Using the Law to evangelize the lost.

Be sensitive! That seems to be the order of the day when it comes to evangelism. Of course there are other things we should do as well, lest we weaken our evangelism. Things like, be aware of their (felt) needs or don't scare them away with theology, build a relationship, let them see your life and when they are drawn to you, then you talk about Jesus but don't forget: Whatever it takes, do not offend them.
In the midst of so much advice on evangelism, one cannot help but notice the true, genuine love and care for the lost that is demonstrated by brothers of all kinds of christian denominations, through the time, money and effort spent on that endeavor. If you start reading the multitude of books written on the subject in the last 35 years, it does not take long before questions start arising:
Is not the Gospel undoubtedly offensive to the lost?

How is it that those who are enemies of God (Rom 5:10) , blinded by Satan (II Cor 4:4) and lovers of darkness because their deeds are evil (Jo 3:19) are not going to be offended by the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ?

If and when I tell them the truth (and they get offended) does that mean I'm insensitive?

And yes, Am I the only one who gets nervous substituting the proclamation of the Gospel with "let them look at my life" even if it is for a short periood of time?

Those are serious questions about a very serious matter and we all should examine ourselves and be convinced by the Holy Scriptures on how to reach those who are perishing. After all,

we all want to further the Kingdom right?

We are all saddened by the fact that an untold number of people everyday take the plunge into a hopeless eternity and above all,

it is disheartening to know that God is not worshipped as He should all over the earth by everything that has breath.

All that being true, Christians must ask the question: How should we evangelize the lost? I believe that the answer might not be as complicated as it may seem. To proclaim the gospel of salvation to the world, one must first know what the gospel is. In our day and age, many things are called gospel that are no Gospel at all. The Gospel is the good news of God. Sinners can be saved! But for the good news to be GOOD, or to make any sense at all, you have to understand that you are in danger. You are under the just condemnation of the Almighty God. It makes little sense to offer medicine to those who think they are healthy. If you convince them that they are terminally ill, it will make all the sense in the world and the chance that the medicine now will not only be accepted but also applied is much greater. In the same way, to ask people to accept Jesus in their heart without them knowing the horror of their sin against God is not evangelizing at all. You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not "He is at the door of your heart knocking and if you let Him, He will come in" or "Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life". The glorious Gospel is that Christ Jesus came in to the world to save sinners, lived perfectly without sin, died on the cross receiving the punishment of God on behalf of sinners, was buried and rose again on the third day for our justification. All who trust in Him for eternal life are adopted by the father and become co heirs with Christ and are bound for a life of eternal joy. All who reject Him are already condemned. (I Ti 1:15; I Cor 15:3,4; Rom 4:25; Eph. 1:5 Jo 3:15 - 19)

But how do you approach the "sin subject" without the Law? It is simple, you don't! For the apostle Paul says "...through the law comes knowledge of sin."(Rom. 3:20) The 10 commandments are an indispensable component of evangelism. Your hearers must come to the knowledge of their sin before coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If they don't think they are guilty, there is NOTHING to be saved from. Also, the Law reveals the character of God, which is utterly important because without a Holy God, there is NOBODY to be saved from. Didn't our Lord talk about the Law with the young ruler? (Lk 18:18 -23) Didn't it become evident that the rich young ruler had another god before God? His idolatry was exposed by the commandments. Jesus also employed the Law in John 4 with the samaritan woman, showing to her that she had repeatedly broken the 7th commandment by having had 5 husbands, in fact she was presently living with a man that wasn't even her husband. It seems that the Law brought about enough conviction in her heart that the Lord revealed himself to her on verse 26 and shortly after that she was already telling people about Jesus.

The apostles also employed the Law in soul winning quite often. Peter in Acts 2 charges the Jews with murder and by the end of the day 3000 were baptized; Paul exposes the idolatry of the men of Athens saying that "... we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man." Acts 17:29 and on the very next verse he says that God commands every man everywhere to repent of it all.

Much more could be said I suppose, but I am persuaded of one thing: If the use of the Law is good for the Lord and His Apostles, it is certainly good for me. I have no right, nor business really, in substituting the use Law for faithless pragmatism to reach those who are perishing. Only God saves and He does it through His Word and if we love and trust Him we should proclaim it boldly and faithfully and let the chips fall where they may for He is faithfull and His Word will not return to Him without accomplishing the purpose for which it was sent.

May the Lord of the harvest bless you as you reach the lost for the glory of Christ leading people to His Gospel through His perfect Law.

Coming up...

What's up everybody?? I am swamped with work these days not really having a lot of time to post anything, but I just wanna let you know what is coming. I have a few things brewing: "The use of the law evangelizing the lost", " Self esteem: What is there to be esteemed?" and also I'm working on something that might be called " Fear: A legitimate means of coming to Christ? So check back soon and always let me know what you think.
Cheers.

What do you mean, God is not gonna judge the world by the 10 commandments???

