Law & Gospel:
Preaching Christ Through a Rightly Divided Word

 
 
by Shane Rosenthal
© 1998 Reformation Ink
 
Shane Rosenthal, M.A., Historical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary in CA, is a freelance audio/video editor and producer. He is currently one of the creative producers for the national radio program The White Horse Inn, and webmaster for Reformation Ink. Shane, along with his wife and three children reside in southern California.

As we begin to enter the 21st century I am concerned for the state of American Christianity. Contemporary churches are in my opinion becoming conformed more by the pattern of the world, than by the power of the Word. In the Reformation of the 16th century, the church was defined as an institution in which the Word was rightly preached and the sacraments were rightly administered. Today however, not only is this definition missing, but the office of preaching and the practice of the sacraments have fallen on hard times. Sacraments are practiced so infrequently that they are no longer part of the regular life of the church, and preaching in some cases has become a means to entertain the "audience," or it has become a political rally, a therapy session, a discourse on Christian or family values, or speculation about the end of the world--all to the neglect of proclaiming the saving message of Christ's propitiatory death for sinners. In order to make the case that the church is no longer acting in accordance with the historic Protestant definition of what a church should be, this paper will focus on the singular issue of the failure of contemporary preaching, particularly in its neglect of Christ, and of rightly distinguishing law from gospel.
In a letter to Cardinal Sadeleto John Calvin complained that the office of preaching had fallen on hard times. In fact, Calvin writes:
Nay, what one sermon was there from which old wives might not carry off more whimsies than they could devise at their own fireside in a month? For, as sermons were then usually divided, the first half was devoted to those misty questions of the schools which might astonish the rude populace, while the second contained sweet stories, or not unamusing speculations, by which the hearers might be kept on the alert. Only a few expressions were thrown in from the word of God, that by their majesty they might procure credit for these frivolities.1
Calvin concludes this section by arguing that the Reformers raised the standard of preaching throughout Europe when they appeared on the scene. What is interesting to me about this quote is how contemporary it sounds. Our day, it seems, is plagued with this pre-Reformation scenario in regards to the content and quality of preaching as well. In many cases one leaves a church service having heard more stories about the life of the pastor than about the life and death of Christ. The chief element that is missing in both Calvin's day before the Reformation and our day is the sound proclamation of the Word of God with Christ at the center of it all.
Preaching Christ
In the fifth chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus tells the Pharisees that "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (5:39-40). The point that Jesus seems to be making is that he himself is the major subject of the Scriptures. The Pharisees were reading the Bible as an end in itself, but Jesus clearly rebuked them for this, showing them that this way of reading the Bible actually kept them from coming to the truth. Jesus makes a similar point to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27). The disciples were not reading the Scriptures in a Pharisaic or legalistic way; nevertheless, they had neglected to find the message of the messianic deliverer at the heart of it all. But when Jesus preached this sermon about himself the disciples asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). This should be the response of today's disciples as God's servants open up the Scriptures each Lord's Day. But it should be the response of the heart after it has heard wonderful things from the Word concerning the work of Christ on our behalf.
Rightly Dividing the Word
In his second epistle to Timothy, The apostle Paul writes, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2:15). What the NIV translates here as "correctly handles" was previously in the old King James translated as "rightly dividing." The greek word underlying each of these translations is ojrqotomouvnta, a present active participle of orqotomew which according to Baur, Arndt and Gingrich is "found elsewhere independently of the NT only in Prov. 3:6; 11:5...and plainly means to "cut a path in a straight direction" or "cut a road across country (that is forested or otherwise difficult to pass through) in a straight direction" so that the traveler may go directly to his destination.2 If this is correct, then the biblical material is the "forest" which the preacher must trek through in advance of the people. He must make the way straight and clear, and he must cut a path that leads to the "promised land" of the faithful, rather than to Egypt or Assyria.
If the promised land, or goal, of Christian preaching is Christ, I believe the means to that end is the hermeneutic of law and gospel. This was the way of reading the Scriptures recovered at the Reformation that sought to correct a number of problems in the way the medieval church communicated salvation. One of the problems the Reformers responded to was that the Roman church had made the gospel too difficult. It was no longer a sweet promise, but it had become a kind of new law. Another problem was that the preaching of the law had become too easy, and was not presented as a sharp, strict and unrelenting barrier to fellowship with God. With the first error, the Reformers feared that Rome was making true Christians despair of their salvation, and with the second error, they feared that Rome was creating Pharisees.
Martin Luther, one of the first to make this distinction at the time of the Reformation, wrote in 1532:
This difference between the Law and the Gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christian should know and be able to state this difference. If this ability is lacking, one cannot tell a Christian from a heathen or a Jew; of such supreme importance is this differentiation. This is why St. Paul so strongly insists on a clean-cut and proper differentiating of these two doctrines.3
So important was this distinction for Luther, that it separated Christianity from heathenism, and notice that he did not attempt to take credit for coming up with this hermeneutic on his own. He argues that this differentiation is found in the Scriptures themselves. After all, it was not Luther but Paul who wrote, " But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith" (Rom. 3:21-22). Luther's point was that if one does not get this understanding down, and thinks that righteousness can somehow be obtained "by" the law, then he is not a Christian. The Christian rests his faith on Christ who fulfilled all righteousness for us, even to the obedience of death on the cross. This righteousness as Paul says, "without the law" is given to us through faith (and if it is through faith apart from the works of the law, then Luther is correct in asserting that it is through faith "alone").
