The title of this post says it all...
The Law of the Lord is Perfect Converting the Soul. Psalm 19:7
What does the Bible say is "PERFECT" converting the soul?
It is very clear...
The Bible says the LAW OF THE LORD is perfect converting the soul.
Now let's look at the rest of that verse.
what is the law of the Lord perfect at doing?
It is perfect at CONVERTING the SOUL.
So for all the pastors out there that refuse to preach God's Law because they fear it will be offensive to the people, they are missing out on the greatest tool available to man for converting the soul.
The law of the Lord is perfect. It is perfectly free from all corruption, perfectly filled with all good, and perfectly fitted for the end for which it is designed; and it will make the man of God perfect,
2 Tim. 3:17
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Galatians 3:24 says
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Romans 3:19 says
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
And that ALL the WORLD may become guilty before God.
So, why do pastor's all over America insist upon not using the Law of God?
When all they do is preach God's grace, they are only giving half of the gospel message. The Law of the Lord is PERFECT converting the soul. It acts as our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith, and we know that the Law will shut the mouth of the self-righteous person so that they might become guilty before God.
Once a person has seen they are guilty before God, it is then and only then that the grace of God should be given. They will appreciate the sacrifice so much more when they see they are guilty before God. Just telling them that God loves them will not convert the soul. It will bring about false converts.
When Jesus spoke with the rich man, He used the Law. When He spoke with the woman at the well, He used the Law. When Paul spoke at the day of Pentecost and 3000 people were saved, he spoke God's grace. Why did he not use the Law. Because these people were very aware of the Law. The lived it, they ate, slept, and drank it in. but they were missing God's grace.
Law to the proud and grace to the humble is the way we preach!
If I come across someone who is not trying to justify himself before God and man, then I will only use God's Grace. But if they are justifying themself, then I will use the Law of God. Why? Because it is PERFECT for CONVERTING the SOUL. It is biblical!!
So the next time you condemn the use of the Law, then realize you are condemning the very Words of God. It is in the Holy, God Inspired Book of the Bible.
The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
When man tries to come up with something better than what God has said works, we know that false converts will be created.
Repent of your sins, put your faith and trust in Jesus alone for your salvation. It is His great love for you that He died on the cross. But without repentance, you will miss out on the atoning of your sins and you will die in your sins. Just as Heaven is very real -- Hell is also very real!
And what is the Law of the Lord?
The Ten Commandments
1. Thou Shall Have No Other God's Before Me
2. Thou Shall Not Make For Yourself Any Graven Images
3. Thou Shall Not Take The Name Of The Lord In Vain
4. Remember The Sabbath To Keep It Holy
5. Thou Shall Honor Thy Father And Thy Mother
6. Thou Shall Not Murder (or hate)
7. Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery (or lust)
8. Thou Shall Not Steal
9. Thou Shall Not Lie (bear false witness)
10. Thou Shall Not Covet
The first four Commandments are fulfilled if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
The next six Commandments are fulfilled by loving your neighbor.
The Bible tells us that no one is able to keep the Ten Commandments! So to say you are fulfilling God's Commands to love Him and your neighbors as yourself, you are not doing it because the Bible says we are not doing it. We do not put God first in ALL phases of our life! We do lie, we do steal, we do lust, we do covet and so on. What the Law does is it acts as a mirror to show us how sinful we really are in God's eyes. Don't deny it, examine it for the truth that comes from the Bible. Then repent of your sins and put your trust and faith in Jesus to save you. It is His great love that makes it possible for you and for me to enter heaven. Once we are truly saved and have repented of our sins, the Law no longer has dominion over us! But without repentance, the Law will be used to judge us on that Fateful Day of Judgment!
Remember, The Law of the Lord is Perfect Converting the Soul.
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39 comments:
There are just as many that preach only God's grace as there are one's that preach only God's law.
Temperance.
Your post does well at warning people about relying on grace too much.
