"So with this knowledge," Grandpa Chuck said, "he's now able to understand. He now has light that his sin is primarily vertical: that he has 'sinned against heaven' (Luke 15:21). That he has violated God's law and that He has angered God and the wrath of God abides upon Him (John 3:36). He can now see that He is 'weighed in the balance' of eternal justice and 'found wanting' (Dan. 5:27)."
Meredith cut in. "He now understands the need for a sacrifice. 'Christ redeemed from the curse of the law being made a curse for us' (Gal. 3:13). 'God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us' (Rom. 5:8). We broke the law; he paid the fine. It's as simple as that. And if a man will repent, if a woman will repent and put their faith in Jesus, God will remit their sins so that on the day of judgment, when their court case comes up, God can say, 'Your case is dismissed through lack of evidence.' 'Christ redeemed from the curse of the law being made a curse for us.'
"And, therefore, exercise repentance towards God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21), put his hand to the plough and not look back because he's fit for the kingdom (Luke 9:62). That word fit means 'ready for use'. The soil of his heart has been turned that he might receive the engrafted word which is able to save his soul (Jam. 1:21)."
"See, the only thing God needs for us to do to get His gift of salvation is repentance and trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross," Trey explained. "He did everything for us. Every single thing that we needed freedom from, He already bought it. The cross is the ultimate expression of His love."
I nodded. "Some people say love is really nice. But I think it's more... painful than nice. God is love. And look at what that cost--a blood-stained cross. Love may not be nice and happy all the time, but it certainly is worth everything the risk."
"Definitely," Grandpa Chuck said. "Now, I haven't got time to share these quotes with you, but they're in our literature. I'm sure you'll recognize these names. John Wycliffe, the Bible translator. He said, 'The highest service to which a man may obtain on earth is to preach the law of God.' Why? Because it will drive sinners to faith in the Savior, to everlasting life. Martin Luther said, 'The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God's law and to show the nature of sin.' In fact, as we read these quotes, these men have so much conviction you can feel their teeth grit. They say things like, 'If you do not use the law in gospel proclamation, you will fill the church with false converts.' Stony ground hearers who will receive the word with joy and gladness.
"Listen to what Martin Luther said. He said, 'Satan, the god of all dissension stirs up daily new sects. And last of all which of all others I should never have foreseen or once suspected, he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.' So what's Luther saying? He saying, 'Listen, guys. There's a demonic, Satanic sect that's just risen up. Man, I never, ever would have believed this could happen. He's raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ,' which perfectly sums up most of our evangelism.
"John Wesley said to a friend, in writing to a young evangelist, 'Preach 90 percent law and 10 percent grace.' And you say, '90 percent law and 10 percent grace? Pretty heavy. Couldn't it be 50-50.' Think of it like this. I'm a doctor; you're a patient. You have a terminal disease. I have a cure, but it's absolutely essential that you are totally committed to this cure; if you're not 100 percent committed, it will not work. How am I going to handle it? Probably like this:
"'Come in here. Sit down. I've some very serious news for you: you have a terminal disease.' I see you begin to shake. I think to myself, 'Good. He's beginning to see the seriousness of this situation.' I bring out charts; I bring out x-rays. I show you the poison seeping through your system. I speak to you for ten whole minutes about this terrible disease. How long, then, do you think I'm going to have to talk about the cure? Not long at all. When you're sitting there trembling after ten minutes, I say, 'By the way, here's the cure.' You grab it and gulp it down. Your knowledge of the disease and its horrific consequence has made you desire the cure."
I nodded, a smile spreading across my cheeks. "Wow. That makes so much more sense."
Grandpa Chuck said, "You see, before I was a Christian, I had as much desire for righteousness as a four-year-old boy has for the word 'bath.' What's the point? See, Jesus said, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.'
"How many non-Christians do you know who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness? The Bible says, 'There is none who seek after God' (Rom. 3:11). It says they love the darkness, they hate the light; neither will they come to the light least there deeds be exposed (John 3:19–20). The only thing they drink in is iniquity like water (Job 15:16). But the night I was confronted with the spiritual nature of God's law and understood that God requires truth in the inward parts (Ps. 51:6), that He saw my thought-life and considered lust to be the same as adultery, hatred the same as murder, I began to say, 'I can see I'm condemned. What must I do to be made right?' I began to thirst for righteousness. The law put salt on my tongue. It was a schoolmaster to bring me to Christ."
"Charles Spurgeon said," Meredith stated, "'They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy law.' D.L. Moody, John Bunyan, John Newton, who wrote 'Amazing Grace'--and if anyone had a grip on grace it was Newton--he said that 'the correct understanding of the harmony between law and grace is to preserve oneself from being entangled by errors on the right hand and on the left.'
"And Charles Finney said, 'Evermore the law must prepare the way for the gospel.' He said, 'To overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and to fill the church with false converts.'"
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There Must Be Something More
SpiritualCharlie Borlock thought he had everything. That is, until new country girl Meredith Caraway arrived. She says she has a God who can do far more than what he has, and she says life is so much more than school, or girlfriends, or friends, or even fami...
