NOTE: Despite the fact that this post is law, you should still read it 
I want to talk about a specific problem in preaching and teaching: the problem of preferring law over Gospel.
I consider the primary problem with preaching and teaching in my Southern Baptist tradition these days to be an obsession with (or addiction to?) preaching the “law.” To put it mildly, it’s brutal out there. In many churches and ministries, you’re getting clubbed into putty with the law and hearing slightly less Gospel than what you’d get in fifteen minutes of country music, all courtesy of a preacher who has no excuse not to know better.
I’m using the simple Lutheran “law/Gospel” division here: all of scripture is either what God commands/demands under penalty or what he promises/provides freely by grace. This is law and Gospel. “Do” or “Done.” Moses or Jesus. God the accountant older brother or God the Father of the Prodigal. Advice or announcement. Sinai or the cross. Threat or comfort. Blessing or curse. You do it or else. God did and praise.
If you get this, Luther said, you are a theologian even without the degree. So if you don’t know this, learn it, and if ou learn it, use it. Go to New Reformation Press and get you some Rod Rosenbladt or, if you’re up for it, the book by Walther. (Lutherans can make suggestions for the rest of us on this.)
There’s a lot to discuss with this topic, because I believe genuine discipleship, which has aspects of law to it, grows out of and lives in the Gospel, not the law. (Think of Gospel as soil and law as fence. How does your garden grow?) The Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the King has a moral law. So I’m not simplistic. I sometimes hear people that I really respect do things with the Law-Gospel distinction that makes my skin crawl and that sounds like weird dispensationalism.
But let’s get this clear: I’m going to err on the side of the Gospel, not on the side of the law, so just expect that and understand it’s why I love Capon and Zahl. And don’t think it’s an easy thing for me to be consistently Gospel centered in my own life. God has really humbled me on this one through events in my own family. I have so much law stuffed in me from growing up Baptist that sometimes I’m useless. I could preach a great “beat-you-around-the-ears” law sermon in my sleep. When I hear preachers pummeling their people with the law and acting like the Gospel isn’t in existence anywhere in scripture, I understand how you can know better, but still get to that point.
For one thing, most of us have heard so much law preaching that we’re drowning in it. Most Baptists love it, too, or say they do. “You really told them today, preacher. You let ‘em have it” or my fave as a young preacher-boy “You really stepped on our toes today.” I must not have done it right then, because the law KILLS you, not annoys you, so you can be resurrected, not corrected.
I could name preachers all day who made their reputations on being law preachers, and they are popular because we love to hear someone preach our congregation or youth group right into the ground. When our people sleep and our youth group doesn’t care, we love to hear someone come in with the big stick and humble those uncaring sheep. Right?
Law preaching is powerful. It feels powerful. Even when it’s done poorly and just amounts to nagging, it makes the preacher feel like he/she is doing something. That’s one reason it’s so popular- you’re telling them what to do. You’re like Moses hitting the rock. Look what I did, you bunch of stubborn yokels. And joined with invitationalism and revivalism, it works. It fills the altar with crying students. I brings people down to get baptized for the 5th time and really mean it this time.
The Gospel, on the other hand, takes the power out of your hands. It’s the announcement of what God has done. You aren’t powerful at all. You’re one loser telling a bunch of other losers that they are going to be treated like winners. Bread for the thieves. Pardon for the unquestionably guilty. Love for rebels. You’re announcing that everyone gets paid the same. You’re issuing banquet seats to people who have no right to a ticket because they are dirty and sinful. You’re telling sinners that the lamb of God has paid the bill and it’s not going to appear on their charge anywhere.
You are telling people it is too good to be true, but it is too good and completely true, and it changes everything.
Apparently this must not be very exciting to a lot of preachers, because they just don’t enjoy preaching it (and often enjoy saying why they despise free grace.) I’m not saying they never say “Jesus died for you,” but it’s not a finished salvation given as a gift to sinners with nothing put empty hands. It is, as I usually hear it, something Jesus did that made salvation “possible.” Possible. If salvation is just “possible,” I’m toast. Burned on both sides.