A perfect post!
Amen! I can finally use both hands to type!
Thank you Roland,
I wonder if my site comes across as too legalistic because of the fact that there are many churches only preaching grace. It should be an equal balance of both in order for it to be effective!
thank you waynedawg!!
that's great Jessie! Now don't fall out of bed anymore and break any more bones!! LOL
No wait, I am not laughing because you broke your wrist. (just wanted to clarify that!)
I hope the pain is going away for you. Now that you are using two hands to type, I know the misspelled words and typo's will end, right?? haha
Amen, Brian! All Timothy had was the Old Testament, he did not have the epistles that taught about grace.
1 Timothy 1:8--But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.
2 Timothy 3:15--...from childhood you [Timothy] have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
PS--I got a real quick question about the ads on your front page. I've been thinking about putting AdSense ads on my blog (I also use Blogger). How has your experience with them been?
not too bad. They bring up conversation starters in which witnessing opportunities come! I think it has brought me about $15 so far. Not a matter of getting rich by any means. I use it to witness to others.
I appreciate your kind words, Brian.
But I will go further and say that your blog doesn't focus on grace enough.
You do tend to lean legalistic.
But that isn't all bad.
It is definitely hard to find a balance.
I know I try to do it as well.
I think between the two of us, there is more of a balance than we think.
So if I seem too graceful, it is only in blogworld.
(truth is, I am rather klutzy) ;)
I think you are right as far as the blog-o-sphere goes! I am new to writing all of this in my posts. Until this past November, I had never done this before.
If you had a chance to actually be with me when I was out witnessing, I think you would see that I offer up plenty of God's grace.
As Waynedawg mentioned on the other post, he said that we preach 90% Law and about 10% grace. Let me go just a little bit further on what he is saying to see if it helps make some sense for you.
Suppose I tell you that I just sold my house and am giving you all the money to help you for Cronin's Disease. What would your response be? Most likely it would be...
What? you sold your house and am giving me the money for Cronin's Disease? Why? uh, thanks
it wouldn't make sense to you. I am giving you what appears to be a free gift but you are not sure why I am giving it to you.
Now, suppose I come up to you and say, Roland, I can see ten clear signs on your body that you have Cronin's Disease. And I go into detail explaining what the disease is and how much pain it will cause you unless you get a cure for it. I spend 20 minutes explaining the deadly effects of the disease. You are shaken, you realize that unless you get a cure, you will die. The cure is very expensive and you do not have the money to pay for it. How long will it take for you to appreciate the gift once I tell you that I just sold my house and am giving you the money so that you can get the cure for the disease? You will not question my motives for doing it because you know I am doing it out of love for you. You will accept the gift because you know it will save your life.
See, I can spend more time talking about the dangers of living in sin of how it causes separation with God (as even God will not hear the prayers of an unrighteous person). When the person begins to tremble because he realizes that he is going to hell, how much more do you think he will appreciate the cure (which is the love of God that He sent His Son to die on the cross for us)? He will not be confused as to why He did it because he will know it was out of love for him. He will gladly accept the free gift and will appreciate the one who gave it to him.
I only keep preaching Law until a person finally realizes that they can not justify themselves before before God. A person must see that they are destined for hell in order to appreciate the gift of God's love.
Who do you think would be more willing to follow God on His terms and not on their own terms? I would say it is the one who knew he was headed for hell and then found out how much God loved him as opposed to the one who was just told God loves you with no explanation.
Good parable.
I explain as well.
I just have a different method.
I have noticed more and more lately, that Jesus was always ready to lend a hand to those who needed it.
He spent as much time getting to know people, if not more, than he spent pointing out the specks in their eyes.
And when the speck bothered them, who did people seek out back then?
People in charge of enforcing and handing out the laws?
Or someone who actually seemed to care about them getting better.
Yeah, it would be great to go out with you. I think we would both learn something from each other.
