How to preach the law?

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

I'm always facing difficulties when I'm preaching to nonbelievers as I'm approaching the Christian hamartiology.
Modern and secular people have no recollection of sin nor do they consider themselves stained by original sin.

This is a major concern for me when I'm evangelizing as the fall and its consequences is the cornerstone of the build up the Christian soteriology.
Christ only makes sense as a restoration of the fall.

It feels very difficult to awaken the awareness of sin in people unfamiliar with the anthropological consequences of it.

If anyone has any tips please share them with me. Thing is I have a bachelor's degree in Lutheran theology and I'm currently studying for a masters degree.
I'm very familiar with Lutheran and catholic theology, but still I'm facing major problems when it comes to actualization of the sinful nature of mankind.

 

[zephcom]

I'm always facing difficulties when I'm preaching to nonbelievers as I'm approaching the Christian hamartiology.
Modern and secular people have no recollection of sin nor do they consider themselves stained by original sin.

This is a major concern for me when I'm evangelizing as the fall and its consequences is the cornerstone of the build up the Christian soteriology.
Christ only makes sense as a restoration of the fall.

It feels very difficult to awaken the awareness of sin in people unfamiliar with the anthropological consequences of it.

If anyone has any tips please share them with me. Thing is I have a bachelor's degree in Lutheran theology and I'm currently studying for a masters degree.
I'm very familiar with Lutheran and catholic theology, but still I'm facing major problems when it comes to actualization of the sinful nature of mankind.

As one who is on the outside looking in, 'non-believers' are not interested in being preached at. They do like to be treated with love. In this day and age, people have a lot more to worry about than 'original sin' and sin in general.

I have long thought about how amazing this world would be if all one billion Christians on the planet today took to heart Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and His Two Great Commandments.

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

As one who is on the outside looking in, 'non-believers' are not interested in being preached at. They do like to be treated with love. In this day and age, people have a lot more to worry about than 'original sin' and sin in general.

I have long thought about how amazing this world would be if all one billion Christians on the planet today took to heart Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and His Two Great Commandments.

You just proved my point...

 

[zephcom]

You just proved my point...

Okay. How you deal with that point determines how successful you will be. As Paul said, love is the single most important thing and without it everything else will fail.

 

[Dave G.]

With me a born again believer belonging to an evangelical group of missionaries basically, someone is placed on my heart and then I seek them out. Generally I find their hearts have been opened to hear what I have to say. I generally start off easy from the Book of John, which interestingly enough to some degree points back to what Zephcom just said since that book is on love. We have all fallen short of God's requirements but He has made a provision in Christ Jesus and done so out of love. We need to love the unsaved, sinners or not because we aren't any better, we just came to know Jesus.

Many times I've used John 3:16 as a launch point. Many non believers feel God is an angry God or a harsh God, so show them the loving side. Often I'll hand them a bible or have them bring John 3 up on there phones and read it for themselves and they have commented they never saw God that way ! Don't knock them over the head with the Law that's the last thing they want to hear. And really they don't need to hear it. Christ said He is writing the law into their hearts who come to Him. Love, mercy, grace is what tired people need to here. Is there hell ? Of course but don't beat them over the head with that, they will ask in due time and then you can tell them that Jesus overcame the grave and hell. That we in Christ, Satan has no power over. The best thing is casual conversation.

Our pastors are masters at this because mission fields and evangelizing is what is taught to them. I probably typed all this for nothing not being Lutheran and not practicing Catholicism any longer but well anyway, consider it.

 

[Hazelelponi]

.

 

[paul1149]

(not Lutheran)

Indeed, conviction of sin does have a role in conversion, and sin is almost a lost concept these days. Of course it should be done in love (eph 4.15; Gal 6.1).

The key to conviction of sin is the Golden Rule, which is the foundation of conscience. It's pretty easy to convince an honest person that they don't measure up to the Golden Rule. Then ask them how they expect to stand before the thrice-holy God.