Luther was not the only Reformer to emphasize this point. Although the law/gospel distinction has survived strongest in the Lutheran theological tradition, a number of Reformed theologians have argued its importance as well. In his Institutes, John Calvin writes:
By the term Law, Paul frequently understands that rule of holy living in which God exacts what is his due, giving no hope of life unless we obey in every respect; and, on the other hand, denouncing a curse for the slightest failure. This Paul does when showing that we are freely accepted of God, and accounted righteous by being pardoned, because that obedience of the Law to which the reward is promised is nowhere to be found. Hence he appropriately represents the righteousness of the Law and the Gospel as opposed to each other. But the Gospel has not succeeded the whole Law in such a sense as to introduce a different method of salvation. It rather confirms the Law, and proves that every thing which it promised is fulfilled. What was shadow, it has made substance...4
Calvin goes so far as to say that the law and the gospel are opposed to one another, but only to a certain extent. The gospel is not a new and unrelated form of salvation, but rather, is the substance of what was previously hinted at in the shadows. The law was strict and severe, but it did point the children of the Abrahamic covenant to the mercy of God. As hymn writer John Newton eloquently put it, "As we ponder grace and justice, let us point to mercy's store. When through grace in Christ our trust is, justice smiles and asks no more."5 This "store" of mercy, as Newton calls it, was continually being pointed to throughout the Old Testament period, and stepped out onto front-stage with the coming of Christ. Calvin also points out that the "law gives us no hope unless we obey it in every respect." Implied in this is the idea that we could possibly put our hope in the law if all was well with us spiritually, but since the fall, no one but Christ has the ability to natively please God. This is why Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matt. 5:17). Thus, we are in one respect saved by law-keeping, just not our own.
Calvin's successor, Theodore Beza also was also strongly concerned about this issue. In fact, in 1558 Beza wrote , "Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity."6 I think Beza makes a good point here. Christianity has alway suffered from abuse and corruption, but a mistake here at the heart of how we read the Bible is of special concern. He went on to say that the entire corpus of the Scriptures could be gathered into either the heading of Law or Gospel.7
There are a number of other great quotes from Reformed theologians on this subject, but in view of the space limitation, I'll conclude this section with the noteworthy words of an early English reformer named John Bradford, who was martyred in 1555:
He that is ignorant of [the division of the places of the Law and of the Gospel] cannot, though he were a great doctor of divinity, and could rehearse every text of the bible without book, but both be deceived, and deceive others; as the experience hereof (the more pity) hath taught, nay, seduced the whole world....Therefore, I say, take to thee the glass of God's law; look therein, and thou shalt see thy just damnation, and God's wrath for sin, which, if thou dreadest, will drive thee not only to an amendment, but also to a sorrow and hatred of thy wickedness, and even to the brim of despair, out of which nothing can bring thee but the glad tidings of Christ, that is, the gospel: for as God's word doth bind thee, so can nothing but God's word unbind thee; and until thou comest to this point, thou knowest nothing of Christ.8
In all of these selections from the Reformers, the recurring theme is that the distinction of Law and Gospel is extremely crucial to the life and health of the church, as well as of the individual believer. Without it the church can be corrupted, deceived, abused, and can even cease to be a church. Bradford even makes a more astonishing claim about the importance of Law and Gospel when he says that without it, "thou knowest nothing of Christ." This is why it is so important in my mind for preachers to have a good understanding of law and gospel. Even if they do desire to preach Christ, often the message will be confused because Christ is presented as a "new law-giver" rather than as our redeemer and friend.
Problems Associated with Confusing Law & Gospel
In Matthew chapter 19, there is the story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and asks "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" (19:16). Jesus answers by saying, "If you want to enter life, obey the commandments" (19:17). This is not the answer we would expect, but we must view Jesus here as preaching a strict view of the law. So when the young man replied, "All these I have kept" (19:20), Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (19:21). Here Jesus is challenging the young man's claim that he had actually kept the law. If he really loved his neighbor as himself, he wouldn't have a problem giving his wealth away to the poor. But when he heard these words "he went away sad" (19:22). I have heard a number of sermons that totally misunderstood the basic message of this passage. Some have tried to argue that if the young ruler would have only "surrendered" to Jesus then he would have had a "treasure in heaven." But this is not the point here at all. Jesus is not trying to get him to "do" something, rather, he is confronting him with the fact that he "can't do" something. In other words, Jesus is not preaching the gospel here, he is preaching the law. This assertion can be evidenced by looking at the disciples response to Jesus following words, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (19:23-24). When they heard this they asked, "Who then can be saved?" (19:25). In other words, they realized that it was not just a failure to "surrender." When they heard Jesus' words and began to despair, not just for the rich man, but also for everyone's salvation. And Jesus' answer to the question was not very encouraging: "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (19:26). Men cannot save themselves, either by works of the law, or by tears, or by surrender or anything that they do, but salvation is possible with God (as will be proclaimed with the gospel message).
When a preacher confuses this passage by preaching "full surrender" to Jesus, he creates despair in the hearts of many of his parishioners (who say to themselves, "Who then can be saved?"). Scottish theologian Ralph Erskine had some wrote some very interesting lines critiquing this kind of thing in his Poem, "Against A Legal Spirit":
Christ is not preach'd in truth, but in disguise,
If his bright glory half absconded lies.
When gospel-soldiers, that divide the word,
Scarce brandish any but the legal sword.
Shaping the gospel to an easy law,
They build their tott'ring house with hay and straw;
With legal spade the gospel-field he delves,
Who thus drives sinners in unto themselves;
Halving the truth that should be all reveal'd,
The sweetest part of Christ is oft conceal'd.9
Erskine's point is that sinners should not be driven in and unto themselves, but to Christ. To be sure, the law must have its place, but Christ must have his place too, and completely, or else you will not be making Christians of your hearers.