And I'm sure your approach is fine.
Concern for others is great.
But even with all the sin they have, if they can sense your fondness for them as a person, you will have one more heart that much closer to Jesus.
People tend to respond and respect someone who loves them. They can sense it in the way you talk to them, the way you make eye contact with them and the tone of your voice. That is why I have never had a problem talking to people out in the streets because they can tell that I genuinely care about them.
Actually, Jesus was always right to the point. The woman at the well, he spoke first about water, but went right into her being an adulterer. The rich man, he went right into talking about the Commandments with him. Of course, Jesus already knew everyone, even their hearts which is something that neither of us can say!!
Too true.
Hi Roland,
I definitely understand where you are coming from. I used to think the same thing, that Ray Comfort was crazy and he never preached enough grace. So, I discredited his ministry because of that. In my opinion, he was just a crazy Christian radical who knew nothing about the Bible. My opinion of him changed over time, though.
If I walked up to someone and said, "God loves you so much that he sent His Son to die for YOUR sins," then God's grace doesn't seem very... gracious because I just said that that person sinned when he/she may not think that he/she has. Some people REALLY don't think that their sin is EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL. They justify themselves by saying that there are plenty of other people who are just as bad.
When I became false-convert (when I was a professing Christian who lived in sin without repentance), I never understood grace at all. And this was going to a church that preached 100% grace. Isn't that weird? I heard God's grace SO MANY TIMES, but I never really UNDERSTOOD it. Why? Because I never understood my sin and how it angered God. So, Christ's death on the cross was never amazing to me. In my ignorant little mind I thought, "Of course God should send His Son to die for us. I mean, God loves us, right? If He loves us, He should figure out a way to Heaven for us anyway..." How ignorant, prideful, self-righteous was I!!!
However, when I was presented with the Law, I realized that my little exaggerations were LIES, that my sexual thoughts about men were ADULTERY, that my hatred toward people was MURDER, that my downloading of songs of the Internet was THEFT!! I had broken every single Commandment and in God's eyes I was seen as a liar, a thief, an adulterer, a murderer, and everything else you could imagine. And I was a professing Christian continuing to do those things! It wasn't until I saw myself through God's Holy Law that I realized that my sin was EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL and that I was headed to Hell. It was then and ONLY THEN that God's grace through Christ's death on the cross MADE SENSE. God's grace finally became AMAZING to me.
The first time I saw the movie The Passion of the Christ, I had to force myself to cry. I thought about other sad things to make it seem like I was broken hearted over my sins when in reality, I was a false-convert who was happy living in my sins. I didn't want to repent because, in my head, God loved me and wanted me in heaven, and because I said a prayer, I was good to go.
Not true. After I became a believer, I saw a YouTube video of the song "This Man" by Jeremy Camp with snipets from The Passion of the Christ, and I immediately was broken. And it wasn't the whole movie. It was BECAUSE I understood my sin through the LAW (the purpose for which it was designed), and my sin became, as Paul said, EXCEEDINGLY SINFUL. And knowing that God was Holy and JUST, that He by His very nature MUST punish sin, and how He saw me as a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, a thief, an adulterer, a murder, etc., I finally realized that Christ's death on the cross was the amazing grace that God offered.
Like I said, I attended a church who preached nothing but grace, and NEVER did I understand, NEVER was I broken.
I know Brian, he does preach grace, believe me. But he preaches it in such a way that it becomes amazing to the hearer. If we talk about grace so much, it doesn't become amazing. But if we have them trembling before a Holy AND JUST God, knowing that they will go to Hell because of their sins, and help them understand what their sin is, THAT is when grace becomes amazing.
