Law/Gospel 2025

Law/Gospel Week 2025!

            Last year we declared the last week starting in April as Law/Gospel week. We did a series of episodes and blog posts. This year we did a podcast introducing a book called Learning God’s Two Words: A Brief Catechism on the Law and the Gospel.

            This is not to take away from the other catechisms but to point toward them and focus in on this one aspect. We need to focus in on it because it needs to be recovered. Tyndale wanted to give the ploughboy the Bible so they could know the Bible better than the popes. We need to give Law/Gospel to the average Christian so they can read the Bible better than the average Bible scholar.

            One example is Mark 10:17f with the story of the rich young ruler. This guy who has it all going for him in sincerity and earnestness comes to Jesus and wants to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tries to get him to see the one he is talking to is not just a good teacher by normal human ethical standards but is the Good one, good as only God is good. He gives the man the law which he says he has kept. Jesus then tells him to sell everything. Some modern commentaries say that Jesus was impressed with this guy’s answer, that He wanted him to be a part of His inner circle. A basic Law/Gospel distinction clears it up. This guy is holding onto his earthly treasure. Idolatry and covetousness are shown, not righteousness. The disciples respond rightly, if this guy who has wealth (seen as a sign of blessing), a ruler (maybe in the Synagogue), and probably a morally upright fellow can’t get in, then who can? You can’t on your own righteousness. He failed to see Christ as the Savior he needed. Christ has compassion not because He is impressed, but because the man is lost.

            The law shows us our sin and our need for the Savior, that is the law in the do this in live sense. If you are going to get to heaven by law-keeping you have to do it all, all the time, without fail in the least measure going to the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You can never not love your neighbor perfectly. J.C.Ryle says “Ignorance of the Law and ignorance of the Gospel will generally be found together.” The rich young ruler did not understand either.

            Mark 12:28f with the Scribe would be another example. At the end of the discussion about the law Jesus says you are not far from the Kingdom of God. Again some commentaries don’t understand what the connection is between the law and the kingdom of God. Those with a Law/Gospel distinction do.[1] The Scribe has understood what the standard is, He understood the law! Ryle notes “No wonder that we read next, that our Lord said, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.”” He is half way there as it were, which is far closer than many of the Scribes and Pharisees were. Of course close doesn’t get you to heaven.

            As believers, united to Christ in faith, there is another use of the law. The law does not change, but we relate to it differently, as a rule of life or we say the law comes from the hand of Christ.

            We ought to have a high view of the law. Ryle again says

It is only gross ignorance of the requirements of God’s law which makes people undervalue the Gospel. The man who has the clearest view of the moral law, will always be the man who has the highest sense of the value of Christ’s atoning blood.

            So while law and gospel are opposed to each other in justification they work together in sanctification. We need them both.

           Horatius Bonar says James is writing about the blessedness of doing, not of believing, but of doing as a result of believing. In other words, it is the law as a rule of life. The law then for the believer is liberty. He goes on to say

The law of liberty.—It is only bondage to the unforgiven. To those in reference to whom its penalty has ceased, it is a law of liberty. Obedience to it is true liberty. The greater the obedience, the greater the liberty. Disobedience is bondage. 'I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts' (Psalm 69:45). Twice over in James it is called the law of liberty; for the law, fulfilled in Christ, and presented to us in the gospel, though unchanged and unmodified, is a law of liberty. In obeying it we are enjoying and exercising true freedom.

And continues

We are delivered from the law's condemnation. We are 'not under the law, but under grace.' But shall we obey it the less? No, the more; for to this end we are delivered, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. The condemnation of the law is cancelled, that the righteousness of the law might be free to exhibit itself in us, who are still 'under the law to Christ;' for the law is still good, if a man use it lawfully.[2]

            Some scholars want to use passages like Romans 2:13 to build up the idea that you can do enough to attain eternal life. Calvin says such a one should be laughed at even by children. Do you see how the Law/Gospel distinction can help us read our Bibles better?

            Why a Law/Gospel Catechism for kids? Because we want them to read the Bible well. We want them to read it like Christians should. We want to see the standard of the law so they are driven to Christ as sinners. We want them to believe the gospel and being united to Christ through faith to love God’s law as it guides them in the Christian life. We want them to live the Christian life with assurance because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This assurance actually leads to obedience. We want them to understand the Law and so understand and cherish the Gospel. May we know the truth, may we understand the historic Christian category of Law and Gospel, and pass it on to the next generation. It is good for the soul.   
 
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Jay Wipf


[1] See J.C Ryle Expository Reflections on the Gospels for more notes on these passages.   

[2] The Lesser Epistles (eBook) | Monergism, 285, 287.