I once heard a sermon on the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus' words, "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20) were taken to mean that we had to live our lives (as Christians) in a more righteous manner than the Pharisees if we wanted to get to heaven. What is interesting is that the minister was a very grace-conscious conservative Reformed Presbyterian. For this pastor, it was all a matter of grace that we would be able to live this type of life, nevertheless, I feared for the majority of the people in the congregation who thought to themselves, "Do I have any hope of getting to heaven now at all?" Their focus, in my view, was removed from Christ and back to their works as the basis of hope. Again, Erskine is helpful here:
For sins of nature, practice, heart, and way,
Damnation-rent it summons thee to pay.
Yea, not for sin alone, which is thy shame,
But for thy boasted service too, so lame,
The law adjudges thee and hell to meet,
Because thy righteousness is incomplete.
As tow'ring flames burn up the wither'd flags,
So will the fiery law thy filthy rags.
Full help is laid upon thy mighty One.
In him, in him complete salvation dwells;
He's God the helper, and there is none else.
Fig-leaves won't hide thee from the fiery show'r,
'Tis he alone that saves by price and pow'r.10
Erskine's point was that it is not only our sins that cause us problems, but our righteousness as well, for as Isaiah says, "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). These "fig leaves" of our own making can never make us acceptable with God. This is why it is a very serious mistake to require any level of righteousness in order to gain access to heaven. Jesus' point in the Sermon on the Mount was not to show "how" we save ourselves, rather, he was pushing us to despair of our own attempts to save ourselves. Yes, our righteousness does have to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, because their righteousness were filthy rags as well (even though they put the most effort into being holy). We need the perfect righteousness of another in order to be acceptable to God. Thus, in hearing a strict and unrelenting message of law, we have been forced once again to flee to the gospel for comfort.
Law & Gospel in Les Miserables
I would like to conclude this article with a terrific illustration of this issue from the world of the theatre. In the 1985 musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miserables, there is a powerful example of the gospel as set against the backdrop of an unforgiving law. Jean Valjean is a man recently released from prison who finds that he cannot get a decent job due to his criminal record. A generous bishop grants him a meal and a warm bed but Valjean abuses the bishop's kindness and steals his silverware in the middle of the night. When he is captured and returned, the bishop asks him why he left without taking the candlesticks also and dismisses the charges. Free from the threat of another prison sentence and feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt, Valjean sings the following verses:
Take an eye for an eye, turn your heart into stone.
This is all I have lived for, this is all I have known!
One word from him and I'd be back,
Beneath the lash, upon the rack.
Instead he offers me my freedom.
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?
I am reaching but I fall and the night is closing in
As I stare into the void--to the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world--from the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now, a new story must begin.11
Valjean knew the law, but he was totally unfamiliar with the sort of kindness shown to him by the bishop. This is the way it is with us and God. The law is with us by nature but the gospel message is totally foreign to us This is why the gospel must be preached to us from the outside, because it is a message that is completely contrary to the world as we know it. Valjean describes this as the world of "an eye for an eye," and admits that "this is all [he has] known." So when the bishop preaches to him the good news of mercy and pardon, he is cut to the quick and confesses his sin. But Valjean quickly moves (or should we say, "is moved") from confession to sincere repentance by determining to live a new life.
It is interesting how the rest of the story contrasts Valjean's life of gratitude and service to God with that of the police officer Javert's strict adherence to the law in hunting down Valjean for breaking his parole. His pursuit is not unlike Paul's Pharisaic zeal in persecuting the church; in trying to exact a legalistic righteousness, he wound up in opposition to God's redemptive plan. In the same way, Javert expresses this type of view when he sings, "Honest work, just reward, that's the way to please the Lord." But this tune of the heart makes him the life-long antagonist of the converted Valjean. It was Paul the apostle, however, who summed it all up well when he wrote:
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish (sku/bala), that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Phil. 3:5-10).
Paul certainly knew what it was like to pursue the law with the utmost zeal. But in his pursuit of the law, he neglected that which the law pointed to all along, i.e., the mercy of God in Christ. Therefore preachers have an important responsibility to clearly present the law of God in its full terror. Without this message the gospel will make little sense (a good example is how a number of churches avoid preaching the law but present Christ as the solution to loneliness). The most important task, however, is to see that the gospel of Christ is presented in all its sweetness and comfort as a solution to the divine curse of the law.
If a minister is preaching pop-psychology, political propaganda, ten steps to a successful marriage, end-time speculations, or family values, all to the neglect of Christ, then that particular church has a significant problem. Christ is the heart of the Scriptures, and he is the heart of Christianity. The sermons throughout the book of Acts bear this out. But as bad as this is, I fear more for the congregants of a church where Christ is the major subject of the sermons but is presented as a new Moses rather than as the comforting deliverer of Zion. In the first context, I view the church more as a gathering at the local Elk's Lodge. I've been to churches like this and in my opinion they are not really churches at all but simply public meetings with religious language. The churches, on the other hand, whose pastors regularly confuse the law with the gospel, represent a much more significant problem. Sincere believers, struggling to understand Christ and the message of salvation, are often, in such places, given stones rather than bread. They are pushed back "in and to themselves" again and again. My prayer is that God would send us laborers for his Kingdom who would come to the place of harvesting with the proper tools.
Those suitors therefore of the bride, who hope
By force to drag her with the legal rope,
Nor use the drawing cord of conqu'ring grace,
Pursue with flaming zeal a fruitless chase;
In vain lame doings urge, with solemn awe,
To bribe the fury of the fiery law:
They shew not Jesus as the way to bliss,
But Judas-like betray him with a kiss
Of boasted works, or mere profession puft,
Law-boasters proving but law-breakers oft.12


