Roman 3:5 “But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing His wrath on us?”
My life and walk with Christ have been driven and developed through a passionate and intimate relationship with Christ. God has given me a gifting and passion for discipling Christians. Seldom is my focus in discipleship on the sin in a Christian’s life, but rather on their relationship with Christ.
I focus on relationship because the root cause of our sin is our belief in God resulting from a lack of relationship with God. Focusing on sin does little to correct one’s sin life, but rather it is a deepening and growing of your relationship with Christ that will produce the righteous life that God desires.
I have found that when I looked back at sin in my life I found that it was negatively affecting me. Sin itself normally has a negative and deleterious effect on a person. Sin can also have more serious effects when God’s wrath results from sin. God’s wrath against sin is often in proportion to how the life God desires for you is being thwarted by sin.
God uses the natural consequences of one’s sin and God’s inflicted consequences to set us upon a path of righteousness. 1 John 2:5 shows the importance of living in righteousness: “But if anyone obeys His Word, God's love is truly made complete in him.” To be and do what God has for you only comes through the path of obedience. It is only out of your obedience to God that you become complete in Him.
1 John 2:5-6 ends by saying: “This is how we know we are in Him: whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” If you are not walking as Jesus did then in all probability your intimacy with Christ is lacking. If your intimacy with Christ is growing, the natural result is walking as Jesus did.
God gives one other key indicator of your relationship with Christ – loving others. This gives a beautiful backdrop to a thriving relationship with Christ – your love for others will be growing exponentially.
1 John 4:11-12 describes this growing love for others: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”
As you live out these truths you will see your God grow. Loving the unlovable and living a contrarian life to what this world says is important reflects a God that is bigger than the temporal and the fleeting things of this life.
1 John 4:16-18 “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
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Here are some Bible studies from Growing in Christ to help your transformative experience in this area: “Satisfaction” and “Deeper With God.”