I'm reminded of the timeless story, Peace Child, by Don Richardson. He was among natives out near Papua New Guinea. They were cannibals that esteemed treachery above all else as a sign of prowess. The more elaborate the scheme to betray, the more carefully carried out, the more respect they earned on the social ladder. So when told the story of the Gospel, they considered Judas the hero. But Richardson eventually found there was one point of honor that they held sacrosanct - the exchanging of the children of the chiefs of warring tribes, as a sign of covenant that they would remain at peace. If something happened to one of those kids, the other would suffer the same fate. This was Richardson's opening, and he explained how the eternal Father had sent His Son, Jesus, as a Peace Child to man, but man had killed him. The natives were in shock - no one should do that to a peace child. Suddenly the meaning of the Gospel was opened to them, and they began to convert.

 

[Dave G.]

First we need the love of Christ in our own hearts ! Think of Jesus at the well. He went out of His way to meet the woman there. She knew her sins and so did He but He went right on to speak of His rivers of living water. Jesus may have taught from the law, but not teaching the law, He taught forgiveness and showed love through Himself. And that woman brought possibly the whole torn to Him. See, something happens inside of us when we hear truth.

Yet He scolded the pharisees for banging out the law and only the law. Though they knew the law, it was by it they were deemed useless in His eyes and actually lost....

Nicodemus met Him by night ( that he might not be seen). He said to Jesus that we know you are of God. Jesus replied that unless one is born again they can not go to heaven. Something completely off the record books of the law and something Nicodemus was caught off guard by, completely. With God anything is possible Jesus said to him but not by man.

These are truths that people need to hear.

 

[dzheremi]

Emphasizing Christ's victory over sin and death is probably a lot more compelling than other things. "You're a horrible sinner and there's nothing you can do about it because thousands of years ago people you've never even met ate some fruit before they were supposed to" (which is how a lot of people have internalized western 'original sin' thinking, whether or not it is understood that way by people who promote that concept) just sounds like unnecessary doom 'n' gloom and also a bit weird, while "people don't always act as they should, but we don't have to settle for that being the end of the story" is...better. Or more understandable or something.

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

Emphasizing Christ's victory over sin and death is probably a lot more compelling than other things. "You're a horrible sinner and there's nothing you can do about it because thousands of years ago people you've never even met ate some fruit before they were supposed to" (which is how a lot of people have internalized western 'original sin' thinking, whether or not it is understood that way by people who promote that concept) just sounds like unnecessary doom 'n' gloom and also a bit weird, while "people don't always act as they should, but we don't have to settle for that being the end of the story" is...better. Or more understandable or something.

Needless to say, I don't come of as so intruding and attacking. It might be that I'm read that way in my OP, but that's because english is my second language.
Luckily I have more people skills than that.

What I meant is that its basically difficult to get people to face their own shortcomings and sins.
It's actually quite foreign to most people.
They consider themselves righteous.

 

[Stabat Mater dolorosa]

Perhaps people are so blinded by pride that they're hindered from admitting to themselves that they're sinners.
Satan works in many ways too and what better way is there than wiping away the feeling of being a fallen creature.
It's strange though as evilness is so easily to spot both logically aswell as empirically.

 

[zephcom]

Emphasizing Christ's victory over sin and death is probably a lot more compelling than other things. "You're a horrible sinner and there's nothing you can do about it because thousands of years ago people you've never even met ate some fruit before they were supposed to" (which is how a lot of people have internalized western 'original sin' thinking, whether or not it is understood that way by people who promote that concept) just sounds like unnecessary doom 'n' gloom and also a bit weird, while "people don't always act as they should, but we don't have to settle for that being the end of the story" is...better. Or more understandable or something.

Even back in my actual Christian days, the whole Adam and Eve mess never made sense to me. -THEY- screwed up, -I- didn't do those things. Yet God chose to put the responsibility for that on my shoulders without even asking if I wanted it. It only seemed right that God would take it back off my shoulders without asking if I wanted to be free of it.

I will happily answer for the things -I- have done. Things that I haven't done are not mine to answer for. I'm good with God not wanting me in His little club because of what I have done. I'm not good with being barred from the club because of something two people who may or may not have even existed in antiquity did.

