Just Do It?

How many sermons have we heard begin with an appeal from Romans 12:1-2 for us merely to do something, never considering that God’s righteousness as seen in the gospel [Romans 1-11] is God’s power for accomplishing God’s work? The beauty of the gospel is that, although we are the means by which God is pleased to diffuse His glory, He is the end. If we are the beam, He is the sun. If we are the echo, He is the shout. If we are the appetizer, He is the meal.

I love how Paul puts it in I Corinthians 15:10 when he says: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” This is an astonishing admission! It was Paul’s understanding of an “alien righteousness” that was not his own that enabled him to work harder than any of them.

Often in our pragmatic evangelical age, the “knowledge of the Holy” has been replaced [not necessarily denied] with the “knowledge of the How to” – How can I have a better marriage? How can I be a better parent? How can I beat my addictions? The tragedy with this sort of humanly-preoccupied thinking is that the person [the infinite worth] and work [the glorious fruit] of Jesus Christ as the answer for those important questions is sidelined.

So instead of beginning with Romans 12:1-2, let's ignore chapter divisions and start with verses 33-36 of chapter 11:

33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor” 35“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.