See, if I was a doctor and handed you a cure for a cancer you don't think you have, will you be thankful to me or just think I'm insane for giving you (and charging you for) a cure? And maybe you will accept it, take the cure, and leave. Don't you think I would be a little offended that you just took a cure I sacrificed so much time to help develop and bring to you, and you just take it and leave without much gratitude, then go on and live your life? Will that cure be amazing to you or will it not make sense to you because you don't think you have any kind of life-threatening disease? I mean, I showed you NOTHING that said you had cancer, right? Why should you believe you have it and be thankful for a cure?
But if I sat you down and showed you X-Rays, MRIs, CT Scans, etc., of a tumor in your brain, showed you blood tests and other tests to confirm it even more, gave you TEN CLEAR SIGNS OF THE CANCER, then told you you had six weeks to live, would you tremble and shed tears because of it? Though I don't know you personally, I'm sure you would. How long would it take for the cure for your tumor to become AMAZING? About 1/2 a second. Would you then complain that I didn't tell you enough about the cure? Or would you just take it and express your utmost gratitude toward me?
Sorry, horrible examples, but what I'm trying to say is that talking about grace more than sin/judgment/hell/repentance won't make the "cure" for the second death sound amazing. It will make it sound foolsih because YOU don't think you've done anything to deserve a second death (hypotheically). But talking about sin, repentance, judgment, Hell so much to the point where you are trembling before a Holy and Just God, will make the "cure" for the second death sound so much more amazing!
Maybe this doesn't make any sense at all, but again, I understand where you are coming from. But remember, Jesus talked more about Hell than Heaven. That doesn't mean we should talk more about Heaven than Hell. That doesn't mean we should talk about GRACE more than sin/judgment/hell/repentance.
It also doesn't mean we should exclude grace altogether. Grace is part of the gospel, but it's not the WHOLE gospel. Sin, etc., is ALSO part of the gospel, but it is also not the WHOLE GOSPEL.
Again, I know Brian. I've personally talked with him. He doesn't just preach one side.
Sorry this was so long, and sorry that I repeated so much. But in reading your comment, I remember thinking the same exact thing.
I have to ask Nator, what exactly was the truth that you speak of? What Scripture opened your eyes to think that what Jessie said is wrong?
I actually used the law last night in my class. My 5th graders are reading the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. We had talked about Edmund's character traits awhile back. Last night, I asked them, how many of you are like Edmund? No hands went up...Then I started with "have you ever told a lie?" If I told you a lie, you'd call me a...?" I went through the obvious commandments that the character breaks.
I've been privilaged to talk to my students about what I believe and about salvation and hell. Remembering this, one of my students said he's going to be in trouble when he dies...
Unfortunately, because of the timing of my classes, I didn't get a chance to talk with him afterwards. However, he's heard the message before.
I did a similar thing with my kindergarten class for Easter. I had one of the buddha believing girls asking so many questions about Jesus, heaven, and how we know that God exists. I did get to talk with her during our break and normally when she leaves she always tells me that she loves me. This time she told me that she loves Jesus.
The gospel is very simple, but a lot, if not most, churches don't preach it. If you're leaning too far one way, it's not the gospel. The gospel says that man is sinful, unrighteous before God and deserving of His judgment, but Jesus paid the price for our sins so we can be reconciled to God. True repentance and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Otherwise, you'll get false converts without repentance and turning from your sins.
Amen Wesley!!
Jeff,
You are right in that some people do feel they have to keep the Law to make it to heaven (works based).
It is a fine line that some people can walk.
We must remember that the Law is good if used lawfully.
It acts as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
It will shut the mouth of the self-righteous person.
"From my point of view, i think where the "law" gets in the way (not the best terminology) is that I think that it can be seen as a works salvation."
I think I know what you are trying to say here. I agree that it is not the best terminology to say the Law gets in the way because that would make it seem like God is a liar when His Word says that the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. If someone is under the belief that the Law "must" be kept, then it does become works-based.
"We need to make sure that the new believers do not now see the law as they do to become saved that it is God's grace."
