AG STUDY GUIDE FINAL - The Forerunner

“The Law was therefore given not to take away sin but to include all under sin…
so that by this humiliation they might know that their salvation was not in their
own hands.” ~ St. Augustine, Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Volume VIII, p. 49
It was this same understanding that provoked John Wycliffe, the “Morning Star of the
Reformation” to cry out,
“The highest service to which a man may obtain on earth is to preach the Law of
God.” ~ John Wycliffe
Martin Luther echoed this conviction when he declared,
“The first duty of a preacher of the Gospel is through his revealing of the Law
and of sin…” ~ Martin Luther,Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Translated by
Bro. Andrew Thornton, OS Bed. Hans Volz, and Heinz Blanke, Volume 2, p. iii
And then explained,
“Thou art killed by the Law that through Christ thou mayest be quickened and
restored to life.” ~ Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, p. 212
Quoting again Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,
“The essence of evangelism is to start by preaching the Law; and it is because the
Law has not been preached that we have so much superficial evangelism.” ~ Dr.
D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p. 235
Charles Spurgeon also spoke about the tragic implications of minimizing the preaching
of the Law.
“By lowering the Law you weaken its power in the hands of God as a convincer
of sin. It is the looking glass which shows us our spots, and that is the most
powerful thing, though nothing but the Gospel can wash them away… Lower the
Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very
serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon,
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit,, Volume 28, pp. 284, 285
Spurgeon then lays it on the line.
“[A sinner] will never receive grace until he first trembles before a just and holy
Law.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon, from Ray Comfort’s Ten Canons of God’s Law
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