If I can go to hell, I will. It’s that simple. (Sorry Catholic friends, but that’s what happens when you keep reading a thread like this. You should have turned back the first time I said “Luther.”) If Jesus closed hell by taking it upon himself for me and anyone else who believes, if hell has been conquered and sin/death defeated by the resurrected/reigning Jesus, then I can be saved. Because God does it and God promises it. (I’m enjoying the fact that I’m irritating some readers right now. See, the Gospel can be fun.)
What I hear in the pulpit is a lot of phrases like “get your priorities and values straight” or “do what pleases God.” This kind of talk can make some sense once we’ve been to the cross and understand the Gospel, but it is deadly if you put your hope in such efforts.
Remember this: Discipleship will put you in despair without the Gospel. Discipleship that’s rooted in law will just drive you into despair or Pharisaism. Discipleship needs to grow out of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit magnifying Jesus and the love of God.
You can recognize law preaching because it’s always full of references to the Bible being a “handbook for life,” full of principles for a successful life. If your Bible is just a handbook for life, throw it away.
The Bible is the story that delivers us the Gospel. It’s point is to get you to Jesus, the one mediator between God and man. It’s a big book to get you to a short message. You buy the whole field, but the treasure is the Gospel, not the book of Judges or financial principles from Proverbs. Once you have the Gospel right and you know what preaching is all about, then you can read and preach Leviticus or Malachi or whatever you want, as long as Jesus is in his proper place and the message is the Gospel, not the law, or the old covenant, or this week’s good advice.
I really think we have an army of preachers who think that people ought to come hear them “preach” about various life questions and issues. How to have a great family. How to get along at work. How to use money. How to discipline kids.
Why would I want a preacher to tell me anything about these things? Why are preachers talking about sex, politics and what Jesus wants you to eat? Can anyone admit that the preacher’s ego is often inflated to dangerous level when we let his/her advice about politics or parenting become legitimate material for preaching.
Preach the Gospel, brother. Then sit down, be quiet and let’s do something else. We can pray, sing or go eat. All good.
The Bible is about the Gospel. You are about the Gospel. Give me enough of the law to make the Gospel good news, though I’ll admit I’m not one of those people convinced that we need to try and recreate Bunyan’s conversion. I’m with Spurgeon on that one. Our job is to keep the Good News out there.
Law preaching demotes the preacher, often abuses the congregation, denies them the Gospel and offers a false hope in things like “getting serious about pleasing God.”
Law youth ministry is a waste of your time. If all you’re doing is trying to make kids behave, make good choices and buy into the church as a place to hang out, then by all means, get another job. Or be honest and just say you’re a moralistic therapeutic babysitter carrying out the wishes of the church to not have any kids make bad decisions.
What is ministry? Get them to the Gospel and Jesus, sister. Let Jesus decide if they need to be in jail or not.
In other words, it’s an unmitigated disaster unless the Gospel is heard louder, longer and much clearer than anything else.
I’d really like to apologize to anyone- and there are a lot of these people- who ever showed up at church and heard the “good news” that if they would take their talent and use it for the Lord, they’d be blessed. Or if they surrender their all to Jesus, they’ll be happy no matter what happens. Or if they will stop making excuses and get serious about following Jesus, they can please God.
Really, I apologize. We’ve got better news than that.
We’ve got the news that if everything sucks, asteroids hit the earth, you die, the economy tanks, no one at work likes you, Christians are jailed, your computer breaks and your kid turns out to be a lawyer, you still can’t stop the Good News of what God has done for you.
We’ve got the news that God has declared religion out of business. We’ve got the news that the church has nothing to offer or say except the Gospel, so that should simplify your search for a church. We’ve got the news that at the end of the world, there’s going to be a party for you and me, where we’re going to be embraced, loved and taken to the new heaven and the new earth completely on the free grace of God in Jesus.
We’ve got the news that the law has been satisfied and love is what remains. Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is Love, because we know who he is. Death has become resurrection. A world of hurt has become a new heaven and a new earth….in the GOSPEL.
Can we preach this please? My soul needs it and I am not alone.
