This quick study on Law and Gospel was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on February 11, 2018. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.
Last week, we spoke about the first distinction between Law and Gospel, namely that these are the two and only two ways that God speaks with us. In the second thesis, Walther tells us, “If you wish to be an orthodox teacher, you must present all the articles of faith in accordance with Scripture, yet [you] must also rightly distinguish Law and Gospel." Now, this thesis has two parts. The first is that an orthodox teacher, or even a layperson, has to present all of the faith to everyone. This might not sound strange, but think of some preachers out there. They have favorite doctrines, and it’s all they preach on. But this also gets weird, because if you’re going to be orthodox, if you’re going to have the right doctrine, you have to be able to say to others that what you are teaching is right and that your interpretation of the Scriptures is the right one. That’s not a popular thing to say, and it’s even uncomfortable thinking of ourselves saying it.
The Word of God demands that you should keep it pure and pristine, not changing your doctrine or your understanding all the time. When we understand how God speaks and the manner in which He speaks, all of your doctrine will be correct; you won’t have to guess at what is right or what is wrong, you will know. If someone asks you a question about God’s Word, it might take you a minute, but if you understand how God speaks, it will be no problem to answer with what He speaks. You then will be able to be confident in your teaching, and not be ashamed. This really is the key to understanding God’s Word, how Law and Gospel are distinguished. So, do Lutherans have it right? Of course we do! And if you don’t think that, why are you Lutheran? There’s no “well, every denomination is similar” or “we have it as close as we can get it.” In Christ, we have all truth, and we lay claim to that truth. We preach Law and Gospel, and when you get it, you are orthodox, preaching all that God’s Word says.
The second part of the thesis is related and it is this, that you must properly preach, teach, believe, confess, and understand Law and Gospel. You must. If a pastor won’t confront certain people in their sin for fear of losing their offerings, then he’s not doing his job. Walther calls this pampering secure sinners with soft pillows. It’s also bad, maybe even worse, if a pastor refuses to give the Gospel to people thinking that it’ll give them license to go out and sin as much as they want. The pastor condemns the people to a life without proper faith, and sends them on their way, laughing all the way to hell. But this is true in our personal lives as well. You have to be able to determine what people need to hear and when to give Law and when to give Gospel, and the way to do that is to understand and study God’s Word.
If you don’t do this, what winds up happening is that we preach neither Law nor Gospel, but something I like to call Glawspel. It when we preach the Word wrongly, apply the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time, when we mix Law and Gospel and not keep them in their appropriate spots. It’d be like studying for a physics test when you actually are in chemistry class. You might have some of the answers, but you also might miss them. The questions are different, and how you approach them isn’t the same, and you’ll end up with a poisonous grade.
All of this allows us to see what God is doing: that though salvation is given in reward for obeying the Law, none of us can and none of us will obey perfectly, so God righteously saves all people by the Gospel, where it gives promises based on the obedience of Christ. It allows us to see that the grace of God is from outside of us, and not anything inward. It allows us to see heaven, even while, according to our flesh, we strive for hell. To keep these doctrines properly, we must continue studying, but we also must have confidence that our Lord will guide us and has guided us into all truth. For the sake of souls, we must have that confidence to speak God’s Word rightly to those who need it when they need it.
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