Notes:
1. John Calvin, Selected Works Vol. 1, "Reply by Calvin to Cardinal Sadolet's Letter," (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1983), p. 40.
2. Walter Baur, William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 584
3. Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 732.
4. John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. by Henry Beveridge, (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845; orig. 1536), 2.9.4.
5. John Newton, Works of Newton Vol. 2, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1835), p.367.
6. Theodore Beza, The Christian Faith, trans. by James Clark (East Sussex, U.K.: Focus Christian Ministries Trust, 1992; orig. 1558), p. 40-41 (sect. 4.22).
7. Ibid.
8. John Bradford, The Writings of John Bradford, "Preface to: The Places of The Law and of the Gospel by Petrus Artopeus" (Cambridge: The Parker Society, 1848; orig. 1548), p. 5.
9. Ralph Erskine, The Sermons and Practical Works of Ralph Erskine, "Against a Legal Spirit." (Glasgow: W. Smith and J. Bryce Booksellers, 1778) vol. 10, p. 84.
9. Ralph Erskine, The Sermons and Practical Works of Ralph Erskine, "Arguments and Encouragements to Gospel-ministers to avoid a legal strain of doctrine, and endeavor the sinner's match with Christ by gospel means." (Glasgow: W. Smith and J. Bryce Booksellers, 1778) vol. 10, pp. 87-88.
11. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, Les Miserables in Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, (London: First Night Records, 1996; orig. 1985).
12. Ralph Erskine, The Sermons and Practical Works of Ralph Erskine, (Glasgow: W. Smith and J. Bryce Booksellers, 1778) vol. 10, p. 93.