Man, this is good, Michael, thanks. I had to sit in so many Army chapels while I was overseas with evangelical Protestant chaplains preaching law at me that it made me sick. I remember my anger, sitting in the pews and looking around at others, and wanting to yell” “Do you get what he is preaching? Do you think you can ‘love more, do this more, pull yourself up?” Please tell me about a Saviour who has done these things FOR me!” Law-only preaching drives people to despair or pride. Let me hear the Gospel too!
I distinctly remember humans trying to obey God’s law and continuously epically fail at it time and time again. Where was that at… oh yea, it was call The Old Testament.
How can we be law preachers when even all of the law pointed right back to God. We obey the law as though we have the power to do it on our own? You are going to fail at it. I promise you. That is why we have to desperately lay our hearts and lives down at His feet and cry out, “My God, help me. I cannot do this without You!”.
Even God himself declared that the law (which is holy and perfect because in itself pointed back to God who is holy and perfect) increased our trespasses and was weakened by the flesh. Furthermore, the law was NEVER meant to save us. From the jump (Genesis 3:15), it was God who was to save us, not His rules.
Romans 5:20-21 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Romans 8:3-4 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to flesh but according to the Spirit.
I pray to God, “May the American church would be free of false gospels and moralistic theism.”
I struggle a lot with my direction in life. Decision-making about the future, where to be, what to do, the notion of “calling,” etc.
But THIS, this right here, makes me want to go out and pastor, to communicate this simple, profound Gospel to so many people to whom it’s been miscommunicated.
…sean…stay at home …we dont need more preachers…thats the problem now…..
If he will preach the Gospel where it is needed (not in the suburbs but in the inner-cities, under bridges, in the red light districts, projects and ghettos) then the last thing he needs to do is stay at home spend his life reading blogs about the Kingdom of God while never living and building in the Kingdom. The Problem is that we have too many preachers who want their 15 minutes of fame on TBN or the radio. It seems that every new church built in America is built further into the burbs and further into American consumerism, materialism, nationalism, and prosperity gospelism (just made that word into and -ism, how awesome, not really) while they steadily lose track of Jesus’ Gospel.
Ha, wow, interesting.
Jonathan is right. Thankfully my heart and background is inclined towards the city, projects, and gettos. My church just did a free meal outreach last week in the projects where a woman was murdered two weeks ago. No preaching either (yet), just distributing hot meals with smiling faces and getting to know people.
When I say “pastor,” I certainly don’t mean the negative stereotype of the business model church CEO. I mean shepherd, guide, teacher, listener, doctor of souls type stuff. Living a full life that includes more than the pulpit one day a week.
(I do use my gifts “at home” as I am able….but I also have a serious gospel preacher in me that dying to get out. The prayer is for boldness)
You PREACHED it, bruddah!!!
Michael, Michael, Michael:
Once again God has used you to save my sanity after the weekend at church that I have just experienced…and if you knew the details you would know that I am not just using cliche’s. (save my sanity)…God bless you bro
Thank you Michael, I couldn’t agree with you more.
The best cure I know of to destroy an addiction to law is to read the entire book of Galatians in one sitting each day for a month. Maybe then some Gospel will sink in.
DLE: I’ve got a great follow up on this post that you are going to enjoy. Just stand by for a while.
Many many thanks, Michael. As I sit in my pastor’s study on Monday morning, these words are like a breath of fresh air. I pastor an SBC church, and my sheep often call for more Law in my sermons. They want to have their “toes stepped on”…or it’s not “real preaching”. As someone told me recently, “Bro. Larry, you need to preach on tithing and how we should dress for church”. I had just been preaching on the glory of Christ! In the SBC, I fear that many SBC churches wouldn’t know a true Gospel message if it sat in their lap and called them Mamma.
Look out, Michael. You are going to be reported to the internet authorities for promoting “easy believism.”
Sounds like the message of Christ to me.
Anyone who doesn’t believe the primary crisis in the SBC right now is the Gospel isn’t going to church. When I say “it’s brutal out there,” I am not lying.
Larry Wilson: Been there. One reason I want and don’t want to return to the pastorate. Our sheep have become carping older brothers begging us to club that prodigal until he straightens out. The Gospel is foolishness….but surprisingly, that applies to those in the church!
