"Let's say you're doing open air preaching...and up comes Lady Gaga!"
I wanted to bang my head on a hard surface over the way the street preacher was speaking to Lady Gaga. Referring to her as "darling," going on about her "pervert ways" and "homo stuff," his general sarcasm...I'm sure the video edited out a lot of what he said, but just that little bit was embarrassing enough. As I said in another post about this kind of open air evangelism, how careful we have to be lest we invent the scenario where "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Rom 2:24).
As Todd Friel says in the video, context is everything. Judgment with no Law is simply empty Judgment. This is why so many universalists such as Rob Bell get away with their theology: they attack concepts of Judgment because there is an absence of Law. In proper self examination, Law presents to us the knowledge of our sin - as Paul wrote: "I would not have come to know sin except through the Law" (Rom 7:7). From this knowledge of sin from Law comes out acknowledgement of the righteousness of God's Judgment on mankind - as David wrote: "Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge" (Psalm 51:4). It is then that the mercy of God's Grace is realized upon us - as Paul again wrote: "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies" (Rom 8:33).
Our goal should be sharing the mercy of Christ upon the sinner. Yes, that does mean identifying a person as a sinner, but that should not be the end of our efforts. If it is, then we are no better than the Pharisees.
