How to preach the law?

[Maria Billingsley]

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.

Christianity is restoring the relationship between God and man. This should be first and foremost. If someone does not care about that relationship then sin is a moot point. A nonbeliever see's NO SIN so it would be virtually impossible to reach them from that angle. Personally, it was my love for Christ that made me see my sin. As I grew and walked closer to Him my sin became more apparent thus repentance played a big part in my walk. Never did I see my sin until after conversion.
Blessings

 

[ViaCrucis]

I am generally not of the opinion that it's our place to be trying to convince people of the truth of our religion. If I wanted to talk about the Law with someone, I probably wouldn't be throwing it in their face. But simply talk about how it is God's will that, as human beings, we love one another, care for one another, and that we treat others and the rest of God's creation rightly. Because that's the Law after all. The Law isn't uniquely Christian after all, basically every religion and moral philosophy says we should do good and be kind. That's not a radical notion after all. And the truth is that, if we are honest with ourselves, then we can easily see that there is a major disparity between how we should be and what we often are. I should act justly, do good, and be kind to others--but I fail to do that on the regular. That is, after all, exactly what Luther writes in the Heidelberg Disputation, "The Law says 'Do this' and it is never done."

That's the Law. That's the preaching of the Law.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Pavel Mosko]

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.

You could go into the theme of humans "Created in the Image" of God, aka Imago Dei, etc.

Traditionally that is depicted as people having such things as "free will", sentience, creative ability etc.

Imago Dei: The Doctrine of the Image of God with Regard to Human Origins

 

[Pavel Mosko]

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.

This depends on how deep you want to get, but its not just the Fall. We try to blame everything on the Fall, when there were are two other rebellions that happened in Genesis that affect why things are screwed up!

 

[FireDragon76]

Are you affiliated with the state church in Norway? Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered this kind of apologetics as wrongheaded, an infantilization of a mature humanity. I believe he would want us to focus more on serving our neighbor, being what he called "a person for others", rather than trying to convince them that their intuitions about human nature are wrong. I agree. We should focus on serving the felt needs of people we encounter, not selling them religion. If they have spiritual needs, we should address those in a sensitive manner that is non-argumentative.

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.

Oh, I actually agree. Guilting people into religion is the wrong approach, and Bonhoeffer would not approve of that either. We have psychology and psychiatry to deal with those sorts of dysfunctions now, and much more effectively. So it's basically more infantilizing of a mature humanity.

The Reverend Myron Penner has written a book called The End of Apologetics that also is critical of the apologetics project that came out of the Enlightenment. Penner focuses more on how modernist assumptions distort the Christian faith, but the effect is the same:

https://www.amazon.com/End-Apologetics-Christian-Witness-Postmodern/dp/0801035988

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.

Yes indeed. The Word of God is not just for unbelievers, but also people in the Church, they are often the people who most need to hear it. But religious pietism often blinds us to our own spiritual poverty.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

Two resources from the LC-MS would be Law and Gospel, a series of lectures put on by one of the LCMS founders, C.F.W. Walther, while teaching at seminary. This is pretty deep. The other is an abridged version of these lectures called, "God's Yes and God's No"

 

[Soyeong]

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.

In Deuteronomy 4:5-8, the intended reaction of the nations seeing Israel's obedience to God's Law was to marvel and how great and wise they were and how great and wise God is by extension. In other words, the Law was intended to be used as a tool to evangelize the nations, to be a light to the nations, and drawn them into a covenant relationship with Him, where the nations see how we are living and they want to be part of that (Isaiah 2:2-3, Isaiah 49:6, Zechariah 8:23, Matthew 5:13-16).

 

[Hammster]

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