DLE is absolutely right about the cure. I remember our men’s Bible study going through Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life.” The antidote to that was reading Luther’s commentary on Galatians. And also a fine book by Bryan Chappell that just happened to drop into my lap at the time, “Holiness by Grace”–a terrific and neglected book.
If you want to blow yourself up so grace can put you back together, read “Between Noon and Three” by Robert Capon. Don’t stop when you get offended. Just keep reading.
Great comments, thank you. I agree 100% and have thought the same things many times, though admittedly with far less eloquence. However, I wonder sometimes if I am the only one who agrees with this and knows it to be true but can’t stop my law-desiring self from popping up like a persistent weed? I’m moved by this and the next thing I know I am pondering things I “ought to do” to live a more Gospel-centered life.
Man, you’ve been on a roll these last couple of days. We’re in the process of simplifying/forming our liturgy, etc. at my little fellowship. Stuff like this helps put it all in perspective.
The thing about law versus gospel is that law is, frankly, easier. We’re all looking, one way or another, for something to do. We want to know how to make this guilt feeling stop or how to get people to become Christian or how to feel more secure in some aspect of our lives, and the law is the quick and easy path: just follow these 686 rules. Ah! Now we know what to do! It doesn’t seem to work, but at least now we have a roadmap to follow! And if it doesn’t seem to be working, then we must have missed rule #347. We’ll just go back and look at that again. See? Know we know what to do, and we feel secure.
Then the gospel comes along and says, “You can’t do anything.” Suddenly we’re all uncertain again. But if I can’t do anything to solve my problem, then what do I do? Tell me what to do! And the gospel says, “Nothing.”
And which is easier to write a sermon on? Here’s a list of what you have to do or you can’t do anything?
Not to say that the gospel says sit on your laurels and stare at the sky for the rest of your life (that would being doing something, wouldn’t it?), but what we are to do is not going to solve our problems the way we want it to. There’s no step-by-step prescription. There’s only Christ. The law just seems easier, faster, and safer. Silly people that we all are…
I also grew up in a church where I was told about the roadmap that is the Bible. It’s so ironic that a preacher could preach that we’re all doing life wrong and that Jesus wants to save your soul in the same sermon, but man, it happened almost every week.
And I took that home with me and for years of my adulthood thought I could earn God’s favor. What a lie! The simple fact is that I can’t earn God’s favor, yet he gives it anyway! And how great a message that is! Thanks for the reminder!
Preach it!
On grace preachers, don’t forget STEVE BROWN. Very very good.
Yeah, Dr. Brown was a godsend to me. Pretty much kept me from either succumbing to legalism or to the despair resulting from my inability to be a good legalist.
Michael,
Right on. I sometimes feel I get more nourishment from reading one post like this that a month of Sunday mornings at church. Why, oh why is that even the best churches I’ve been able to be a part of have found it so hard to make the Gospel, and only the Gospel, their only message?
Two thumbs up.
Woot! Absolutely right, on all fronts…thanks!
Steve Brown and Keylife are the best balanced presentation of the Law – Gospel issue out there right now. He’s not reformed enough for the TRs, which is good, and not as wacky as Bob George.
Thank you so much for this post, imonk. It was a breath of fresh air through my heart this morning, a holistic cure to my recent anxiety. I never thought about the treasure and the field in that way. Keep preaching, brother!
This is yet another encouraging post you’ve shared. I also enjoyed one you posted awhile back where you used the analogy of an unskilled person with a weedwhacker to describe pastors who tend to be overzealous in their admonishment of errant parishioners. I have made that post required reading for the seminarians under my supervision.
On the subject at hand, here are a couple of books I highly recommend:
1) “Grace upon Grace (Spirituality for Today)” by John W. Kleinig. Kleinig is a Pastor in the Australian Lutheran Church and is a brilliant theologian. Everything he writes or speaks is golden – and dripping with the message of the Gospel. This book in particular is an excellent antidote to books like “The Purpose Driven Life.”