This article was made available on the internet via REFORMATION INK (www.markers.com/ink). Refer any correspondence to Shane Rosenthal: ReformationInk at mac.com (connect and write as @mac.com -- when I connect them I get a lot of junk mail)..

The Law & The Gospel
Martin Luther & Others -- A Reformation Sampler


Martin Luther, Sermon On Galatians, 1532
This difference between the Law and the Gospel is the height of knowledge in Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory in the name of Christian should know and be able to state this difference. If this ability is lacking, one cannot tell a Christian from a heathen or a Jew; of such supreme importance is this differentiation. This is why St. Paul so strongly insists on a clean-cut and proper differentiating of these two doctrines.





Martin Luther, (see Luther's Works, Saint Louis edition, 11:81ff)
The law is the Word in which God teaches and tells us what we are to do and not to do, as in the Ten commandments. Now wherever human nature is alone, without the grace of God, the Law cannot be kept, because since Adamís fall in paradise man is corrupt and has nothing but a wicked desire to sin and in his heart cannot be favorably disposed toward the Law, as we know by our own experience. For there is no one who would not rather have no Law at all, and everyone finds and feels within himself that while it is difficult to be pious and do good, it is easy to be wicked and to do evil. And this difficulty or this unwillingness to do what is good prevents us form keeping Godís Law; for what is kept with dislike, difficulty, and unwillingness, rates before God as not having been kept at all. And so the Law of God convinces us by our experience that we are naturally wicked, disobedient, lovers of sin, and enemies of Godís commandments.
Now from all this one of two things must follow: presumption or despair. Presumption follows when a man sets himself to fulfill the Law with works and diligently sees to it that he does what the letter of the Law asks him to do. He serves God, does not swear, honors father and mother, does not kill, does not commit adultery, and the like. Meanwhile, however, he does not observe his heart, does not note the reason why he is leading such a fine, good life, that he is merely covering the old hypocrite in his hear with such a beautiful life. For if he looked at himself aright, at his own hear, he would discover that he is doing all these things with dislike and out of compulsion; that he fears hell or seeks heaven, if not also far more insignificant matters, namely, honor, goods, heath; and that he is motivated by the fear of shame or harm or diseases. In short, he would have to confess that he would rather lead a different life if the consequence of such a life did not deter him; for he would not do it merely for the sake of the Law. But because he does not see this bad reason, he lives on in security, looks only at the works, not into the heart, and so assumes that he is keeping the Law of God well. The face of Moses is, therefore, covered for him, that is, he dose not recognize the meaning of the Law--that it wasnít to be fulfilled with joyful, free, cheerful will. Just so an unchaste person, when asked why he commits the act, can only answer: Because of the pleasure I find in it. For he commits it for the sake of neither reward nor punishment, does not proposes to gain anything by it or to escape any evil through it.
Such pleasure the Law would also find in us, so that when you ask a chaste person why he is chaste, he should say: Not for the sake of heaven or hell, not for the sake of honor or shame, but simply because it appears to me to be very find, and I heartily approve of it even if it were not commanded. See, a heart such as this really loves Godís Law and keeps it with pleasure. Such people love God and righteousness, fear and hate nothing but unrighteousness. But no man is thus constituted by nature. The others, however, love the reward and the benefit, fear ant hate the punishment and the pain. Therefore they hate God and righteousness, love themselves and unrighteousness; they are hypocrites, shams, deceivers, liars, and boasters. Without grace all men are of this kind, but especially the self-righteous. Hence Scripture says and concludes: "All men are liars" Ps. 116:11); and again (Ps 39:5; "Every man at his best state is altogether vanity"; and (Ps 14:3) "There is none that does good, no, not one." But despair follows when a man becomes aware of the reason why he is keeping the Law and recognizes that to love Godís law is impossible for him, since he finds nothing good in himself but only hatred of the good and lust for the bad. Then he recognizes that works cannot do justice to the Law. Therefore he despairs of works and disregards them. He ought to have love, but he does not find any and of and by himself can have none. The result must be a poor, miserable, humbled spirit, a man oppressed and frightened through the Law by his conscience, which demands and requires of him what he has not a penny to pay. Yet the Law alone is of benefit to such presumptuous people, for it was given to work this knowledge and humiliation. This is it's (the Law's) proper work...
The other word of God is not Law or commandment, nor does it require anything of us; but after the first Word, that of the Law, has done this work and distressful misery an poverty have been produced in the heart, God comes and offers his lovely, living Word, and promises, pledges, and obligates himself to give grace and help, that we may get out of this misery and that all sins not only be forgiven but also blotted out and that love and delight to fulfill the law may be given besides. See, this divine promise of his grace and of the forgiveness of his is properly called Gospel. And I say again and yet again that you should never understand Gospel to mean anything but the divine promise of his grace and of the forgiveness of sin. For this is why hitherto St. Paul's epistles were not understood and cannot be understood by our adversaries even now; they do not know what Law and Gospel really are. For they consider Christ a Legislator and the Gospel nothing but the teaching of new laws. This is nothing else but locking up the gospel and obscuring everything. For "Gospel" is Greek and means "good news," because in it is proclaimed the saving doctrine of life, of the divine promise, and grace and the forgiveness of sins are offered. Therefore works do not belong to the gospel; for it is not laws but faith alone, because it is nothing whatever but the promise and offer of divine grace. He, then, who believes the Gospel receives grace and the Holy Spirit. Thereby the heart becomes glad and joyful in God and then keeps the Law gladly and freely, without the fear of punishment and without the expectation of reward; for it is sated and satisfied with that grace of God by which the law has been satisfied.