God's grace makes more sense to a person who realizes they have broken God's Law and are deemed unworthy by anything they could do to make it to heaven. the Law acts as a mirror to show people their sinfulness and nothing more than that! If a new believer never hears God's Law, then there is a greater danger of creating a false convert than if they do hear the Law. Not just my opinion on this one. It is biblical. The Law of the Lord is PERFECT CONVERTING the SOUL!
"They need the grace because they have not and can not fulfil the law."
That's right Jeff, they have not (neither have I), and cannot fulfill the Law, but by using the Law they can recognize their sinfulness in God's eyes. They can fall to their knees and cry out to God to save them. that is where God's Grace comes in to play!
"But, we must go faw beyond law and I thik that we see that clearly in Jesus "Sermon on the Mount""
Sure, we don't stop at the Law, like I said before, it is ONLY for the purpose of showing someone that they have broken God's commands (we all have). It helps them to understand that they need to be righteous (to be in right standing with God). It is only through repentance and putting your trust and faith in Jesus alone for your salvation that that can happen!
Don't forget what Jesus said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. There will be those who will say, Lord, Lord and he will say to them, depart from Me you worker of iniquity (lawlessness), I never knew you.
The real danger comes when "only" the message of Grace is told. Because a person is not told they need to repent of their sins. They are not told to live a righteous life, they are not tole to die to self and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is too much missing when only grace is told. I would rather have someone know they have offended God by their sins and then tell them what they must do to be saved. It is all about Jesus dying on the cross and it is about Grace. The difference is we need to give the "whole" gospel message and not just half of it.
Jeff - I can't remember who said this, and I hope I quote it correctly........
"The Law can only take us to the foot of the cross at Calvery and no further"
that quote sound right to me. That is where the statement of the Law points us to Christ comes from! It only points to Him, He brings us Home by His Grace!
thanks Jeff!
I have to say Jeff, that I am a bit bothered that you would consider the Law of God being considered hardcore. When we see that the Law of the Lord if perfect for converting the soul, why would we want to do it any other way? God's Word says it is perfect! I won't change. Again, if you only had a chance to actually watch me talk to people, I think you would see that there is absolutely nothing offensive about the way I talk to them. Also, God's grace is lifted up on the highest of levels as it is obvious that there is absolutely nothing that I can do of myself to get to heaven. It is solely by the grace of God. The Law only points the way to the cross.
Nator, I didn't forget about your comment that you sent me, I will post it on friday sometime when I have a little bit more time to give it an honest reply. I hope you understand!
God bless
Nator, I didn't forget about your comment that you sent me, I will post it on friday sometime when I have a little bit more time to give it an honest reply. I hope you understand!
God bless
Just remember that I am reaching out to non-believers. I am reaching to people who "profess" to be Christians but are still living in their sins and do not know they need to repent of their sins. People who are professing Christians, but are still living in their sins, do not need to hear the grace filled message because they are too busy justifying themselves. I will continue to drive home God's Law because that is biblical Christianity. Sure, you can quote the Greatest Commandments of love the Lord your God and the second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. But when we realize that the Bible tells us that NO ONE has kept the first Commandment, no one has ALWAYS put God first in their life. We can "say" that we do, but reality is that if someone dies, we will go to be with the family, Remember what Jesus said when the man said "let me go bury my father." He said, let the dead bury the dead, you come follow Me. Since the Bible tells us that NO ONE has kept the first Commandment, then I believe it to be true. So, regardless of whether you believe the Ten Commandments to be used in NT, it doesn't matter. We have still not kept His Commandments. We are all guilty of breaking His Commandments. And the Bible tells us that an unrighteous person will not enter heaven. A disobedient person will not be loved of the Father. If you keep my Commands, you will be loved of the Father, if you keep not My Commands, the love of the Father is not in you! You can call it fundamentalist if you want. I call it being obedient (out of Love for the Father) to God! If you are not willing to share the Good News completely with people, so as not to create false converts, then you are doing them more harm than good.