2) “The Hammer of God” by Bo Giertz. This is one of the finest books on Law and Gospel and justification by grace alone ever written. The best part about it is that it doesn’t talk ABOUT the Gospel, it conveys it in story form. It is a series of three “novellas” each about young pastors in a parish in the Church of Sweden. Each young pastor falls into the trap of legalism and each endures struggles and hardships in their ministries as a result. In each story the reader witnesses the pastor in these struggles and undergo a magnificent transformation where they come to see the light of the true Gospel.
Speaking of Bo Giertz, here’s a little anecdote on the dangers of being law-driven. Bo Giertz is considered by many to have been the last orthodox Lutheran bishop of the Church of Sweden. For decades he warned that the Pietism (legalism) that had infested the Church of Sweden for several generations would eventually and ultimately lead that church down the opposite road of complete liberalism. His prophecy came true as the Church of Sweden no longer views the Word of God as authoritative (at least not in the way that orthodox Lutheranism does). Also they not only bless same-sex unions and ordain homosexual clergy, but they will not ordain anyone who does not support these principles.
For a long time I wondered why it was that legalism would ultimately lead to a swing in the other direction. It finally dawned on me that it is because when legalism is tried long enough, and (always) without success, the logical conclusion is to simply abandon the law altogether. If you can’t keep the law, give up – marginalize and minimize it enough so that you don’t have to deal with it anymore. As you so astutely pointed out in your post, only when we view the law in light of the Gospel can this error (or any other errors related to legalism) be avoided.
Thanks again for your post.
Pax,
J. Ries
The best definition of liberalism I have heard is life without the need of God. It is the ideal of humanism: that we are basically good and capable within ourselves to improve and progress without the aid of any external interference from God or any other supernatural phenomenon. To me, it makes perfect sense that legalism would lead to liberalism, because legalism teaches that if we try hard enough, we can obey the law on our own, that we must obey it on our own. Charles Finney taught that we are obligated to obey the law, that Jesus could not have perfectly fulfilled the law on our behalf. Such legalism lead to nineteenth and twentieth century liberalism in America.
I have been telling anyone who would listen for the past five years that all of these principle-pushing preachers out there are spreading liberalism, because they lead people to believe that all one needs is the right formula, rather than a watery tomb in baptism to be raised with Christ to new life. The old Adam doesn’t want to die.
Legalism is the old Adam pretending to be religious. Once one lets the old Adam establish the definition of religious, then the boundaries are easily shifted.
…this is the kind of post that reminds me of just what it was that attracted me (and got me addicted) to your blog(s) in the first place Michael. Please don’t stop erring “on the side of the Gospel”. We need to hear it over and over and over again–because like kids who are told to stay out of the cookie jar, we tend to forget what we heard 3 minutes ago.
I now have proof you did visit my blog last night. Hope your chapters are taking form and your family is well.
Michael, thanks for preaching the Law to this would-be Lutheran (LCMS) preacher by reminding him what a powerful pastoral gift we have in our theological heritage. You are right in saying that it humbles the pastor to acknowledge that his opinions need to take a deep backseat to God’s gracious revelation in Jesus. I know I’m not the only one in my tradition that, left to my own devices, would tend toward moralistic harping with a happy face. Your “rant” here has both convicted and consoled; thanks again.
For those outside Lutheran circles who would like to read up more on the Law/Gospel distinction, I can offer a few recommendations:
- For those who prefer bullet-points, you might look at Article V of the Formula of Concord, both in the Epitome and the Solid Declaration (available here: http://www.bookofconcord.org/fc-ep.php#V.%20Law%20and%20Gospel)
- There’s a nice commentary on the aforementioned Formula L/G article in Timothy Wengert’s book, “A Formula for Parish Practice”
- C.F.W. Walther’s classic treatment has been abridged to about 120 pages in “God’s No and God’s Yes,” available from CPH
- John Pless recently wrote a more accessible introduction to L/G entitled “Handling the Word of Truth,” also from CPH.
