Where Is Room

This is a song about how the gospel rescues us from various kinds of struggle – doubt, guilt and shame, self-righteous striving, and pride. It is a song inspired by a couple of lines from Albert Midlane’s obscure hymn “Sinner, Where Is Room for Doubting?” The gospel of Jesus’ life and death as our only means of rescue from the penalty, power, and presence of sin is not just a message for non-Christians. The Christian life is characterized by struggle, or to use another biblical term, warfare. Though we are positionally righteous in Christ, we work out that righteousness in a glorious mystery as described in Philippians 2:12-12: “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” The work of sanctification can be described as applying the gospel’s transforming power to specific areas in our hearts where sin remains. That’s what this song is all about – filling our minds and hearts so full of the gospel that there is no more room for our spiritual idolatry. The more captivated we become in Jesus – all He is for us and all He has done for us – the less we will run to idols for meaning, significance, and pleasure.

Lyrics

Verse 1:
Sinner, where is room for doubt?
Has not Jesus' love been proved?
Did He not lay down His life
And the Father's wrath remove?
Hear Him on the cross exclaiming,
"It is finished," then He died;
Lose your doubts and fears forever
At His bleeding, loving side.

Verse 2:
Sinner, where is room for guilt?
Has not Jesus borne your shame?
Was He not cut off that you
Might the Father's honor gain?
See Him on the cross degraded,
Ridiculed and thrown away,
To receive the once rejected
And His pard'ning grace display.

Verse 3:
Sinner, where is room for toil?
Has not Jesus won your rest?
Did He not obey the law,
Giving us His righteousness?
See Him on the cross fulfilling
Both your punishment and crown;
Lose your powerless religion,
Find yourself in His renown.

Verse 4:
Sinner, where is room for pride?
Has not Jesus paid it all?
Did He not show charity
To one ruined from the fall?
On the cross He paid your ransom,
Ev'ry debt has been erased;
You had nothing, yet He gave you
Riches by His lavish grace.

 

Words: David L. Ward, ©2012 Hymnicity
Music adapted from the composition "Waves of Kilkee" by Joanie Madden and Brian Keane, ©1999
CCLI Song #7007010