We have had some good discussion on the use of law in evangelism in todays world. Some believe it has no place, however I agree with Wesley, Spurgeon, Finney, Billy Graham, John Stott, C.S.Lewis, Luther and a host of other scholars and evangelists who say it does have a part to play. Please understand I AM NOT SAYING THE LAW HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GOSPEL, rather the law leads us to Christ, it shows us our sinfulness and need for a saviour.
Here are some points from Galatians 3.
1) Firstly, I agree, Paul is not saying “we should use the law in evangelism.” BUT from what he has said, and I’ll go into this, it means we can use it in evangelism because of what the purpose of the law is. Before I go any further I want to state that I do not believe the law is the gospel, far far from it!
2) The law that God gave in the 10 Commandments were already laws before God said what we should and should not do. (Sabbath is the only law that we could argue about but we’ll save that for another day…) We see clear evidence of this with Cane and Able, Noah and the flood and many more stories. Sin was sin before and after the law. This is why the 10 Commandments are also known as the moral law. The law then is more of a “Rules for living with a Holy God so that you don’t get destroyed.”
3) Galatians 3:19 is important. “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” So people were sinning and God added the law, verse 22 then takes this further by saying, “But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” It’s saying that everyone is a sinner, with or without the law. Verses 23-25 then talk about how horrible it is to be under the law.
4) So what is the law for? While the Jews had the law they were under it and its consequences. It is in light of how horrible it is to be under law because it is so hard to keep that we understand that a) we cannot be justified by keeping the law and b) we are sinners in need of a saviour. Hence the law is there to lead us to Christ. The law shows us why we need Jesus.
5) Now, in light of Romans chapters 1-3 (I’ll write more on this later) we see that the whole world has sinned, we all have the law written on our hearts, we all have known that there is a God and many have rejected Him. With this in mind that people’s consciences accuse them we can preach the law so that, a) like the Jews they can understand that they cannot be justified by keeping the law or in today’s language, “By being good,” and b) so that they understand their need of a Saviour.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Purpose of the Law
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In discussions of law and gospel, you have been putting forward what you claim is a commonly held position that we must preach the law first and the gospel second. The underlying rational is that people must be frightened by the law before they can be driven to seek salvation in Christ. Certainly there is a need to remind people of God's standards, man's disobedience, and God's wrath against sin, especially in an age such as ours where people think God will let them behave as they like. People however are driven to their knees in repentance when the Spirit has convicted them of their sin. Over the years, many have come to think of gospel as correlative with faith and law as correlative with works. In this usage, law is what condemns and gospel is what saves, even though this distinction differs from the biblical uses of the terms. We all know a type of preaching that merely expounds moral obligations and does not give its hearers the knowledge of Christ they need to have in order to be saved. That kind of preaching we often describe as a preaching of mere law, legalism, or moralism. There is no good news in it. So, we are inclined to say, it is not preaching of the gospel. So in this general way we come to distinguish the preaching of law from the preaching of gospel. That is, I think, the main concern of the Formula you are putting forward. Question: Is “believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) Law or Gospel?
As, as has been mentioned elsewhere, serious-minded Jew would have considered entry into the covenant people attainable by law-keeping. The law was not an entrance requirement. Rather, within the covenantal scheme of things (which Sanders labels, “covenantal nomism”), God graciously chose a people to be his own possession and entrusted them with his Torah, the standard for living responsively to His grace. The Jews were already inside the covenant because of God’s initiative; they maintained that covenantal status by observing the law. Just as Paul was compelled to rethink the place of Israel, and of her law, in God’s over-all purposes, so must we. The law, however, although coming from God and reflecting his holiness, could not be the means of life, because of sin. These ultimate enemies had been overcome in the cross and resurrection. As the innocent representative of Israel, and hence of the human race, the Messiah had allowed sin and death to do their worst to him, and had emerged victorious. Sin’s power had exhausted itself by bringing to his death the one human being who, himself without sin, could properly be vindicated by God after death (2 Cor. 5:21). The cross thus stands at the heart of Paul’s theology, as the basis of his mission (2 Cor. 5:14-21), and of his redefinition of the people of God. The fact of universal sin (Rom. 1:18-3:20) demonstrates the necessity for a saving act of pure grace (3:21-26): the divine wrath (1:18 - 2:16) is turned aside, as at the exodus, by the blood of sacrifice (3:24-6). Had Israel herself not been captive to sin, covenant membership would have been definable in terms of law and circumcision: but in that case Christ would not have needed to die (Gal. 2:11-21). The resurrection provides the basis for the true definition of God’s people. God has vindicated Jesus as Messiah, and has thereby declared that those who belong to him, who in the Heb. idiom are ‘in Christ’ (cf. 2 Sa. 19:43 - 20:2), are the true Israel. The marks of new covenant membership are the signs of the Spirit’s work, i.e. faith in Jesus as Lord, belief in his resurrection, and baptism as the mark of entry into the historical people of God (Rom. 10:9-10; Col. 2:11-12). ‘Justification’ is thus God’s declaration in the present that someone is within the covenant, a declaration made not on the basis of the attempt to keep the Jewish law but on the basis of faith: because faith in Jesus is the evidence that God has, by his Spirit, begun a new work in a human life which he will surely bring to completion (Rom. 5:1-5; 8:31-39; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thes. 1:4-10). The present divine verdict therefore correctly anticipates that which will be issued on the last day on the basis of the entire life of the Christian (Rom. 2:5-11; 14:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:10). This double verdict is thus based on two things — the death and resurrection of Jesus and the work of the Spirit: Christ and the Spirit together achieve ‘that which the law could not do’ (Rom. 8:1-4). ‘Justification’ thus redefines the people of God, and opens that people to all who believe, whatever their racial or moral background.
Since the Reformation, it has been customary to read Paul as the enemy of ‘legalism’ in religion (see Law and Gospel). Though important in its own way, this issue does not represent Paul’s central thrust. Instead, the contemporary church would do well to learn from Paul the true significance of Christ-shaped monotheism and of the new covenant in the Spirit, which together provide the basis, rationale, content and pattern for the church’s life and, particularly, its responsibility for world-wide mission.
By the way Bold type means you are shouting. Palladin
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