- Finally, Gerhard Forde wrote alot on L/G. He routinely drifted into Bultmannian existentialism, and denied the 3rd use of the Law, but some of his stuff taken with a grain of salt, is useful. I’d start with “Where God Meets Man”
I’m sure my Lutheran brothers could add plenty here. I will say that it’s grasping the Law/Gospel distinction that essentially made a Lutheran out of me after wandering in the post-evangelical wilderness through college. It needs a wider audience.
You really stepped on some toes with that one, iMonk
As a Catholic, I really appreciate this. It’s great to hear that we’re not the only one’s who can be legalistic–that there is an evangelical or two who struggle with the condition. Sometimes, what I hear, is that we’re the only one’s with that particular affliction and that we are hell-bound because of it
There is an additional Biblical exegesis and Biblical theology point here, iMonk, that I would love to explore with you on some other occasion in more detail.
Those who read the Bible often mistake “Law” for “Torah.” The Torah (and the rest of the First Testament for that matter) is the STORY that instructs God’s people, a story which includes examples of the laws God gave to his people. The Torah, the story, is critical of the Law, and presents it as something that cannot save or make the people into God’s light to the world because they are incapable of keeping it.
For example, this key passage from Deuteronomy 31, given at a climactic point in the Torah, when Moses is saying his farewells to the people:
“When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the LORD. How much more after my death! Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.” (Deut 31.24-29)
From the story of Adam and Eve all the way through the Torah, the point is the same as Paul’s point in Romans 5 and 7: the Law cannot save, the Law cannot prevent sin, the Law actually stirs up sin; and Galatians 3: the Law may serve as a temporary “babysitter” to keep sin within bounds as it did with Israel, but it cannot transform or bring about the righteousness God requires.
Only one thing can, and the Torah has that answer too: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness” (Gen 15.6).
Thank you for posting this! Reading through the comments I gather that this is a mistake a few were making by equalling the Torah with Law. Not all of the Torah is halakha. There is plenty of aggadah to go around!
Wonderful, Michael. I made it to Mass this Sunday (doesn’t happen often) and the reading was about Jesus taking the 5 loaves and 2 fish that the little boy had and making it so that 5000 men and God knows how many women and children were able to eat and have lots of leftovers. The priest said we should remember to do what we can and let God do the rest. I like that. I feel often that I have very little bread to offer the world, but Jesus has all that the world needs. We just need to let the world know that Jesus has been here, is here and will be here with us forever. All our problems will not go away, but we will have a Comforter to be with us as we go through this life.
Just a note to commenters: Spam measures are set to send your comment to moderation if it has links, so don’t get upset if your comment doesn’t immediately appear.
I really don’t understand the disconnect here. The law has been broken by love, death has been swallowed up by life. I want that love in me, I want that life in me, that is salvation, Christ in me working love and life. Give me the divine, give me Jesus Christ Himself, the Holy Spirit deifying me into the image of our Lord, the blood really cleansing me. I am really changing from glory to glory, the word made flesh.
Not Christ in me, but Christ for me. Christ crucified for me, receiving the just penalty of the law for my sins–that is my salvation. There everything is accomplished.
Christ in me–working in me, deifying me–that is not complete. That leads me back under the law again–the law which has not been fulfilled.
Christ outside of me, for me, the Lord my righteousness–that is my salvation.
I am not under the law of Moses but rather the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s not a courtroom it’s a Kingdom filled with light ,life , and love. This western preoccupation with law is a limited view of redemption itself. The mystery of redemption goes deeper than all justice being fulfilled at the cross. I don’t only want Christ as my defense,I want Him to be my very life, I don’t see how this would limit the fullness of Christ’s redemptive work for me. Christ has brought fourth a new humanity, a second Adam, I embrace this Kingdom that he purchased with his blood.
Karl:
Really you are going to say “Not Christ in me, but Christ for me” ? “Not Christ in me”? Not, “Christ in you the hope for glory”-Col.1:27 Christ in me is not ‘complete’?
Wowza, not the gospel.
Thank you. You expressed far clearer than I could what I’ve been wanting to say for a long time.
What are the signs of Doomsday, the end of days ?
The 2 tower, earthquakes, nature striking back, brother against brother ?
