If you’ve been following Mark Lauterbach’s series on The Measure of a Sermon, which I have linked in OnTheWeb, you’ve already read the following quote:

[W]hile conviction is a gift to us, it is always conviction to lead people to the cross. I know the arguments about people needing to be slain by the law --- and agree that awareness of need of forgiveness is crucial. But if I leave them there, I have not been faithful to the Savior. Conviction should drive people to the cross -- and they should leave with hope toward the Savior. [full article »]

This article really resonates with me. I have spent the majority of my life so far thinking that a good sermon was one that was hard-hitting and left me with the feeling that “I’ve got to do better.” Then I would go out and try really hard to do better, succeeding to some degree, but failing over all. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I came to see the folly of the kind of moralistic preaching that I had thought was so good.

Don’t take me wrong. I do not believe that the purpose of the Law is merely to bludgeon me on the head and send me, helpless, to the cross, as some say. I believe the Law actually represents God’s will for my behavior. (This simple statement should not be taken as a complete expression of my opinion on the subject; but I don’t want to go into that now.) But if all a sermon, or our witness, accomplishes is to convict us of our sin and send us away trying harder, all it has done is make us more dependent on ourselves, more self-righteous, and more doomed to fail. And I can testify to years of my life when that was exactly my condition, when my religion was all about me and how well I was doing in getting myself sanctified—and I failed, over and over, because the solution was always in myself and my better efforts.

Sin must be addressed. When a text is preached that deals with sin, it ought to result in conviction for any listening child of God. But what then? Our response ought not to be, “I’ve got to try harder,” but “I need to draw closer to my Savior. I need to cling to his Word. I need to stay close to Jesus, where no sin can dwell.” That is where the conviction of sin should lead. If it doesn’t, the result will only be a better legalist.

The cure for my sin is not my righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness.