It is important for us to obey God.

But must a Christian obey God’s laws in order to be saved?

No, first comes salvation by grace through faith.

This brings with it an inner transformation that produces loving obedience.

 

A good way to get into this subject is to ask a stone-in-the-shoe question:

  • What does Paul mean when he talks about the law in Galatians 2?

The best way to get through to Jehovah’s Witnesses is to let them be the teachers and ask them a lot of questions.

Request that one of the Witnesses read aloud Galatians 2:1-3:

Then after 14 years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, also taking Titus along with me. I went up as a result of a revelation, and I presented to them the good news that I am preaching among the nations. This was done privately, however, before the men who were highly regarded, to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain. Nevertheless, not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, although he was a Greek.

Ask:

  • Why is Paul discussing circumcision here?

Apparently, the false teachers were claiming that people had to get circumcised and keep the law God gave to the Jews in order to be saved.

Ask the Witnesses to read aloud the Acts 15:5 explanation of this encounter: “But some of those of the sect of the Pharisees who had become believers stood up from their seats and said: ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and command them to observe the Law of Moses.’”

Ask:

  • What is wrong with observing the Law of Moses?

Jehovah’s Witnesses are likely to tell you that this refers to the ceremonial law, which never applied to the Gentiles.

Ask them to read aloud Peter’s comments in Acts 15:7-11:

After much intense discussion had taken place, Peter rose and said to them: “Men, brothers, you well know that from early days God made the choice among you that through my mouth people of the nations should hear the word of the good news and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by giving them the holy spirit, just as he did to us also. And he made no distinction at all between us and them, but purified their hearts by faith. So why are you now making a test of God by imposing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we were capable of bearing? On the contrary, we have faith that we are saved through the undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus in the same way that they are.”

Ask the stone-in-the-shoe question:

  • What does Peter mean when he contrasts observing the Law of Moses with being saved through the undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus?

The Witnesses will give you various responses, probably centering on the importance of the ransom sacrifice of Christ.

Then return to Paul’s comments in Galatians 2:4-5: “But that matter came up because of the false brothers brought in quietly, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we enjoy in union with Christ Jesus, so that they might completely enslave us; we did not yield in submission to them, no, not for a moment, so that the truth of the good news might continue with you.”

Ask:

  • What is your understanding of what Paul means when he refers to “the freedom we enjoy in union with Christ Jesus”?
  • What does Paul mean when he says that false brothers we trying to enslave them? Enslave them in what?

They will probably talk about trying to force Christians to obey the Jewish ceremonial law.

They will agree that this is wrong.

Ask:

  • Why does stressing the law constitute such a serious threat to the real gospel that Paul opposed it so strenuously?

Pray silently that they will see that the Watchtower salvation system contains a plethora of rules and regulations in which rule-keeping supplants grace.

Ironically, the Watchtower teaches that because of the Acts 15 conference, it is wrong for Christians to have blood transfusions.

If they don’t bring this up, then don’t get into it.

If they do bring it up, you can say:

  • If the apostles really meant to say that abstaining from food sacrificed to idols and from blood was a requirement for salvation, it seems very strange to me that Paul doesn’t mention that here at all. In fact, he says that he steadfastly opposed teachers who wanted to compromise his gospel of salvation by grace apart from law.

Ask the Witnesses to read aloud Galatians 2:15-16:

We who are Jews by birth, and not sinners from the nations, recognize that a man is declared righteous, not by works of law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, so that we may be declared righteous by faith in Christ and not by works of law, for no one will be declared righteous by works of law.

Ask:

  • What does Paul mean by being “declared righteous not by works of law”?
  • Does God declare us righteous by such things as baptism or by what rules we keep or by how well we keep them?

Have them read aloud Galatians 2:19-20:

For through law I died toward law, so that I might become alive toward God. I am nailed to the stake along with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who is living in union with me. Indeed, the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.

Ask:

  • What does that mean?

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have a good answer for that.

If they ask what you think it means, point out that Paul is highlighting the fact that the Christian life is a supernatural life that comes from a new birth in which God identifies us with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

Ask:

  • Have you had such a transforming experience? (They haven’t, and they don’t claim that they have.)

If they insist that Paul’s statement applies only to the 144,000, then ask:

  • How is your own relationship to God and the law is different than Paul’s?
  • Where does Paul indicate that there are two different gospels and two different paths to salvation?

Summary

You can sum up by asking the Witnesses to comment on Galatians 2:21: I do not reject the undeserved kindness of God, for if righteousness is through law, Christ actually died for nothing.”

Ask:

  • What does Paul mean by this?
  • Is our salvation based on keeping God’s laws or is it not?

As usual, the goal is to have your questions serve as stones in their shoes regardless of what answers they give to you.

 

 

 

Comment Policy