My wife recently realized the importance of using the Law in evangelism. Since then she puts it in practice whenever she can. A few days ago she had an interesting exchange with her sister about the Judgment Day. My wife was arguing that we are all bad, really have nothing on God and that He is already gracious enough to let us breathe when we really don't deserve it. Her sister replied: Hold on. I'm not evil !?! I'm innocent! My wife went on to ask her a few questions: Ever used the name of God in vain? Lied? Ever stolen something? Looked at a man with lust? Yes! Yees! I got it, I got it ok. My wife wrapped it all up with one last question: So, by your own admission you are an adulterous, lying, blaspheming thief. On the day of judgment upon your own confession, where should God send you? Heaven or Hell? The answer was obvious, the subject was changed and she left the room first chance she had. A couple of days later my wife's sister's husband fell in my wife's evangelistic claws and in no time she was taking her, now normal, evangelistic route when he quickly replied: I don't believe God is going to judge the world based on the 10 commandments . My wife said " ok then" and let the conversation die just to admit to me later that she didn't know how to keep it going. Before I go on with this post, I want to point out that her sister clearly talked to hubby about the conversation she had with my wife and I would venture to say that it had the same effect on him because he was ready to avoid the "Law questions" at all cost even before they started coming. I do have a vague idea on how I would keep that dialogue going. Here's my honest try:

- What do you mean God won't judge the world by the 10 commandments? Let's take a look at them. Stealing for example: Are thieves welcome in heaven? Think about people who steal money from charitable organizations leaving thousands hungry in 3rd world countries. God is not going to punish that? How about coveting the neighbor's wife. Some guy tells you drooling: "Your wife looks fantastic. I'd love to spend a night with her." God is gonna let it slide? Murdering: Hittler murdered 6 million jews. What is God gonna do if He is not going to judge that? My guess is that he would answer yes to all the questions (especially the wife one) de bunking therefore his own previous statement thus bringing us back to where we started. Namely his guilt before a holy God who is a righteous judge. The issue is, you are guilty my dear friend. What are you gonna do about it? Eternity is one heck of a long time and it is closing in every day.

My response to a hoax petition e-mail

"CBS discontinued 'Touched by an Angel' for using the word God in every program. "

That was the title of the very serious e-mail. The text went on to tell us how doomed we were because now they were discontinuing christian shows because they mention God's name. What's next now? Discrimination hits a new high and many will die from this ruthless persecution. Ok, I am exagerating a bit. The e-mail went on to ask for our e-signature for this petition against such enormous cruelty. The following is my reply to a dear friend who sent me that e-mail:

Jane Doe:

I obviously fully agree w/ the petition but I wanna look at it from a different angle though. I think that the issue isn't really the atheist lady or her organization. I think WE are the problem. I mean, think about it. Look at the tv show in question, Touched by an angel is theologicaly flawed. According to it, the only requirement to go to heaven is to die. Christianity is portrayed as a mode of behavior instead of faith in a jewish rabbi that lived, died and rose again two millenia ago and on and on it goes. The problem is that the true Gospel is not proclaimed. The same christians who display great outrage about having the 10 commandments monument removed from that building do not know what the 10 commandments are. They fought because the commandments are out of our schools but they are not able to enumerate them. We kick and scream because public prayer is outlawed while private prayer is admitedly neglected day in and day out. In my view, the problem is mainly behind our pulpits consequently in our pews. If that doesn't change, it matters very little wether "touched by an angel" is on the air or not, if public prayer is allowed or even if the 10 commandments are painted on every wall in the nation. But again, I'm just a raving fanatic anyway.
Y tu, que opinas?

The "you don't really KNOW" rhetoric.

So, I was talking to this guy at my office about politics. He really enjoys talking about it but, either I'm a little slow or he doesn't pay much attention to what he says because I don't seem to really get what he is saying half of the time. For the sake of this article (and my ego's I guess), I'll just assume that the latter is true. At a certain point in our conversation I subtly changed the subject to the Gospel of our Lord. I told him that politics is about man trying to create an utopia on earth. I assured him that it isn't going to happen on this side of eternity because of sin. I told him about Genesis 3, The Fall of man, God's punishment, the cursing of the ground and how all of us had rebelled against a Holy, Just God being therefore under His righteous Wrath and our only hope was Jesus Christ who died for sins and was raised again and all those who trust in him now are received by Him with open arms and do not have to fear death because God had overcome it for them. His eyes were jumping out of his face after this subtle change of subject. He said he had a religious background and "knew" all that stuff but showed himself to be a little puzzled by "the great exchange"(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_imputation) I told him that I couldn't fully understand how was it that God would accept one paying for the sins of another but it was the overwhelming testimony of Scripture. He then posed an objection: He said over and over that I didn't KNOW if that was true. He affirmed repeatedly that it was a matter of faith and we couldn't really KNOW if the Gospel was true.

HOW I DEALT WITH THE " YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW" OBJECTION.

As he was talking to me, I'm thinking: He is making it sound like this is a shot in the dark, just a matter of personal preference and even worse, blind faith. My forehead was throbbing! I could feel the smoke in my nostrils, good thing evangelism is Holy Spirit empowered. I agreed with him to a certain degree that I didn't KNOW it but that there was enough evidence to make me very comfortable trusting Christ and just like he does everyday I put my trust on something / somebody I didn't really KNOW. He protested: I don't do that! I went on to point out to him that he took analgesics not KNOWING what the content of the bottle was but there are enough laws and penalties enforced by the FDA for him to feel confident that his bottle of painkillers actually contains painkillers. Or the airplane he boarded the other day, he can't really know if the pilot is drunk or if there will be an engine faillure but what he knew was enough to gain his trust, therefore he boarded the plane. Likewise there is enough evidence to the truthfulness of the Gospel and he was rejecting it not because of the lack of evidence but because of the hardness of his heart. I wrapped it up telling him how I would really be unloving to him if I didn't give him the truth. He thanked me and a few minutes later he left. It's been a few days and we did talk several times after that but nothing about the Lord. I hope we talk about Christ soon and in the meantime I'll intercede for him before the throne.

May God bless you as you go out there and give them heaven.