Or like in this horrible story , a mother and sisters against a sick sister struggeling for help, but they have already in secrecy decided to “sacrifice” her ! for money ! !
read the horrible story here
http://www.medicalforgery.com
Micke,
What does this comment and link have to do with the current topic?
Just curious,
Ken
One of the most tragic pathologies to appear in the midst of a “Law-word”-obsessed Christendom is precisely what manifested among the Pharisees – a desperate marshalling of psychological resources in the service of convincing ourselves and all others that we have, in all the areas that really count, we have indeed kept the Law.
Why can’t you? becomes the immediate response to others.
Of course, such a psychological carapace forms that the soul becomes insensitive to the Gospel, and the paradise of the Father manifested to the Prodigal becomes a torment, a hell, to the elder brother.
Michael, what do you say to those Christians who continually sin, and knowing that going back to their vomit is indeed sin…but go back anyway? I’m not just talking about the major sins like gross sexual perversion, or physical abuse, but “lesser” sins like lust, porn, lying, gluttony, having a nasty attitude, laziness and procrastination?
There are times when we know the bait hanging on the hook isn’t nice and sweet and tasty but indeed putrid and vile…but we choose to believe the lie that what is vile is sweet…and that we can manage it, especially since “it’s not THAT bad”. If we’re lucky, we realize after the fact that we were wrong…and hopefully see that the vile didn’t do what was promised
Do we need a dose of law to kick our behinds so we’re scared to take the bait? Should we be fervently questioning if we even belong to Christ? Or do we need to imbibe even more in the grace than we normally should?
Romans 2:4
“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
If God’s goodness won’t turn us to Him, His law certainly won’t.
Thank you for this post. It reminds me that being the odd man out sometimes on this issue means I’m not really crazy.
I agree with those who have pointed out that the law is attractive because it gives us the illusion of control and influence and action. I’ve seen this particularly in those who came to Christ initially from lifestyles that were out of control (drug addiction, etc.). They start with the gospel but soon grasp onto the law because it’s concrete and gives them things they can do; they feel a need for this. I know people who have ended up tithing rigidly, even to the detriment of their families; put up crosses and on their lawns and massive Christian-themed art in their houses; had disciplined prayer closets and lives, but all to the detriment of the gospel lived out in their lives and relationships. Humility and love slowly fade; discernment sometimes is lacking (no reservations about the Prayer of Jabez, etc.). And that’s the danger: who’s going to critisize the things that look like spiritual development but are in fact holding people back from letting the gospel and grace invade their lives?
How does the average layperson like me begin to address these things? I’m not a pastor so can’t preach the gospel in that way. Is there much we can do? Suggestions? I get the feeling it’s going to take more than a few pastors preaching about it 20-40 minutes a week.
Brian D: This is part of my essay “Our Problem With Grace.”
Thank you, Michael.
This discussion reminds me of an old saying (that may not be real accurate, but is humorous at least):
“What is the difference between a Methodist and Baptist preacher? The Methodist assumes that everyone is saved; the Baptist assumes that everyone needs to be.”
The real answer is definitely somewhere in between. You can’t beat people with rules and expect salvation. But you can’t blow sunshine up people’s … dresses and expect them to live the life that demonstrates God’s love, either.
“They will know we are Christians by our love.” Show by example and teach with the word.
i need some help..i appreciate this post and very much needed to hear this not only personally but professionally. i am preaching through 1 Corinthians. i have come to chapter the end of chapter 4 and quickly moving into chapter 5. Paul is laying down the “law.” not in the mosaic sense but he is drawing a line in the sand saying that their arrogance and overlooking of the things happening within the church is unacceptable. it has even gotten to the point that the offender needs to be removed from the church….how is this grace and not law? how can these texts be taught or preached and law not be addressed? i understand that you could argue that it is grace to turn him out so that his soul can be saved, but how is Paul preaching the gospel in these texts? is a heavy dose of law good every once in a while?
looking for some good Gospel application on 1 Corinthians 4 & 5. please feel free to e-mail be some suggestions. mason.booth.3@gmail.com
blessings..
mason
Michael, you sunk my battleship! Would you mind preaching this every day until we (read: I) get it in our hearts? If you can’t that’s okay, but do keep saying it as much as you can — a dying world (and a dying church) needs the reminders.
