We went door to door around our church on Saturday.  Most of the folks around there are Christians, which was nice, but we never got to share the gospel.  We will go out again soon to see if there are some pagan households around ;).  It was different when we were living in Illinois.  We did some door to door evangelism and most everyone did not go to church or did not even claim to be a Christian.  We will see.

I have been participating in a thread of discussion online about the subject of law and grace.  It was nice to revisit the subject and write about it.  The body of the post is as follows..

God opposes the proud, but give grace to the humble(James 4:6). 

 When the rich young ruler (Matt 19)asked what is required to obtain eternal life, Jesus gave him the commandments.  When the rich young ruler was not humbled under them, Jesus did not give him grace, and he went away sad. 

When the woman at the well(John 4) admitted she had many husbands and was living with the present one, Jesus gave her grace.  The law was presented in the fact of her committing adultery, and she did not deny it. 

A lawyer stood up(Luke 10:24) and asked Jesus what was necessary to obtain eternal life.  Jesus said, “what is written in the law”?  Jesus did not give grace because the law did not humble him. In fact, he tried to justify himself in saying; “who is my neighbor”?

As Johnny Mac preached about 4 things the law does…….  first 2 go like this…..    http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/90-304

 Number one, the Law reveals sin   ..  So, for effective evangelism, preaching, teaching, personal witnessing, to be effective you must bring people under the tyranny of the Law. What leads to true salvation is an understanding of the absolute righteousness of God, the utter holiness of God, the Law of God expresses His perfect righteousness and His holiness and puts a demand on every soul that if you break this Law in one place, you’re damned. Where’s that message today? What leads to true salvation is an overpowering, frightening sense of the implications of breaking the Law. Truth about righteousness and holiness and sin and judgment is what awakens the slumbering sinner. You can’t just go to people sitting out there thinking they’re pretty good and say, “By the way, Jesus would like to come into your life and make you happy.” That’s an absurd approach. Long before you talk about what Jesus is prepared to do for the sinner, you’ve got to talk about the sinners situation

George Whitfield called preachers to wound deeply before they heal. He even said, “Lord, pardon me for giving comfort too soon.” Spurgeon wrote, “Sometimes we are inclined to think that a great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing.” Spurgeon. “Because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery, restoring the prodigal to the father’s love and never making him say, ‘Father, I have sinned.’ Unhumbled, they came into the church, unhumbled they remain in it, and unhumbled they go from it.” Gospel without Law produces faith without repentance. Where Christianity is nominal, the Law must be preached. Nothing is more important in this contemporary culture than quote/unquote evangelicalism, whatever in the world that means. Nothing is more important than to preach the Law.

Secondly, the Law aggravates sin.

Nothing wrong with the Law. The Law reveals what sinners we really are. The Law actually agitates, activates, exacerbates, aggravates sin everywhere. This is a good work because this is what drives us to salvation and the pursuit of sanctification

Law to the proud and grace to the humble.

Using the law in witnessing is an invaluable tool to make the gospel make sense to the lost.  But there are plenty of folks who do not agree with this and say it is unbiblical.  “The law is for the folks in the Old Testament, not the New”, they say.  Now, the idea of “law to the proud and grace to the humble” is not specifically spelled out in scripture, but it sure is alluded to a lot.  How about just these 2 scriptures?

Take Romans 3:19-20   Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

And 1 Timothy 1:8-12  Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,  in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

And how about these guys?

Now, the law is a good thing if used lawfully.  God can use what He wishes to save people, but the proclamation of the law is necessary to expose the lost as to what sin is.  For unless they understand what sin is, then how will they ever see their plight of being under the wrath of a holy God?