The Gospel (a.k.a. 'Good News!') tells us that we can now have a righteousness from God credited to our account.  It's the very righteousness of Christ! Jesus takes our sin away from us and gives us His righteousness in its place. Can you say 'Awesome!?'

Paul wrote in Romans 3, "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. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

When I'm preaching this Good News I talk a lot about the importance of following Jesus. It's important that our lives increasing reflect His goodness.  Sometimes I wonder if people leave thinking that they have to do more.  And maybe they do!  Maybe there is more to be done in their lives to make them like Jesus and they need to be about it!  The rub is that the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus is given to us freely by His grace. We don't earn it.  There's nothing for us to do.  With Jesus it's not D-O, but D-O-N-E! (Love that.)

So why the emphasis on following Jesus?  Why is righteous living so important if the righteousness we need is given to us in the Gospel apart from anything we do?  Here's why:

Following is evidence of Faith

Read again Romans 3 (above). The righteousness from God comes 'through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.' Following Jesus demonstrates your faith in Him. Following through yielded obedience shows that He has the authority in your life. When a Christian doesn't follow Jesus we sometimes say that he is 'unfaithful.'

Faithful and following go together powerfully. I'm thinking that they are inseparable, in fact. Would anybody yield to the Lordship of Jesus if they didn't believe in Him? It's equally unthinkable for someone to have faith in Jesus, trusting in Him for salvation, and not follow Him.

We want to create a 'Culture of Following' because nothing else in the whole world demonstrates saving faith in Jesus more than yielded obedience to Him. Let's grow in our devotion to Christ. Let's be 100% sold out, willing to go anywhere and do anything for His glory.

Let's follow Jesus.