Two books to recommend: Gerhard Forde’s “Luther on the Theology of the Cross,” echoes many comments here on Law/Gospel; also Paul Zahl’s “Grace in Practice” addresses some of the things BrianD brings up here.
There are two things that keep me going when I feel adrift in the rip-tide of evangelicalism. You and posts like this (as well as all the comments that help me realize that I am not alone), AND Matt Chandler’s preaching at the Village Church that I listen to through podcast. I have yet to find another preacher who is more gospel centric in every sermon that they preach. Keep up the hard work Imonk. You are a well of water and a parched landscape.
I should have written “in a parched landscape” not “and a parched landscape.” That doesn’t make much sense.
“I really think we have an army of preachers who think that people ought to come hear them “preach†about various life questions and issues. How to have a great family. How to get along at work. How to use money. How to discipline kids.
Why would I want a preacher to tell me anything about these things? Why are preachers talking about sex, politics and what Jesus wants you to eat? Can anyone admit that the preacher’s ego is often inflated to dangerous level when we let his/her advice about politics or parenting become legitimate material for preaching.
Preach the Gospel, brother. Then sit down, be quiet and let’s do something else. We can pray, sing or go eat. All good.”
Amen. I sat under every topic you can imagine preached for 10 years. I heard all about debt reduction, raising kids, happy marriage, women’s roles, how horrible the culture is, etc., etc. But I never heard about sin, sanctification, justification, grace or anything else that was about BEING in Christ. Just a lot of doing. I will never go back to that. As Anne Lotz says, Just give me more of Jesus!
..i just had a vision of sorts while sitting here observing the seemingly endless LOOP of comments…here’s what i saw: Imonk sitting at his console..monitors flickering..the radiant heat from the screens makes a small fan a necessity..a semi cold beverage within arms reach…he’s watching the flow of comments stream in…he had earlier thrown them a juicy bone and here they come a runnin…barking..like a pack of wild dogs that keeps growing and each trying to bark louder than the others….in dog language they are all saying the same thing > “im right..listen to me”…”let me tell you…” …”now here’s the thing….” …” God showed me…..” ..”here’s what that really means…” ..”what God is trying to say is…”…and on and on and on…..occasionally a dog fight breaks out and the pack goes into an elevated state of agitation with the hair raised on their backs…The Dod Whisper’er quickly steps in and restores their focus with calm authority ..until the next flare-up. ….. What im learning here is that i have some of the dog in me too and i enjoy the tension… but i think the surest sign of spiritual advancement for any of us is realizing and being able to say ” I dont have a dog in the fight “……
Micheal —
This is why I stopped going to church a few months back. I feel like God has been trying to teach me the true meaning of grace for the past few years. The culmination has been the reality that there is virtually no Gospel in the evangelical church.
Now I wonder what is next for me. I miss the friends and fellowship of church, but I refuse to continue to be manipulated and get the crap beat out of me every Sunday.
You must have very thick skin. I don’t know how you still do it or why you haven’t been kicked out yet.
Jaz,
This may not work for you, but it did for me. When I decided that I had to start church shopping again, I knew that I needed some spiritual connection. So, I took a theology class at a local seminary. I don’t remember the denomination, nor did I take any more classes, but it helped.
Another suggestion is to see if there is a nearby monastery that you can join the monks in their daily prayers.
Lydia:
Jesus is really rotten at controlling people. That’s why he’s not a very useful sermon topic.
OK, I get it, Grace & Law are like oil and water – they don’t mix. But, the Law is still our “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ” (Gal. 3:24). That’s what I think is missing in much of the contemporary discussion about Grace (especially in the Emergent camp). What Bonhoeffer called “Cheap Grace,” an early 20th Century manifestation of antinomianism, is alive and well in much of Evangelicalism. When you live through Psalm 51, you understand Grace in a different way than you did before. You understand that being granted repentance is in fact an act of Grace. You are drawn to the cross as one who loves much because he has been forgiven much.