And I think that has a lot to do with other people too. The idea of original sin tainting humanity today is a non-starter for people who have not been indoctrinated already in the concept.

 

[zephcom]

Perhaps people are so blinded by pride that they're hindered from admitting to themselves that they're sinners.
Satan works in many ways too and what better way is there than wiping away the feeling of being a fallen creature.
It's strange though as evilness is so easily to spot both logically aswell as empirically.

And I think that some people are so blinded by pride they think they should be allowed to brow-beat others into confirming their pride by accepting a religion they don't want.

The whole circus around Jesus' teachings and His concept of His followers being 'servants' to everyone, I think, was to bring down the level of pride which has people teaching from arrogance instead of love.

Followers of Jesus lead people to Jesus, not herd them.

 

[dzheremi]

Needless to say, I don't come of as so intruding and attacking. It might be that I'm read that way in my OP, but that's because english is my second language.
Luckily I have more people skills than that.

Certainly. My apologies if I came off as suggesting otherwise. I had hoped to avoid that by putting that bit in parenthesis, because my point was that regardless of how well you may put the message that human beings are sinful, many people will react as though you had said the stereotypically extreme version of the theology because, like you've noticed, they can't take any version that does not tell them how great they are, how this applies to others but not to them, etc. It's a human ego problem, not necessarily a preaching problem.

 

[Hazelelponi]

.

 

[dzheremi]

Even back in my actual Christian days, the whole Adam and Eve mess never made sense to me. -THEY- screwed up, -I- didn't do those things. Yet God chose to put the responsibility for that on my shoulders without even asking if I wanted it. It only seemed right that God would take it back off my shoulders without asking if I wanted to be free of it.

I will happily answer for the things -I- have done. Things that I haven't done are not mine to answer for. I'm good with God not wanting me in His little club because of what I have done. I'm not good with being barred from the club because of something two people who may or may not have even existed in antiquity did.

And I think that has a lot to do with other people too. The idea of original sin tainting humanity today is a non-starter for people who have not been indoctrinated already in the concept.

It would be too much preaching my own Orthodox Church's theology on a Lutheran board, which I won't do, to go into this in detail, but suffice it to say that we are perhaps not as far apart on this particular topic as you might think. But it is still off topic.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Wasnt this in a different forum earlier?

I swear I saw the forum name as general theology.

I'll delete my posts, I'm not Lutheran, I'm reformed Baptist.

 

[zephcom]

It would be too much preaching my own Orthodox Church's theology on a Lutheran board, which I won't do, to go into this in detail, but suffice it to say that we are perhaps not as far apart on this particular topic as you might think. But it is still off topic.

Understood, I will try to be good.

 

[Dave G.]

Perhaps people are so blinded by pride that they're hindered from admitting to themselves that they're sinners.
Satan works in many ways too and what better way is there than wiping away the feeling of being a fallen creature.
It's strange though as evilness is so easily to spot both logically aswell as empirically.

I find the idea of them thinking they are not sinners is the easy part to cut through. You don't have to do much talking to convict them of once having their hand in a cookie jar or what ever else. You just established sin right then and there. Bringing them to God and prayer takes a bit more. The tough sell is Jesus ! Think about it from their view point, what a preposterous story from the natural mans perspective. I'm a strong Jesus advocate, very strong and I have to admit myself it's either true and amazing or complete bull. Course He is working in my life and has been a long time and so I know His reality in my life. Really that's all I can offer, scripture and my personal testimony.

Anyway, the Holy Spirit has to be in this or you get no where. And He will convict them and He will win them once they get the message.

 

[Tigger45]

Although I am Lutheran there are better members here that can more clearly articulate it’s approach to this subject.

That being said, timing is everything. Pride is probably the biggest barrier to someone recognizing their own sinful nature. But God in His graciousness uses the trials of this life to wake us up and motivate us to re-examine ourselves, choices and behaviors. At which time if someone comes to me hurting and looking for my input I start with my own life’s lessons and hope that that transparency opens them up to theirs also.