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The Drift from the Use of the Law of God Much of Evangelicalism in America today has drifted from the authority of Scripture in many ways. One of the most dangerous ways is in the area of evangelism. Because of their desire for cultural relevance and a sincere desire to reach as many as people as possible for Christ, many Evangelicals have altered the gospel message to be as positive and attractive as possible. They seek to be relevant to the interests and desires of the unbeliever at the expense of biblical truth. Sadly, this desire for relevance and acceptability has led them into the error of the old modernists or liberals--that is, a willingness to jettison biblical truth for the sake of relevance, respectability, and acceptance with a culture of unbelief. No doubt most of these Evangelicals would confess to high standards of orthodoxy including the inspiration and authority of Scripture. But in practice they have unwittingly become what some are calling the "new liberals."(1) As the interests of "unchurched Harry" have become more prominent in their thinking, the positive aspects of the gospel have been emphasized: peace, love, joy, fulfillment, practical help with everything from balancing your checkbook to finding a mate, and eternal life to boot! At the same time the perceived "negative" aspects (judgment, wrath, sin, self-denial, Lordship of Christ, tribulation, persecution) have been downplayed or neglected and in some cases even flatly denied. One of the most important aspects of the gospel message that has been omitted is the centrality of the person of God. If God is even part of the modern evangelistic message, He is often presented as nothing more than a loving Father who is patiently waiting to be accepted so He can bless people and make them happy on their own terms. In this positive, self-help version of the gospel, the glory and majesty of a holy and righteous God along with his just demands of us are ignored. Sin, if even mentioned, is considered self-destructive behavior. The sinner's "consumer" mindset is not challenged but rather is coddled in hopes of eliciting an outward response to the message. All of the dots are connected with the individual, leaving him at the center of his own universe. Self never gets dethroned to make room for its rightful owner, God Himself! What is needed is a return to a God-centered gospel that puts man in his proper place. For if anyone is to ever be truly saved, and thus truly blessed with all of the benefits of salvation, he must relate to God on His terms for this is His universe and we are His creatures. It cannot be any other way. So in order for a sinner to find his place in God's universe, he must know who God is and what He requires of him. A Look at Psalm 97 Read Psalm 97 in preparation for this study. 1 The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; What did you notice about the character of God? Write down your observations here. The Problem of Unconverted Professors What is an unconverted professor? No, it's not the liberal college professor you had for English 101. An unconverted professor is someone who has made an outward profession of faith in Christ, but is yet unconverted and dead in his sins. America is full of unconverted professors. Many of them sit in our churches and truly believe they are Christians. Some of these people are still able to be evangelized, though it takes great patience and ability to discern between genuine repentance and pseudo-repentance. Others sadly are not able to be evangelized as they have been inoculated to the gospel through an easy-believism, quick prayer-ism, half-truth gospel presentation. Inoculation is when you get just a little bit of a virus to keep you from ever getting the real thing. We innoculate people to the gospel, that is to keep them from ever truly believing, when we fail to give them the whole gospel message, including the law's condemnation. They end up leaving the faith and when you try to witness to them they say, "Oh yeah, that Jesus thing. I gave it a try before and it didn't work for me. I don't believe a word of that stuff anymore." An Illustration The way we present the gospel determines if we will be instrumental in creating a genuine convert or another unconverted professor. Ray Comfort has a great illustration of this:
This lesson on using the law in evangelism is designed to help us do evangelism according to the whole counsel of God and prevent creating unconverted professors. A Self-Quiz on the Ten Commandments As a self-quiz to see how well you know God's law, write down the Ten Commandments: 1. 6.2. 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10.
Now compare your list with that found in Exodus 20:3-17 (Note these are also repeated in Deuteronomy 5:7-21). The Moral Law What we are covering here is the moral law of God. We are not discussing the Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant. As New Testament Christians we are under the New Covenant which is an unconditional, unilateral covenant of grace whereby God justifies the ungodly by grace through faith. The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional and bilateral covenant between God and Israel. "If you will indeed obey My voice . . . then you shall be a special treasure" (Ex 19:5). It was designed to show them how to conduct themselves until the Messiah made the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin, toward which the Mosaic sacrifices only pointed. The moral law which we are discussing is that objective moral standard that God has revealed in creation and in the heart of man (Rom 1:18-32; 2:14-15) also known as general revelation. This same moral standard is also revealed in the Bible and known as special revelation. This moral law is summed up in the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue (lit. "ten words"). While we are no longer under the Ten Commandments in a covenantal sense, the Ten Commandments still represent, in summary, the basic moral standards of God. In this sense they are still in force as the standard of righteousness that God's justice and holiness demands. The Ten Commandments still inform us of our duty towards God and towards our fellow man. We will look at the importance of the moral law in evangelism. That the good news of the Gospel of Christ is predicated upon the horrible news of the law's condemnation of sinners. Love or Law? Some Christian preachers today say it is not necessary to communicate the concept of sin in a gospel presentation. "We don't need to bring people under conviction of sin. People just need to know of the love of God," they say. Law and love are friends not enemies! The base of the cross is eternal justice. Upon the cross, Christ satisfied the just demands of God's holy law. Only as God's justice is satisfied can He show grace and love to sinful men. Matthew 22:35-40 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question,testing Him, The law is nothing more nor less than an elucidation of the demands of love. John 14:15
John 14:21
