4. I Have To Do It Myself

By Thomas M. Parsons

What Christian Religion Teaches
If it’s going to get done, then I have to do it.

There is a strong element of “do-it-yourself” in Christian religion. There is a great deal of effort we often feel is necessary to reach the desired goal.

Along with this, there is a strong element of dependence upon the physical and material in the average Christian life. Money. Power. Possessions. Taking care of the physical needs.

Christians tend to take pride in these things that are visible, tangible, real. We prefer a church, for instance, that has the latest audio-visual equipment, the best musicians, and state of the art lighting. A simple church with just the basics won’t do. We prefer a current model car over one a few years old. It is important to us to live in a nice house in a good neighborhood. We want the schools our kids attend to be filled with the newest of everything and staffed with the best teachers.

Christian religion tells us we deserve this. God wants us to have the best. Nothing is second-rate with God, and nothing second-rate will do for His people. Only the best will attract people to us, to our churches, to our ministries. Only the best will help people to come to Jesus Christ.

In order to have the best, of course, we must work diligently at it. If we work hard, we will be rewarded with better and better things.

We have to work hard to maintain the best in Christian ministries. No one else will do the work for us. It is a simple fact. To get things done . . . I have to do it myself.

What the Bible Actually Says
Paul didn’t have the most up-to-date anything to use in his ministry. And, although Paul did work hard at the ministry God gave him, he knew and he made sure others knew that any success that came in his ministry was due to the grace of God.

Paul’s ministry was rooted, not in gadgets and gimmicks, but in the fear of the Lord. It was respect toward Jesus Christ that motivated Paul to serve the Lord. He did not try to “commend’ himself to the people to whom he ministered. He did not try to adapt his ministry to the latest trends or styles. If people thought he was “out of his mind,” then he was out of his mind for God. If they thought he was in his right mind, then he was in his right mind in order to minister to them.

It was Christ’s love, coupled with the fear of the Lord, that was the basis of motivation for Paul’s ministry. Christ died for all that those who live by faith in Jesus might not live for themselves any longer, but rather, live for Him who died for them and rose from the dead. Paul had grown. He once had a “worldly point of view,” that is, he depended on the flesh to conduct his ministry. In essence, he felt the need to “do it himself” in order for his ministry to succeed.

But he changed his mind. “If anyone is in Christ,” he said, “the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!”

The old way depended on the flesh; the new creation depends on the Spirit. The old way depended on man’s wisdom and strength. The new creation depends on the wisdom and strength of God. The old way proclaimed, “If it is going to get done, then I have to do it.” The new creation says, “whatever God wants to do, I am available to let Him do it through me as He pleases.”

It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, but He included believers in the “ministry of reconciliation.” It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, but He included believers in the “ministry of reconciliation.” It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, but He included believers in the “ministry of reconciliation.”

What is the ministry of reconciliation? It is the gospel, the good news that God put all human sin on Christ, and that through faith in Christ, a person can be free of sin’s penalty and guilt. God, in Christ, chose not to hold a believer’s sins against him, because they were all laid on Christ on the cross.

The ministry of presenting this good news to an unbelieving world has been committed to

Sep 6 - Problems Are For Losers 2 Cor 1:1-2:4
Sep 13 - The Old Ways Are Better 2 Cor 2:5-3:18
Sep 20 - Pie-In-The-Sky Religion Won’t Cut It 2 Cor 4:1-5:10
Sep 27 - I Have To Do It Myself 2 Cor 5:11-6:2
Oct 4 - God Doesn’t Want Me To Suffer 2 Cor 6:3-7:1
Oct 11 - Don’t Judge Me 2 Cor 7:2-16
Oct 18 - I Don’t Have Enough To Give It Away 2 Cor 8:1-9:5
Oct 25 - God Gave It To Me For Me 2 Cor 9:6-15
Nov 1 - I Take Pride in Myself 2 Cor 10:1-18
Nov 8 - You’re Okay, I’m Okay 2 Cor 11:1-15
Nov 15 - My Heritage Is Important 2 Cor 11:16-12:10
Nov 22 - Don’t Make a Fool of Yourself 2 Cor 12:11-21
Nov 29 - Don’t Tell Me What Not to Do 2 Cor 13:1-14
Classes taught by Tom Parsons at Maranatha Baptist church in Columbus, Ohio Sunday mornings at 9:30 am.

believers. It is God who gave this ministry of reconciliation to His own. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

An ambassador represents his home country and his leaders by maintaining a presence in a foreign country. The United States ambassador to China, for example, maintains a home and office in China where he seeks to represent the government and the people of the United States before the government and people of China. He does not convey his own preferences to the people; he represents the President and the Congress and therefore he speaks their message, not his own.

Believers live in a “foreign” land. An old song says, “This world is not my home; I’m just passing through.” This is the life of an ambassador. The one we represent does not maintain a home in this world, except in those who believe Him. When the believer speaks, He speaks for his homeland, Heaven, and for his Leader, Jesus Christ. An ambassador must be careful when he is in the foreign land. He does not want to behave in such a way as to cast a dark shadow either on his homeland or on its Head. He is careful that he does not offend those in the land in which he lives; but he is also faithful to the constraints and ideology of the homeland.

Because Paul had been given this ministry of reconciliation by God, He was faithful every opportunity he had to tell people, “be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

The ministry of reconciliation is God’s ministry. He is the only one who can reconcile a sinner to Himself. It is Christ, the Son of God, who went to the cross. It is Jesus who paid the full penalty for each person’s sin. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts sinners and woes them to faith in Christ. The ministry of reconciliation is God’s ministry. There is no place for a “do-it-yourself” kind of religion in God’s ministry of reconciliation. No sinner can save himself. No sinner can reconcile himself to God. It is simply not possible for a sinner to thus act on his own behalf to make himself a friend of God. Reconciliation is not a “do-it-yourself” project.

The ministry of reconciliation also is not a matter of doing it in one’s own wisdom and strength. Trying in one’s own strength to convince sinners to be reconciled to God is as fruitless an effort as the sinner trying to reconcile himself.

Because of this, and because Paul considered himself to be “coworkers” with the believers, Paul urged the Corinthians believers “not to receive God’s grace in vain.” In other words, Paul did not want them to think that self-effort was worthless when a person was attempting to be reconciled to God, but okay when a believer was trying to convince someone else to be reconciled to God. Neither works.

Isaiah wrote, “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you.’”

Paul was convinced that Isaiah was talking about the church age, that the day of salvation was “now,” during the age when God’s grace was given to permeate the earth with the possibility of sinners being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Now is the time of God’s favor. Now is the day of salvation.

Next: GOD DOESN'T WANT ME TO SUFFER