It’s Not What You Do, But What Christ Did
I used to deliver sheetrock for a living. And for those who don’t know what that means, what we would do is load up a tri-axle boomtruck with the material and drive out to a specific job site (either commercial or residential) and would then proceed to stock the location with the drywall. One load could take anywhere from a couple hours to a whole day (depending on the job). We usually set out in pairs on a truck which provided a great opportunity for one-on-one conversation.
Sometimes I would take this opportunity with my co-workers to share what God has done in my life. Sometimes I would ask them where they think they will go when they die. The usual response that I got was heaven. When I would ask why, they would often tell me it is because they are a pretty good person. This is the case of one guy in particular. His name is Jeff. I have shared the gospel with Jeff on a few occasions. He would nod and agree with almost everything I would say about Christ and what He did for us - except for the grace by faith aspect. He, like many others, are prevented from coming to faith in Christ because they feel that it is by their works that they will be accepted. Why is that? Human beings just feel that they have to do something!
This morning, I would like to share with you, like I did with my friend Jeff, that “It is not what you do, but what Christ did”.
In Romans 7, Paul writes to the church that because of Christ, they were freed from the condemnation and rule of the Law. But because the church at Rome held the Law in high regard, he had to proceed carefully and meticulously to prove to them the necessity of being freed from it.
Read with me starting from verse 5 (to v. 6).
As Paul continues, he writes as if he is anticipating a response to this statement. He offers the questions, “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin?”.
He goes on and emphasizes the fact that the law was good, but rather it was our own sinfulness that condemned us. The first point that Paul makes is that the Law provided us with the consciousness of sin. He continues in verse 7 by saying “I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet’”. Again, in verse 9, “Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” He was not aware of his sinfulness until he was confronted with the Law.
Next Paul points out that that the law produced a desire within us to sin. He writes in verse 8, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.”
Illus. - The Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas, is built next to the water. Large plate-glass windows adorn the ground-level dining room. Occasionally, guests used to come up with the “brilliant” idea of fishing from their balconies, located directly above the dining room.
Using heavy sinkers, they would cast their hook and bait into the water. Unfortunately, the lines were sometimes too short and the leaded sinkers would swing down, shattering the $600 windows. After spending large sums without solving the problem, the hotel management finally stumbled on a simple solution. They removed the “No Fishing from Balcony” signs from the rooms!
I think we can all identify with this. At least I know that I can. When I was younger especially. How many times did our mom or dad instruct us not to touch the stereo or to go down to Old Mr. Johnson’s house. And just because they said something, it prompted us to do just that, right? Augustine tells the story of how he used to go into a field and steal pears. Not for the sake of eating them, but just for the pleasure of breaking a law.
Now it’s important to notice in the text that the law is not to blame, but rather our sin. For he says in verse 8, “But sin...produced this desire.”
Not only did the Law show us our sin, arouse our desire to sin, but it also shows us the magnitude of our sin. We read further in verse 13, “Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” The force behind the phrase “utterly sinful” is better understood as being “sinful in the extreme.” Pretty heavy language.
Can you imagine if there were such a thing as an x-ray that could detect your sin. This machine could penetrate your physical body and into your most inner being. What would it find? I know I wouldn’t want to see the results of that test. In a sense I think that’s what the Law did. It provided a standard with which to gauge our spiritual life. We fall way short!
The law was good and served many purposes but it did not provide a way out.
Illus. - Evangelist Fred Brown used three images to describe the purpose of the law. First he likened it to a dentist's little mirror, which he sticks into the patient's mouth. With the mirror he can detect any cavities. But he doesn't drill with it or use it to pull teeth. It can show him the decayed area or other abnormality, but it can't provide the solution. Brown then drew another analogy. He said that the law is also like a flashlight. If suddenly at night the lights go out, you use it to guide you down the darkened basement stairs to the electrical box. When you point it toward the fuses, it helps you see the one that is burned out. But after you've removed the bad fuse, you don't try to insert the flashlight in its place. You put in a new fuse to restore the electricity. In his third image, Brown likened the law to a plumbline. When a builder wants to check his work, he uses a weighted string to see if it's true to the vertical. But if he finds that he has made a mistake, he doesn't use the plumbline to correct it. He gets out his hammer and saw. The law points out the problem of sin; it doesn't provide a solution.