Love cannot be expressed without the guidelines of law, and law cannot be kept spiritually except by the motivation of love. 1 John 5:2-3 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. Romans 13:8-10 8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Since the law is summed up in love, what we're saying when we sin by transgressing the law is that we failed to love as we ought. The whole point of God's Word is to lead us to love God and one another. 1 John 4:7-11; 19-21 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Could the apostle John possibly emphasize the importance of love more? But John wasn't alone in this regard. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "But the goal of our instruction (lit. commandment) is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). The apostle John wrote, "Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you" (1 John 2:7-8a). Is John contradicting himself? Not at all. He is referring to the command to love. John wrote in another epistle, "Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it" (2 John 5-6). So the command to love is both new and old. It's old because it existed in the Old Testament (Lev 19:18; Deut 6:5). But it's also new because Jesus personified this love and demonstrated a deeper level of love in giving His life for our sins. Jesus has called His disciples to imitate this higher standard of love: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-45). The apostle John reminded his readers of this commitment to sacrificial love by telling them: "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). So the command to love is new in the sense that, "We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In this sense we have a more compelling motive to love because Jesus has demonstrated sacrificial love and extended this love to all believers and in turn calls them to walk in this higher standard of love. Christ's disciples then gladly submit to the old and new command to love. There is no dichotomy between love and law. First John 3:4 says, "Everyone who practices sin, practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." So if sin is lawlessness, and law is summed up in love, then lawlessness is lovelessness. You cannot preach the gospel by only emphasizing love without defining it by the law. The law tells us what it means to love. The law of God is absolutely indispensable. Isn't the Law Abolished? Again, remember that we are discussing the moral aspect of the law. The Mosaic Covenant is certainly abolished. The civil law is set aside because God has set aside the nation of Israel. Therefore there is no need for the civil laws. The ceremonial laws are abolished as they have had their fulfillment in Christ. There is even a sense that for the believer the moral law is abolished as far as the penalty for breaking God's commands is concerned. Believers are not subject to the penalty and condemnation of the law: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1). But, all that being said, the moral aspect of the law forms the basis for Christian ethics and this applies to believers and unbelievers. The moral law teaches us what the ethical standards of God are and form the rule of life for the believer. The moral law forms the basis for defining sin for Christians and non-Christians. We use the moral law in defining sin. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-19 17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. Someone may say, "But Paul said in Romans 10:4: 'For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.' " The Amplified Bible reads: "For Christ is the end of the Law . . . as the means of righteousness (right relationship to God) for everyone who trusts in . . . Him." This verse does not teach that in Christ we have no more use for the law, but rather that belief in Christ's offering of Himself as our substitute has brought about the end of attempting to establish our own righteousness by the law.(4) This is seen in the immediate context: Romans 10:1-5 1 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them [Israel] is for their salvation. This passage is simply saying that for the one who believes, Christ is the end of seeking to gain right standing before God by keeping His commandments. This passage refutes the legalism of the Jews, it does not teach us that we are not bound to God's moral commandments. What the Law Cannot Do The law cannot save from sin. Galatians 3:10-11 10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them." Romans 3:20 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. What the Law Can Do Although the law cannot save a man from sin, it can show him that he needs to be saved. It teaches us what sin is. 1 John 3:4: "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (NIV). Few lost people today know what sin is. For a big surprise ask non-Christians, What is sin? You will undoubtedly marvel at the answers you will hear. Question 14 in the Westminster Shorter Catechism says: What is sin? Sin is any want [or lack] of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. The law, as a reflection of the nature of God, demands moral perfection. Matthew 5:48: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." However, when we try to keep the law in our natural state, we find that we are unable to do so. The sinner is like a high jumper who runs for the bar and leaps with all his might, only to realize that the bar is 500 feet high. The non-Christian then begins to despair of ever saving himself. He agonizes: "Is there any hope for me?" Then the law has done its job. It has plowed the soil of his heart to make it ready for the seed of the gospel. Now he is ready to hear of the love and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the sinner's behalf. Galatians 3:22-24 explains 22 But the Scripture has shut up [or, confined] everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So the knowledge of sin by means of the law is an essential element of gospel preaching. John MacArthur explains:
Romans 3:19-31 19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law(6), so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; Law and Gospel Truths(7)
The following statement by J. Gresham Machen, the principal founder of Westminster Theological Seminary will emphasize the importance of the place of the law.
Charles Spurgeon said:
1 Timothy 1:8: "But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully." Unlawful uses of the law(8)
Some lawful uses of the law
Martin Luther said that if you can rightly distinguish between law and grace, you should thank God for your skill and consider yourself to be an able theologian.
1. Don Matzat, "The New Liberals," Issues Etc. Journal 3:2 (Spring 1998), 3-11.
2. Ray Comfort, Hell's Best Kept Secret (New Kensington, Penn.: Whitaker House, 1989), 13-14.
All Scripture citations are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update unless otherwise noted.
See John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans. NICNT (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1965) 2:49-51; Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans. PNTC (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1988), 379-81; Thomas Schreiner, Romans (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1998), 457-58; John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville, Tenn.: Word
Publishing, 1997), 1712, note on Romans 10:4.
John MacArthur, Galatians, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press, 1987), 87.
Romans 3:9 says, "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks [or, Gentiles] are all under sin." Both Jews and Gentiles are
condemned by the moral law of God.
This summary is from Ernest Reisinger, "Law and Gospel," Founders Journal 28 (Spring 1997).
These summaries are from Ernest Reisinger, The Law and the Gospel (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub., 1997), 162-64.
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