Should I use the Law when witnessing?? Galatians 3:19-29
Yes, use the Law to condemn sinners; because what good is good news [i.e., the Gospel] if there first isn't any bad news! Right?
Paul says that the law is to be used on the lawless and sinners...
1 Timothy 1:8-10
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 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, 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;
So use the 10 commandments to lovingly condemn them with—especially the one about bearing false witness or lying; and then have them read Revelation 21:8, which says that all liars go to God's Lake of Fire!
Revelation 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Then ask them have they ever heard about God's solution to their sin problem; give them…
Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
…and
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
...and
Acts 13:38-39
Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Romans 3:25
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Propitiation = a fully satisfying payment of a debt. We owed God a debt because of our sin—and the wages of sin is death. So Christ paid the debt Himself with His Own Holy Blood! It's like the blood of the sin offering on the Mercy Seat in the Law. It is the place where the blood of atonement and God met!
Romans 5:11
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Atonement = At-One-Ment...or ‘at one with God.’ Our sins are paid for, and we are in unity, harmony, at peace with God!
Romans 2:12 has to do with Paul explaining how God (through the Lord Jesus Christ and us, His Body) will Judge and condemn all mankind, both Jew and Gentile who appear before Him/us at the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 11:15. The gentiles who did not have the law back in Paul's day [Romans 2:14] will not be judged by the Law of Moses, but by the light that God gave them (through creation, their conscience, civil laws, etc.)...
Psalm 19:1-3
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Romans 1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Romans 2:15-16
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Paul also goes onto to say in verse 12 that as many as have sinned "in the law," that is the Jew, shall also be judge and condemned to death by the Law on that Day of Judgment!
As far as Romans 4:15 is concerned...
Romans 4:15
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
…the context is very different from Romans 2. In Romans 2, Paul's is explaining how God is Just to condemn both Jew and Gentile for their unrighteous and ungodly ways—the Gentile because he constantly rejected God's witness through conscience and creation, and the Jew for breaking the Law of Moses!
That is not the context of Romans 4. The context of Romans 4 is not how God is Just to condemn men, but how He is Just to justify men by faith alone, thereby giving them the Promise of the Spirit, which is eternal life!
In Romans 4, Paul is making a case to those Jews who were in the Body at Rome (and any other Jews who would read the epistle) that their father Abraham was declared right by God, not based on following the Law (which came 4 centuries later), but by God's Grace through his faith alone!
Paul says that is was that, his faith alone, that made God declare him right! He goes on to say that it is faith and not the works of the Law that gave a man the promise of the Spirit/Eternal life!
Paul makes it clear that once God "added" the law [Galatians 3:19], He intended it to be their "schoolmaster' to bring them to Christ. He did it only to show the people of Israel that they were sinners in need of a Savior, not because they were somehow better than the gentiles!
So once He put them under the Law, all it worked in them was His wrath. But just like He was able to deal with their father Abraham by Grace, God, by taking the Law away from Israel through the New Covenant [Jeremiah 31:31-34], and the shed blood of the Lord on the Cross (but fulfilled in the future kingdom), will once again deal with the people of Israel by Grace through faith (the faith of Christ) alone! That is how he deals with us believers today! We are not under the Law but under Grace, and there is nothing that we can do or not do to ever lose our eternal life!
That is what Paul means when he says that "for where no law is, there is no transgression." This is for believers today, and not a verse about the unbelievers in Romans 2.
Romans 2:12-16.
For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Romans 5:13 also has a context.
Romans 5:13
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
The sin that is not imputed has to do with the sin of breaking the Law of Moses! Paul is reminding the reader of what he already taught in Romans 2, that is, God won't hold someone accountable to His Law, unless He first exposes them to it! He only holds one accountable to the light that He gives them.
But with that said, and although the Law of Moses did not come into the world until Exodus 19 and 20, which was about 2,500 years after Adam sinned, sin and death were still in the world.
God will judge them by whatever light He gave them before the Law and it is that light that they rebelled against, thereby sinning against God, and that brought forth death! So although mankind from Adam to Moses did not have the Law, they still did transgress against God by rejecting the other light that He gave them and thereby dying as a result of their sins!
Yes, the Law is like seeing a sign that says ‘wet paint’ and ‘do not touch.’ Our sin nature wants to touch it anyway!
Romans 5:20
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
This verse simply explains why God gave the Law to the Nation of Israel in the first place! Not because they were something special, or because they were any better people than the rest of the gentile nations, but so that He could show the seed of Israel that they too were sinners! By giving them His righteous Law, God in fact, magnified their sinfulness! By giving them His holy statutes, they saw just how far they missed the mark! Therefore, by seeing that you fall way short of God's standard of righteousness, that is, perfection, your sin abounds!
‘Abounds’ means to multiply and increase and overflow abundantly and without measure.
So when sin is abounding there is something else in the world today that abounds even greater and that is God's Grace! You cannot out sin God's Grace! Then in chapter 6 Paul goes on to explain that we are not to go ahead and live a life of sin because Grace abounds, but we are to reckon sin dead, that we are dead to sin, and servants to God, through our identification in Christ!
Hopefully this
helps...Maranatha!
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