Preaching: Potent Law and Gospel...

watered-down?

A few things to kick around regarding the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of preaching: If preaching the Word of God is to declare to sinners (unbeliever and believer alike) the free offer of God's righteousness which comes by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ, how does it happen that sinners would embrace this message as truly life saving, i.e. really Good News? How is it that unbelievers will believe and believers will increase in faith?  Well, by the message of the Gospel and the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Amen! And how is that to be accomplished except a sinner be convicted of his sinfulness by the Holy Spirit through the Word?  And how is this to occur without the clear presentation of the Law of God through preaching (for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin - Rom. 3:20), effectively diagnosing that corruption and sinfulness so natural to us (for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbour; HC -QA 5); thus convincing us, again and again, of our desperate need for a powerful remedy - a powerful Gospel?  Warning: to steer clear of potent Law in preaching is to weaken the relevance and potency of the Gospel in the lives of those that hear.

Law-Lite leads to Gospel-Lite leads to a watered-down Faith in the very potent mercy of God in Christ. With that in view, I thought this bit of commentary of John Calvin's on John 16 was relevant:

8.  And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of   righteousness, and of judgment... It ought to be observed, that in this passage Christ does not speak of secret revelations, but of the power of the Spirit, which appears in the outward doctrine of the Gospel, and in the voice of men. For how comes it that the voice proceeding from the mouth of a man penetrates into the hearts, takes root there, and at length yields fruit, changing hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, and renewing men, but because the Spirit of Christ quickens it? Otherwise it would be a dead letter and a useless sound, as Paul says in that beautiful passage, in which he boasts of being a minister of the Spirit, (2 Corinthians 3:6) because God wrought powerfully in his doctrine. The meaning therefore is, that, though the Spirit had been given to the apostles, they would be endued with a heavenly and Divine power, by which they would exercise jurisdiction over the whole world. Now, this is ascribed to the Spirit rather than to themselves, because they will have no power of their own, but will be only ministers and organs, and the Holy Spirit will be their director and governor.

9. Of sin, because they believe not in me... It now remains that we see what it is to convince of sin Christ appears to make unbelief the only cause of sin, and this is tortured by commentators in various ways; but, as I have already said, I do not intend to detail the opinions which have been held and advanced. First, it ought to be observed, that the judgment of the Spirit commences with the demonstration of sin; for the commencement of spiritual instruction is, that men born in sin have nothing in them but what leads to sin.  Again, Christ mentioned unbelief, in order to show what is the nature of men in itself for, since faith is the bond by which he is united to us, until we believe in him, we are out of him and separated from him. The import of these words is as if he had said, "When the Spirit is come, he will produce full conviction that, apart from me, sin reigns in the world;" and, therefore, unbelief is here mentioned, because it separates us from Christ, in consequence of which nothing is left to us but sin. In short, by these words he condemns the corruption and depravity of human nature, that we may not suppose that a single drop of integrity is in us without Christ.

10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no   more... We must attend to the succession of steps which Christ lays down. He now says that the world must be convinced of righteousness; for men will never hunger and thirst for righteousness, but, on the contrary, will disdainfully reject all that is said concerning it, if they have not been moved by a conviction of sin. As to believers particularly, we ought to understand that they cannot make progress in the Gospel till they have first been humbled; and this cannot take place, till they have acknowledged their sins. It is undoubtedly the peculiar office of the Law to summon consciences to the judgment-seat of God, and to strike them with terror; but the Gospel cannot be preached in a proper manner, till it lead men from sin to righteousness, and from death to life; and, therefore, it is necessary to borrow from the Law that first clause of which Christ spoke.