Law and Gospel: Seeing the Narrow Contrast

We’ve looked at the law and gospel in terms of “the big picture” and determined that they are interrelated and inseparable concepts (see Part 1). But is it ever appropriate to distinguish law from gospel? In other words, do the biblical writers ever contrast law with gospel? The answer is “Yes.” In fact, such a contrast is vital. In this second part of our study, we’ll consider the important distinction between law and gospel when these terms and concepts are used and defined in a more restrictive sense.

Law and Gospel: The Narrow Contrast

Let’s return to Dr. Horton’s definition I cited in the first part of our study: “Everything in the Bible that reveals God’s moral expectations is law and everything in the Bible that reveals God’s saving purposes and acts is gospel.”¹ Horton’s distinction is not novel. Martin Luther made this distinction during the Protestant Reformation:

If any of you are well versed in this art, I mean, if any of you can rightly make this distinction [between law and gospel], he would deserve to be called a doctor of theology. For Law and Gospel must be distinguished from each other. The role of the Law is to terrify men, to drive them crazy and to despair … until they realize they can do neither what the Law demands nor achieve God’s favor…. This state of affairs goes on and on until a person becomes quite weary and is forced to say, ” I have had it up to here with being godly according to Moses and the Law. I am going to follow another Preacher, who says to me, ‘Come to Me, if you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ” …. This kind of preaching is wholly different from the teaching of the Law of Moses, which deals only with works. The Law says, “You shall not sin…. Go and be godly….Do this, do that….” But Christ says, “Accept the fact that you are not godly. But I have been godly in your stead.”²

Based on Luther’s contrast, one of the main Lutheran Confessions summarizes this distinction:

But when the Law and the Gospel are compared together, as well as Moses himself, the teacher of the Law, and Christ, the teacher of the Gospel, we believe, teach, and confess that the Gospel is not a preaching of repentance, convicting of sins, but that it is properly nothing else than a certain most joyful message and preaching full of consolation, not convicting or terrifying, inasmuch as it comforts the conscience against the terrors of the Law, and bids it look at the merit of Christ alone ….”³

This theological formula doesn’t seem to fit well with what we’ve already seen about gospel preaching. Remember Mark’s description: “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). Recall also Paul’s words to the elders of the church in Ephesus: “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-21). So the content of Jesus’ gospel and Paul’s “gospel” message included the law and the call to repent. This fits well with what we’ve already seen about the interconnectedness of the law and gospel (see Part 1).

But why do theologians like Horton and Luther make a distinction between law and gospel? Calvin and Puritan writers make a distinction too. Can such a distinction be justified?

I believe the distinction is appropriate in at least two cases:

How Do I Become a Christian?

It’s appropriate to distinguish between law and gospel when we’re talking more narrowly about the question of how a person becomes a Christian, that is, how a sinner is made right before God (i.e., justification). In this case, the Bible answers the question by distinguishing law from gospel:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it–the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Rom 3:21-25).

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8).

So when we’re talking about the way of salvation narrowly considered, that is, how a sinner is constituted (legally) right with God, it’s appropriate to make this distinction between law and gospel. This is because law is usually associated with “works” and “merit,” whereas the gospel is usually associated with “faith” and “grace.”

This distinction between salvation by works as opposed to salvation by faith alone was so important for Luther that he referred to it as “the article [of faith] on which the church would stand or fall.” Indeed, there is a sense in which this is one of the most fundamental distinctions between biblical Christianity and all other world-religions. I heard one preacher put it this way:

All other religions of the world say, “Do!” Christianity says, “Done!”

The point is not that Christianity has no place for good works. But our good works are not the basis of our salvation. The basis of our salvation is the work of Christ, which was accomplished 2000 years ago. So when we’re making a distinction between salvation by works and salvation by faith alone, we can speak more narrowly about a distinction between the law and the gospel.

How Do I Live as a Christian?

It’s also appropriate to distinguish between law and gospel when we’re talking more narrowly about the question of the Christian’s primary power and motivation to please God (i.e., sanctification). Here again, God’s commandments can convict us of where we fall short of God’s will, and they can serve as directives to show us the way God wants us to live. But the commandments in-and-of-themselves do not have the power to motivate us unto holy living. This is where we need to go back to the gospel (narrow sense). Here’s how one theologian puts it:

The realization that one is pardoned and accepted by God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, without any works or one’s own, motivates and supports one in doing the will of God—as nothing else does or can do…. Faith in Christ is the dynamic for “perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1 AV), and his precepts are the directive for it. We hold to justification in order to make progress in sanctification.”⁴

It’s not that the law in the sense of God’s commandments doesn’t have a part in our sanctification. As noted above, the law does provide guidelines for holiness and the law exposes our remaining sin and points us back to Christ. But the law by itself can’t provide the necessary power and motivation for our pursuit of godliness.

To illustrate, we can think of the “law” as the railroad tracks and the “gospel” as the locomotive. If we rely on the law alone and our own self-effort apart from God’s grace and apart from the reality of justification, we’re trying to push a train without a locomotive. But if we constantly look back to our acceptance with God based on the finished work of Christ, and if we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit who has renewed our hearts, then we have a locomotive to move the train. Of course, the locomotive and the train still need the tracks. Without the tracks, they will not reach the destination. But the tracks are not enough. I think this is Paul’s point in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20).

Conclusion

Allow me to highlight a few practical applications from this part of our study.

(1) Don’t despise God’s law narrowly considered.

As Christians, we ought to be able to say with the Psalmist, “Oh, how I love your law!” – not just thinking of the law in the broad sense as God’s revelation but also in the narrow sense as God’s commandments. After all, the law is a reflection of God’s own character. The more we learn about God’s law, the more we learn about what God is like. Moreover, the law of God narrowly considered is what convicts us of our remaining sin and drives us back to Jesus Christ for a fresh sense of his forgiveness and grace. Furthermore, the law provides us with direction for Christian living. Thus, the psalmist can write,

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night (Ps 1:1-2).

And elsewhere,

I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (Ps 40:1 ESV)

God’s law—even in the narrow sense as “commandment”—is his gracious directive for Christian living.

(2) Don’t forget the gospel narrowly considered.

Did you know that conviction of sin, confession of sin, and fresh reminders of our acceptance in Jesus Christ are not just preconditions for sanctification, but they are actually vital components of our sanctification. Listen to the apostle John’s words from his first Epistle:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:5–2:2).

We don’t simply confess our sins and look to Jesus as our Advocate in order to get into the light. According to John, confessing our sin and looking to Jesus again and again and again is actually part of walking in the light. That is, it’s part of our sanctification. In fact, it’s the reality of ongoing forgiveness and grace that motivates us to put sin to death and to pursue holiness. The psalmist expressed it this way: “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Ps 130:3-4). God knows how to motivate his children!⁵

Notes

1 Christless Christianity, 109.

2 Luther’s Works, 23:271-73.

3 Epitome of the Formula of Concord, sec. 6.

4 H. R. Jones, “Justification by Faith alone,” in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, 287, 305.

5 Not surprisingly, God prefaces the Ten Commandments with a reminder of His gracious work of delivering of Israel from her bondage in Egypt. Only people who’ve experienced God’s gracious deliverance from the bondage of sin and who continue to experience God’s grace are able to call God’s law a delight and to walk in the light of his commandments.