Nator, I will respond to you comment that showed up a few spots earlier.
"I have to go back to experiences of those who use the law. They usually (not always) start out with good intentions, and then the law becomes the focal point. Grace is discounted and pushed aside, and the law becomes works."
Nator, I had a discussion last night with my girlfriend about this very thing. You are right, when ONLY the Law is used as a means of salvation, then it does become works. And we all know that we are not saved by works. If Grace is discounted and pushed aside, then that is not offering the whole gospel message and it can do as much damage as only preaching grace can.
"I could point out a post you did about Doorman-Priest as an example of this. (I know you would disagree, but I guess that is why we disagree)"
Now there is one thing that you are not mentioning here Nator, as far as DP is concerned, this is a person who is still showing a lack of change in his life. The vulgar language he uses is a sign of bad fruit and the Bible tells us that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. So with him, it is necessary to continue giving him God's Law so that hopefully he will see that he cannot justify himself. It won't work when his day comes to face God. When he gets to a point of repentance (and it is clearly seen by the removal of his vulgar language) then is the time to offer him God's grace. Just to say to him that God loves him will not create in him a reason to repent of his sins. The Law is used as a mirror to show him his sinfulness (as well as yours and mine). It will only take us to the cross and no further. It will take us to the point of seeing Jesus and then understanding how wonderful His grace is.
"I have been in churches where this mentality reigned supreme, so much so that if you were “branded” by someone in the church, then you needed to be saved. It didn’t matter what you did, you could just wear the wrong clothes to a service and that was it. I knew this wasn’t of God, but it was a result of the law. (I believe the Pharisees were like this as well, and then were the upholders of the law.)"
I am sorry you had a bad experience with the church you mentioned. That is why I have my blog. There are more churches out there than we care to admit who are not being biblical. They are either only preaching God's Law and rules and regulations (works) or they are only preaching a soft gospel of Grace (with no mention of repentance). My goal is to get churches to become more biblical in their teachings. The pastor's job is to equip the saints so that they can go out into the streets reaching the lost. No where in the Bible does it tell us to "invite" people to church. We are told to "GO" "PREACH" the "GOSPEL" to "EVERYONE" in "ALL THE WORLD"
But pastor's have failed miserably in training up disciples for Christ. The Bible tells us the Law is good if used lawfully. The Bible tells us that the Law is Perfect Converting the soul. It should be used. Not as a focal point, but as a way of showing a person how wretched they really are in God's eyes (just as I am wretched too). Then when we preach God's Grace it will make sense to them!
"I could go on and give you scriptures that show this to be true, but you will just discount them. As I have said in the past, I have given you a complete dissection of a passage that went against how you were using the passage (and still use it that way) and instead of seeing it, you just brush it off. With that said, just one verse that shows God’s Grace to all."
Actually the verse you used was not in context with the rest of the passage just like the vese you are using below.
"“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” I Timothy 2:3-4. A Grace for ALL men and not a chosen few, or who jump through the Proper hoops. A Grace that God shows to ALL men."
Now go to the first chapter and see what was said so you can see it all together. It is easy to take one verse and make it fit an argument, but it must be in context.
1 Tim 1:8
But we know that the law [is] good, if a man use it lawfully;
1 Tim 1:9
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1 Tim 1:10
For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1 Tim 1:13
Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did [it] ignorantly in unbelief.
1 Tim 1:14
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
He is talking about what kind of life he used to have. Why did he no longer have that life? He repented of his sins. The Law was used lawfully to bring about that change in him. It showed him that he had fallen short of God's glory. The grace that he talks about is a wonderful grace because he realized that he and all of mankind are undeserving of heaven. That it is only through the wonderful grace that God offers us eternal life. He doesn't just say grace to all men and that is it. Read the whole scritpure to understand the true context. It is grace that is offered to sinful man who needs to repent to go to heaven. The gift of repentance comes to all who put their faith and trust in Jesus alone for salvation.