John Calvin, The Institutes (2.9.4), 1536
By the term Law, Paul frequently understands that rule of holy living in which God exacts what is his due, giving no hope of life unless we obey in every respect; and, on the other hand, denouncing a curse for the slightest failure. This Paul does when showing that we are freely accepted of God, and accounted righteous by being pardoned, because that obedience of the Law to which the reward is promised is nowhere to be found. Hence he appropriately represents the righteousness of the Law and the Gospel as opposed to each other. But the Gospel has not succeeded the whole Law in such a sense as to introduce a different method of salvation. It rather confirms the Law, and proves that every thing which it promised is fulfilled. What was shadow, it has made substance...





John Bradford, The Places of The Law & Of The Gospel, 1548
Whosoever truly understandeth the division of the places of the Law and of the Gospel, gathered out of the holy scriptures, cannot by any man's doctrine be seduced from the truth, or read the scriptures but to edify both himself and others: whereas he that is ignorant of the same cannot, though he were a great doctor of divinity, and could rehearse every text of the bible without book, but both be deceived, and deceive others; as the experience hereof (the more pity) hath taught, nay, seduced the whole world....Therefore, I say, take to thee the glass of God's law; look therein, and thou shalt see thy just damnation, and God's wrath for sin, which, if thou dreadest, will drive thee not only to an amendment, but also to a sorrow and hatred of thy wickedness, and even to the brim of despair, out of which nothing can bring thee but the glad tidings of Christ, that is, the gospel: for as God's word doth bind thee, so can nothing but God's word unbind thee; and until thou comest to this point, thou knowest nothing of Christ.




Theodore Beza, The Christian Faith, 1558
We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the 'Law,' the other the 'Gospel.' For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings...Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.





The Formula of Concord, 1576
We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction of the Law and of the Gospel, as a most excellently clear light, is to be retained with special diligence in the Church of God, in order that the Word of God, agreeably to the admonition of St. Paul, may be rightly divided.





Ralph Erskine, The Beauties of Erskine, 1745
A Poem On Law & Gospel:
The law supposing I have all,
Does ever for perfection call;
The gospel suits my total want,
And all the law can seek does grant.
The law could promise life to me,
If my obedience perfect be;
But grace does promise life upon
My Lord's obedience alone.
The law says, Do, and life you'll win;
But grace says, Live, for all is done;
The former cannot ease my grief,
The latter yields me full relief.
The law will not abate a mite,
The gospel all the sum will quit;
There God in thret'nings is array'd
But here in promises display'd.
The law excludes not boasting vain,
But rather feeds it to my bane;
But gospel grace allows no boasts,
Save in the King, the Lord of Hosts.
The law brings terror to molest,
The gospel gives the weary rest;
The one does flags of death display,
The other shows the living way.
The law's a house of bondage sore,
The gospel opens prison doors;
The first me hamer'd in its net,
The last at freedom kindly set.
An angry God the law reveal'd
The gospel shows him reconciled;
By that I know he was displeased,
By this I see his wrath appeased.
The law still shows a fiery face,
The gospel shows a throne of grace;
There justice rides alone in state,
But here she takes the mercy-seat.
Lo! in the law Jehovah dwells,
But Jesus is conceal'd;
Whereas the gospel's nothing else
But Jesus Christ reveal'd.





C.H. Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit, 1855
There is no point on which men make greater mistakes than on the relation which exists between the law and the gospel. Some men put the law instead of the gospel; others put gospel instead of the law. A certain class maintains that the law and the gospel are mixed...These men understand not the truth and are false teachers.





C.F.W. Walther, Law & Gospel, 1884
The true knowledge of the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is not only a glorious light, affording a correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, but without this knowledge Scripture is and remains a sealed book....The Word of God is not rightly divided when the law is not preached in its full sternness, and the gospel not in its full sweetness, when, on the contrary, gospel elements are mingled with the law and law elements with the gospel.





J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith?, 1925
A new and more powerful proclamation of law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law. As it is, they are turning aside from the Christian pathway; they are turning to the village of Morality, and to the house of Mr. Legality, who is reported to be very skillful in relieving men of their burdens... 'Making Christ Master' in the life, putting into practice 'the principles of Christ' by one's own efforts-these are merely new ways of earning salvation by one's obedience to God's commands.





J. T. Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, 1955
This distinction between the Law and the Gospel, which is so clearly taught in Holy Scripture, the Christian must conscientiously observe and neither weaken the condemning force of the Law nor diminish the saving comfort of the Gospel. Unless the Law and the Gospel are thus preached...the Christian religion is deprived of its distinct content, is paganized by the introduction of work-righteousness as a cause of salvation, and is therefore rendered incapable of saving sinners.





