Those who are justified are treated as if they kept the law. God never
puts His law out of sight, He only behaves toward those who believe in
what Jesus did on the cross as though they fulfilled every requirement
of the law, but toward those who reject this great work of Christ on the
cross, He holds them in contempt of the law, and because they have
broken the law, they cannot be justified by any merit of theirs. Grace
did not remove the law from contention, though it justifies those who
believe. The law will forever testify against the sinner as being a
violator of its edict because sin is the transgression of the law.
The gospel is the remedy prescribed for the malady of sin. The first aim of the gospel is to make the sinner sensible of his sin (He has broken the law of God), and to realize the danger that sin portends to his eternal wellbeing. So, do we tell the sinner about the law? This has been a contentious issue among believers, some believe that the good news is only that Jesus died for the ungodly, but the question must be asked, what makes a person ungodly? It is because he has broken the law of God. Failure to show the sinner this truth about his transgression of the law of God leaves him thinking that he does God a favour accepting His offer of salvation. A doctor first diagnoses the symptoms in order to make a proper prescription. Sadly, those presenting the gospel to the lost do not seem to know what the doctor knows.
If we are going to be effective in presenting the gospel to the world, it will be necessary to show the sinner that he is a violator of the law of God, and in the court of divine justice, he stands condemned. Then, we can throw in the life line telling him of the remedy for his lost state, and draw him out of the sea of sin unto the shore of salvation. When a person knows from what he has been saved, he will the more cherish his salvation and the means of it.
