1. To save men’s eternal souls from damnation in Hell.
2. For God to have a relationship with men.
3. For men to bring glory to God by being re-conformed to the image of God that they were originally created to be.
4. To usher in the Kingdom of God on Earth.
5. To bring men into an eternal paradise.

 

It should be commonly understood that Jesus stated that those that would follow and imitate Him as His disciples must be willing to sacrifice all in order to do so. Jesus clearly taught:

 

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. […] In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6, NIV)

 

Stand, therefore, with […] righteousness like armor on your chest… (Ephesians, 6:14 HCSB)

 

In no other walk of life do we teach the practical before the theoretical. Doctors spend thousands of hours in a classroom learning the theoretical before they ever touch a human body. A mechanic learns how a motor works theoretically before they ever rebuilt one. This is true in any profession. We generally teach people why they should do something before teaching them how to do it.

 

Much of the confusion over exactly what righteousness is (and is not) within the church can be attributed to a failure to understand that the Bible addresses two different aspects of righteousness. Many theologians agree that Scripture addresses both positional, theoretical righteousness and conditional, practical righteousness.

 

However, many believers and even pastors have never been taught how practical righteousness flows from theoretical righteousness. The sad reality is that when it comes to righteousness, we either try to take the shortcut of just telling people what they should and should not be doing; or the shortcut of not requiring them to do anything at all.