John Calvin, Select Prayers, 15??
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast made known thy law, and hast also added thy gospel, in which thou callest us to thy service, and also invitest us with all kindness to partake of thy grace; O grant, that we may not be deaf, either to thy command or to the promises of thy mercy, but render ourselves submissive to thee everywhere, and so learn to devote all our faculties to thee, that we may in truth avow that the rule of a holy and religious life, has been delivered to us in thy law, and that we may firmly adhere to thy promises, lest through any of the allurements of the world, or through the flatteries and delusions of Satan, thou shouldst suffer our minds to be drawn away from that love which thou hast once for all manifested to us in thine only begotten Son, and in which thou daily confirmest us by the teaching of the gospel, until we at length shall come to the full enjoyment of this love in that celestial inheritance, which has been purchased for us by the blood of thine only Son. Amen.



This article was made available on the internet via REFORMATION INK (www.markers.com/ink). Refer any correspondence to Shane Rosenthal: ReformationInk at mac.com (connect and write as @mac.com -- when I connect them I get a lot of junk mail).

  яяя

by John Bradford (1548)
 
The following introductory article by John Bradford served as a preface to a larger work entitled, The Places of The Law and of the Gospel, by Petrus Artopeus. Bradford was a fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and was martyred in 1555. The electronic edition of this preface was scanned and edited by Shane Rosenthal. It is in the public domain and may be freely copied and distributed. Content has been moderately edited.
 

 
Whosoever truly understandeth the division of the places of the Law and of the Gospel, gathered out of the holy scriptures, cannot by any man's doctrine be seduced from the truth, or read the scriptures but to edify both himself and others: whereas he that is ignorant of the same cannot, though he were a great doctor of divinity, and could rehearse every text of the bible without book, but both be deceived, and deceive others; as the experience hereof (the more pity) hath taught, nay, seduced the whole world. For how can it be, that such as find no terror of conscience, and see not their just damnation in the law of God, which commandeth things impossible to man's nature and power; how can it be I say, that such should find sweetness in the gospel of Christ? How can the benefit of Christ shew itself to him that needeth it not? What needeth the whole man the physician? "The law," saith St Paul, "was our schoolmaster unto Christ." But unto such as perceive and feel .not the law, how is it a schoolmaster unto Christ? How is the law a schoolmaster unto such as will not learn? How have they learned, which think the law not to be impossible for man to fulfil? Or else, if they had looked on it, which is a spiritual doctrine, with spiritual eyes, would they have stirred any time contentions about the justification of faith? Would they have taught any satisfactions, which man can do, towards God, if they had learned the law?
 
It appeareth, therefore, by these things, that either the law hath not been their schoolmaster; or else, that they have been negligent, forgetful, or proud and disdainful scholars. For they have not applied free pardon of sins to Christ, as all the world knoweth. But if they were brought to him, they would grant him to be a perfect workman: they would be ashamed to say or think Christ to be but a patcher. Yet it appeareth (though openly in words. they will not say so; for that all christian hearts would abhor: it appeareth, I say), that they believe so.
 
Wherefore, I pray you, say you mass? Is not the mass, as you have taught and as you say it, a sacrifice propitiatory to take away sins, both of the quick and dead? Where is this taught you? Doth this law bring to Christ? Yea, you will say, for we offer there Christ. And St Paul saith, "Christ offered himself once for all." But, I pray you, look on the nature of the law, which is, by God's teaching and speaking, to open to man the poison of his own heart: the law will not leave man in arrogancy or presumption, but will rather bring him to desperation. The law pulleth man down, and leadeth him into hell's mouth, as it is written, "Thou art he that leadest to hell," &c. The law filleth man full of grief and heaviness; and, if succour come not from heaven, full of blasphemy even against God and his ordinances, as the history of Job, well weighed of a godly wit, will declare. Thus, you see, the law, where she is schoolmaster, bringeth man into all humbleness of mind at the least.
 
Therefore, ye offerers, (for you say ye offer Christ,) what humbleness of mind is in you (if a man should grant you offered Christ), when you will offer that thing that no angel, no saint, no patriarch, no prophet, no man might or could offer? Are you not good scholars, when you are taught to be humble, yet extol yourselves above angels? I say, none could be found meet in heaven nor in earth to offer that offering, wherewith God's wrath, deserved by our sins, was appeased and extinct, but even he that was of both natures, both God and man, Jesus Christ. He was the sacrificer and the sacrifice: he was the offerer and the lamb slain: slain, I say, for our sins. Alas, that ever such arrogancy should be crept into, mans heart, not only to spoil Christ of his most glorious office but to extol yourselves above angels, and to make yourselves check-mate with Christ!
 
St Paul saith, "By one offering he hath made perfect them which are sanctified for ever." How say you to this? Doth not your offering make the offering which Christ made imperfect? For whatsoever is added to a perfection doth imply an imperfection. Take heed, good reader, therefore, if thou be sanctified, purged from thy sins, anointed with the Holy Ghost, and made the child of God, it is done all by that one oblation of Christ's body on the cross, brought in to thee by the faith that thou hast in the same oblation. Or, if that thou be not now sanctified, if ever thou look to be sanctified or saved, it must be only by this work, wrought of CHRIST in his own person.
 