Nator,
you said, "I have given you a complete dissection of a passage that went against how you were using the passage (and still use it that way) and instead of seeing it, you just brush it off."
why don't you tell the people here what passage you are talking about and I will show you that I am using it "biblically" which seems to be a problem to you! If you don't believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God, you can't go using Scripture to mean what you want it to mean.
Stella
I have just done a holiday club based on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is a story about judgment and grace. Edmund becomes 'slave' to Turkish delight and as a result of his sin finds himself imprisoned and heading for eternal death. It is a repentant and changed Edmund that is saved by the death and resurrection of Aslan. The children at the holiday club needed to know (even at their age) the consequences of sin.
I find the 'Roman Road to Salvation' has good balance of judgement and grace:
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of God's glory"
Romans 6:32a "the wages of sin is death"
Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
Romans 10:9,10 "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
In taking this 'Roman Road' in leading people to salvation we may need to spend quite some time with the first two steps. Unless there is an appreciation of sin, then as others have argued, people can not recognise the grace.
thanks QofI,
good comments and very accurate! very biblical!
QofI, thanks! That's a great thing to remember, and I can weave Romans in...We are only on Ch. 8, where Edmund leaves the Beavers' dam.
I'm so grateful that God has opened the door for me do read this book with them. I teach at a "buddhist" school. And so far, no complaints from parents or boss. I've been able to preach repentence and grace in my role as a teacher. I like to remind my students every little chance I get.
Since so many of them have never been exposed to Christianity, they have so many questions!
With our past two books, I've done more Bible teaching than I have teaching the books! ooops... :)
Pray for them...they have their chapter 1-8 on tuesday!! hahaha
Great post Bro. and true As a street preacher I use this to reason ith the sinner I have come to find out there never a shortage of sinners this is used by use as we go street fishing God bless you Bro.
Thanks Gabriel, my wife (former girlfriend!), just recently moved to Florida. We are actively involved in a wonderful church that is very biblical. The pastor preaches God's Word without fail and without compromise. The last pastor we were under would rather tell stories about himself and get people crying and have them leave church feeling good, rather than tell the people the truth of what they need to hear. No mention of repentance whatsoever. He preaches only grace. I cannot and will not sit under that kind of preacher. It makes me sick! His preaching is too mushy and he does it in a way that all he is doing is "tickling the ears" with feel good messages. Him and other preachers like him, will have to answer to God some day. Thank you for being a person who is not afraid to witness to people out in the streets. We need more faithful Christians like you doing what God called us to do!
God is so good. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. I wonder if after a year if any of the grace only people have come to their senses and realized the need for repentance of sins and the fact that Jesus spent more time talking about hell than He did about heaven...
We have not had to come to our senses because "us grace" folks know that the only reason that we have grace is because what God through His Son did for us.
problem with that comment is this, grace only people can say they "know" what God did through Jesus Christ. While it is nice to know what He did, it is more important to know WHY He did what He did. A person who comes to Christ just because he said a prayer most likely has no idea of what he is saved from. Hence, it would make his a false convert and not truly saved. The moment something bad happens in his life, he will fall away because according to him, the love of God failed him. When one learns that he is saved from the very wrath of God, then grace becomes exceedingly wonderful to him and he will not fall away during times of trials and tribulations.
Roland, Jeff and Nator, how have you all been doing? How has your faith grown during the past year or so? Any God glorifying moments in your life lately? My prayers go out to all of the people leaving comments on my blog here. Wayne, Stella, FourPointer, Jessie and Jason and any others that I might have missed. If you remember Doormanpriest who used to comment on my blog (the one who used to use the "f" word religiously)do you ever wonder if he has had a changed heart or not? What will it take to get people to repent of their sins? People love their sins so much today. The Day is coming when Jesus will say, "Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you."
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