.

2. Justification fuels us in our failures.

The accuser, satan, comes at us when we fail. Guilt and shame racks us. Then what happens? We run and hide from God. Justification says that God sees us as if we had not sinned. God fully accepts us in Christ. We can boldly approach God in the aftermath of sin.

3. Looking back at our justification, we can be encouraged that God will complete the task. We will persevere.

Jesus suffered much to save us. He will definitely finish the job. All that suffering and pursuit of us, will result in God's will, our salvation & sanctification. It is as good as done.