The Totality of Sin - Part 2

After my last post there was one question that dominated the follow-up discussion, and I would like to touch on it this morning. I was asked, “If everything that we do before coming to Christ is sin, then does that mean that there are no righteous actions performed by those without Christ?” People rightly pointed to those times that God may be directing a non-believer to do some action and they proposed that this made it a righteous action.

My short response to this line of reasoning is that they are correct. It is correct to assume that an action directed by God can be righteous even if preformed by a non-believer. But where we get off-track is when we assume that these righteous acts are devoid of sin.

Let me illustrate my position with a story from the Old Testament. When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers it was a sin on their part. But later we will see that God was directing their actions so that Joseph would be strategically placed in Egypt for the preservation of the Israelite people. Joseph will acknowledge the divine hand of God behind their actions when he proclaims, Genesis 50:20 (NIV) ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Was the work of the brothers righteous? Well if we believe that the direction of God makes an action righteous then we would have to say “yes.” But was it also sin? Absolutely! You see the action itself does not determine whether something is sin as much as the attitude of the heart. We can do things for the wrong reasons and have them be sin.

I come back to Paul’s incredible criteria for sin Romans 3:23 (NIV) ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Anything short of God’s glory is sin. This brings me back to my original point. I contend that only God works for His glory therefore only those who have Christ in their lives can work for God’s glory. I may be obedient to God yet not do it for His glory. I may do right things, but not for His glory. I may accomplish morally right outcomes, yet they were not attempted for His glory. As long as something was not done for the glory of God then it is sin, and it is impossible for those without Christ to be motivated by God’s glory so all actions before Christ are tainted by sin.

I do not say this to minimize the good that those without Christ can do in the world. But to assume that in some way they have escaped the reaches of sin with their goodness would be faulty.

So, why would we even want to contemplate the depth of sin? Because it thrusts us back into the discussion of the depth of God’s grace and power to transform us! When we see how completely sinful we were we are that much more thankful for the cleansing He brings! This truth above all others should drive us to worship, so let us be a people of worship today!

The Totality of Sin

At our weekly Elder meetings we have a time where we discuss a theological issue. Last night during the course of our conversation I made the following claim, “EVERYTHING we do before we accept Christ is sin!” This statement brought about many thoughtful looks as the men considered the all-encompassing nature of the statement. So today I would like to take just a minute to detail why I believe this statement to be true.

In the book of Romans chapter 3 the Apostle Paul defines the parameters for sin: Romans 3:23 (NIV) 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In other words, everything that does not measure up to God’s glory is sin. So no matter how good my intentions or morally right my actions it is impossible for me to reach the level of God’s glory without God.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah will describe our attempts at righteousness this way - Isaiah 64:6a (NIV) 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags… The Hebrew word that he uses for filthy is literally translated menstrual. In other words even our most righteous actions are disgusting when held against the backdrop of God’s glory.

Sin is the essence of our lives from the moment of our conception. The Psalmist will say it this way: Psalm 51:5 (NIV) 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

The Apostle Paul will summarize the absolute totality of sin and the inescapable hold that it had on his life before he accepted Christ in the often misinterpreted passage from Romans 7 (many have applied this passage to the way that believers continue to struggle with sin after salvation, but that is not the point that Paul is making in this text – he has been developing, throughout the book of Romans, that all of humanity is in sin – the Gentiles, the Jews, and even Paul was a slave to sin before Christ. It is while making this point regarding his life before surrendering to the Lord that Paul utters the following confession):
Romans 7:14-24 (NIV)
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 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. 19 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. 20 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.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 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. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Paul is confessing that before he came to accept Christ as his Savior that no matter what he did, no matter his intentions, it was always sin. This is why he will end the passage with the mournful exclamation, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Jesus will boil the entire argument down to its most simple element when He says, John 8:34 (NIV) 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. In these simple yet powerful words of Christ that we find the inescapable truth that before we surrender our lives to Him we are slaves to sin doing only that which sin prescribes.

But in the middle of this depravity, in the middle of our absolute rebellion against God we have an incredible hope – Jesus Christ! Let’s go back to the passage from Romans 7. Paul has just confessed that he was absolutely sinful and he asks the simple yet tragic question, Who will rescue me from this body of death? In the very next verse he gives us the answer - Romans 7:24-25a (NIV) 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! It is only Jesus who can rescue us from the totality of our sin; it is only Jesus who can bring ANY righteousness or sinlessness to our lives.

And the outcome of Jesus’ work is that I am freed from my slavery to sin and made a slave to righteousness - Romans 6:18 (NIV) 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Here Paul tells us that in the same way I was incapable of righteousness before my salvation; after Christ the default actions of my life are righteousness.

Our Worship Pastor, Wayne Bartley, is constantly making the statement that “Everything that we do in life, other than willful sin, is worship!” This sentiment is echoed in the words of the New Testament when Paul writes to the church in Corinth - 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) 31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Where before Christ I was unable to do anything that was not sin, after Christ even my eating and drinking is for His glory and is an act of worship! So complete is the transformation that Christ brings, so absolute is our conversion that we are now able to bring Him glory in even the most mundane of tasks!

Before Christ we were incapable of any good thing, any act that was not saturated in sin. But praise be to God that after Christ we are unleashed through His power and righteousness at work in us to bring Him glory at all times and in all ways. Let these truths well up in us as a foundation for worship!!!