But thankfully there is a solution. Verse 4 reads, “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” And verse 6, “But now, having died to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
App. - There was nothing good in us that could enable us to keep the law. We were “sin to the extreme!” We couldn’t earn our salvation. We needed a Savior to deliver us from the wretchedness of our sin.
You know, these past two weeks have been really tough. I know everyone here can attest to that. But as I studied this text and became aware of the magnitude of my sinfulness, I was humbled. I was humbled because I am so unworthy and inadequate to serve Christ in ministry.
Many of us here will be teachers, pastors, missionaries - servants of Christ! What Christ did should motivate us to serve Him; to serve Him always with humility. Our dependence was totally on Him for salvation, it needs to be the same in our ministries. For apart from Him we are nothing but “sin to the extreme.”
It’s not what you do, because what you do isn’t enough for eternal life.
It’s not what you do, because what you do isn’t enough for this life.
Paul continues to show in this next section that we cannot do any good on our own. You can almost sense the frustration as he writes, “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the Law is good. As it is, it is not longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
To paraphrase: Why did I do that? That was so stupid.
Illus. - Just the other day, I dropped my wife off at the Metra station downtown. If any of you know what it is like down there at rush hour, you can picture the scene. After dropping her off, I had to turn around to return to our apartment. During this process (and it was a process!) I came upon a backup in the right two lanes. You’ve got the cars parked on the street, cars parked along those cars with their flashers on, and a bus alongside them making a stop. What a mess!! Anyhow, I was directly behind the bus and, recognizing the situation, looked in my rearview to see if the left lane was clear for me to merge into. It was - until I made my move.
It turns out that this motorcycle that was previously on my right had darted (rather quickly) from my right and was attempting to pass on my left - at the same time I was moving over! You can probably picture what happened. I stopped, he tried to stop, but didn’t. Fortunately, the only thing that hit were our two mirrors. He got a little upset and decided to start exercising his vast vocabulary of explicatives. You’re probably thinking, “What a great opportunity that God has placed in front of you to show the love of Christ to a lost soul!” (shaking head) That’s not the way I approached it! I proceeded to tell him what I thought of his driving (though in milder language than he used). However, after leaving this scene, quite pleased at how I told him, I thought to myself, “Great job, Jon! It’s not like you’ve been studying a Romans passage that deals with this very issue. ‘For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.’
Verse 21 - “So I find this law at work: (hand signals) When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.”
App. - I think we can all identify with this sort of inner struggle that Paul is talking about. There is a constant battle for the control of our thoughts. Our society today is saturated with immorality. It’s all around. We see sex pasted on our televisions, our billboards, clothing catalogs, and most of all - the internet. Often times we don’t choose to confront these images - passing through channels on the TV, driving by a billboard, and even your one letter off on a web address and, “Whoa, where did that come from??” But when we do confront these images, there is a choice to make. Will we quickly dismiss these thoughts and change the channel or turn off the monitor?, or will we entertain them for the simple and fleeting pleasure that sin provides?
Illus. - In the words of our own D.L. Moody: When I was converted, I made this mistake: I thought the battle was already mine, the victory already won, the crown already in my grasp. I thought the old things had passed away, that all things had become new, and that my old corrupt nature, the old life, was gone. But I found out, after serving Christ for a few months, that conversion was only like enlisting in the army--that there was a battle on hand.
It’s a grim passage and a grim message I know. But there is a glimmer of hope in it as well. Look at verse 4 with me now. “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” Let’s skip verse 5. We’ve dealt with the bad news already. Verse 6 - “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
Conc. & App. - So, my brothers (to use the words of Paul), let us approach our ministries with humility and depend on Christ fully. For apart from Him we are “sin to the extreme.” There is a battle for our mind, whether we like it or not. We can yield to the inner being that delights in God’s law or to the law of sin, it’s our choice. Let us continually purify ourselves and maintain unhindered fellowship with our Heavenly Father that we can be effective in our ministries. It is not what we do, because what we do is not enough for eternal life and what we do is not enough in this life. It’s not what we do, it’s what Christ did.