Hereby it is evident, that these men, for all their great learning (as some of them have had), that yet they did never understand the law of God. For they never found sweetness in the gospel of Christ. Hath there not been great learned men, think you, that, besides this, have taught abstaining from certain kinds of meat, auricular confessions, worshipping of images, creeping to the cross, holy water, holy bread, pilgrimages, pardons, and I cannot tell what, necessary to salvation ? And this verily hath come hereof, that they have not known the law nor the gospel, though they could both preach, and teach, and say all the bible without book. For he that feeleth the law working in his heart, can never be satisfied, but despair, except the gospel and joyful tidings of Christ be brought unto him.
 
In this book, therefore, thou hast the places of the Law and the Gospel divided, wherein I exhort thee to prove thyself in the law: see, if the texts and sentences of the law do fear thee, make thee dread, yea, tremble and quake at the justice of God: for God himself hath spoken it, and his word must needs be true, "Heaven and earth shall pass, afore one tittle or iota of the law be unperformed." For in whose heart the law worketh no fear, yea, horrible fear of God's wrath, surely they are in an evil case.
 
Thus it is manifest, the law of God is not feared; so is not God feared, which proveth there is no faith: for how canst thou believe that God will perform his promise to thee, when thou fearest not his truth to perform his word and threat? God is no liar. Deceive not thyself, therefore: but prove whether thou be in faith. For except thou tremble and quake at God's justice in the law, thou hast no faith, but art an hypocrite: for faith is not, where the fear of God is not; and the fear of God is not, where God's law is not believed. Therefore, I say, take to thee the glass of God's law; look therein, and thou shalt see thy just damnation, and God's wrath for sin, which, if thou dreadest, will drive thee not only to an amendment, but also to a sorrow and hatred of thy wickedness, and even to the brim of despair, out of which nothing can bring thee but the glad tidings of Christ, that is, the gospel: for as God's word doth bind thee, so can nothing but God's word unbind thee; and until thou comest to this point, thou knowest nothing of Christ. Make unto thee a sure foundation; begin at the Law: and if it fear thee, and bring thee to hell's mouth in consideration of thy sin and sinful nature, then come to Christ, come to the gospel: then shalt thou be a good scholar, and praise thy schoolmaster: then shalt thou feel the benefit of Christ; then shalt thou love him, and thy neighbour for his sake. Then will it make thine ears to glow, and thy heart to bleed, to hear or see any thing set in Christ's place. Then shalt thou look for the coming of thy Lord, and weep to hear his name evil spoken of. The which thing he grant for his mercy's sake. Amen.
 


This article was made available on the internet via REFORMATION INK (www.markers.com/ink). Refer any correspondence to Shane Rosenthal: ReformationInk at mac.com (connect and write as @mac.com -- when I connect them I get a lot of junk mail). яяя
republished here with permission 

The Following is from one of the Marrow Men. An Erskine who wrote poetry described as feisty. Shane Rosenthal introduces us to him and then explains one of his Gospel Sonnets


The name Ralph Erskine (1685- 1752) might not sound that familiar to modern ears but, in fact, this minister’s literary works were once so treasured that as late as 1879 they were still some of the best-selling religious books in London. (1) Most of Erskine’s published material consisted of his sermons, but his most popular selling volume was a collection of feisty poetic discourses entitled the Gospel Sonnets, first published in 1720 and which by 1793 had seen more than twenty editions (including American releases). (2)
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Erskine was born in Monilaws, Northumberland, in 1685. His father was a minister there and was personally involved in the conversion and discipleship of noted Puritan Thomas Boston. Ralph entered Edinburgh University to study theology when he was fifteen and was old enough to be licensed as a preacher by 1709. In a short biography, G. Ella records that once Erskine was called to the ministry, he was filled with grave doubts as to his Christian witness and calling, and scoured the works of godly men to find comfort. On reading Boston on the covenant, he was able to plead the promises of God and regain peace of heart. Erskine’s view of himself as shown by his diary at this time is instructive. He writes, “This morning, after reading, I went to prayer, under a sense of my nothingness and naughtiness, vileness and corruption, and acknowledged myself a beast before God.” He could nevertheless add, “I was made to cry with tears, Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief. I was led, in some suitable manner, under a view of my nothingness, and of God’s all-sufficiency, to renounce all confidence in the flesh.” (3)

The Bible does require us to forgive those who have harmed us, and it requires us to reconcile as brothers and sisters in Christ, if the sinning party repents. But the Bible does not tell us to trust people, and receive them into close companionship, if they have utterly destroyed our trust. We must love them (Matt 5:44), but we are not required to trust them (Jn 2:24).
Finally, Christians need to be very careful not to demand that people reconcile. Too often, Christians are eager to see relationships restored. And while a restored relationship could be a beautiful thing, it may also be a terrible thing. Christians shouldn’t pressure other Christians to reconcile, when reconciliation is not biblically warranted.