It’s Time to Preach the Law

David should have helped Goliath?

Lexus has recently produced a new, scripturally ignorant commercial.  Empathy means not “David versus Goliath, but David helping Goliath.”  (here)  This is just dumb.  Goliath’s clearly stated purpose was to enslave all of Israel and feed the flesh of David to the birds.  You would think that empathy has a limit.  No matter how silly the lies are, people will believe them if those who know the truth do not speak up.  That goes for preaching God’s Law, too.

Do we preach biblical morality to a world that has abandoned the idea of God and that now considers true righteousness evil and offensive? After all, we cannot expect unbelievers to live like Christians, can we? The answer to the second question is no, of course not, but the answer to the first question is a resounding, “yes!”

Often our big mistake is that we preach grace to the lost and the Law to the saved when we should preach the Law to the lost and grace to the saved.

Paul explains the idea to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:8-9.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person . . . .

I have found myself falling into this trap. Because I believe that the message will be rejected and misunderstood, my inclination is to NOT talk about sin and morality to unbelievers. I would rather talk to them about the grace of God in Jesus. The problem with that thinking is that the lost will never have a reason to accept the grace of God unless there is a need for them to receive it.

Paul recounts a serious list of offenders against God—lawless, profane, unholy, desecrators, mother and father killers, murderers, sexually immoral (both hetero and same-sex), slave traders, liars, perjurers, and more. Start proclaiming this on the street corner and see what it gets you! Yet it is just this type of message that strikes a chord and it is this message that Paul urges Timothy to preach.

The Law is not just for lost Jews.

Some would argue that the Law is effective in preaching to people who say they live by it. In Paul’s day, it was the Jews. Many Jews—even Paul—had a misunderstanding of the Law. They saw it as a means of personal righteousness and through that righteousness a relationship with God. Today, there are many religions that teach some form of the Law in the same way. Sacraments, religious duties, being members in good standing with the right church, or simple acts of righteousness are the means of salvation. Some combine such religious works with faith, but in still doing preach a works-based way of salvation.

However, God will judge everyone according to their works based upon His righteous standard. Jonah preached on sin to the Ninevites, God judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, Paul preached on the necessity of repentance from sin to the Areopagites in Acts 17:30-31.

The Spirit and the Word convict the world based upon God’s Law.

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).

Jesus did not say the Spirit would come to convict the Jews only, or the nominally Christian people only. He said the Spirit comes to convict the world. Just as the spirit of this age blinds the eyes of those who are lost, the Spirit of God opens eyes and hearts to sin and its consequences before a Holy God. My job is not to convince—though I have a responsibility to communicate God’s truth in a faithful and loving way. The Holy Spirit and the word must do the convincing.

I am preaching to myself as well as you all now. It is tempting in this moment to detect the shifting winds of our culture and withdraw behind our front doors and church walls to complain to one another meanwhile avoiding offense at all cost with the world around us. We cannot do this.  It is disobedience.

The Law is good.

It has its purpose. It is intended to clarify the sinfulness of a lost world and certify judgment to come.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death (Revelation 20:11-14).

The works of human beings will be the basis upon which they are judged. Stacked against the Law, human works will only bring eternal condemnation. Call it mean, call it unkind, call it unloving, but you cannot have your sin and heaven too. We are all sinners, but that sin must be nullified through the forgiveness of Christ.  For that to happen, we must confess it as sin. You cannot deny the reality of sin and be forgiven of it at the same time. So, the preaching of the Law in all its condemning power is essential to the gospel message.

Once I admit my need, I can seek and find forgiveness based upon the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

We cannot preach such a message from a false perspective of moral superiority. Paul did not do it. In the next few verses of the chapter 1 Timothy 1:15-16. He does not proclaim himself as the standard of righteousness, but as the worst of sinners and makes the claim that God saved a sinner like him so that others would see the redeeming power of the gospel and believe.

We must boldly proclaim the condemning message of God’s Law. There will be those who respond to the truth as the Holy Spirit opens their eyes. They will perceive the lost condition of their souls and believe.

Am I going to be a real man of God and preach it, or not? You?