This quick study on Law and Gospel was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on March 4, 2018. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.
So, our first thesis basically said that God speaks in two ways: Law and Gospel. The second thesis told us that, if you want to actually understand the Scriptures and be prepared to defend it or teach it, you need to teach the whole counsel of the Word of God, rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel. (And again, if you understand Law and Gospel, you’ll never be able to teach anything false about the Word of God–it all falls into place.) Our third thesis, then, says this, “To rightly distinguish Law and Gospel is the most difficult and highest Christian art… It is taught only by the Holy Spirit in combination with experience.”
Alright, so, this doesn’t sound too difficult, right? I mean, even kids can get Law and Gospel. It’s in every catechism, we teach it to our kids like we teach them the ABCs. We need to obey God’s commands, and we can’t yet, yet we have Jesus Christ, the righteous redeemer, who rescues us from our sins. Everyone knows that. But, that’s the doctrine of Law and Gospel, that’s fairly easy to learn. Here we’re talking about the application and use of the doctrine. It’s not something we just fall into, but something through which the Holy Spirit guides us and teaches us.
If you think this is easy, think about it this way: have you ever spent waking hours at night, beating yourself up over something you said, something you did? Or have you ever been perfectly fine and all of the sudden find yourself plagued with memories of your greatest sins? The problem is that we might have heard the words of forgiveness, we might have heard, even understanding, God doesn’t hold these sins against us. We are, however, able to distinguish properly between Law and Gospel, even to the point that we are able to apply it to ourselves.
I’ll say this: when our hearts do not condemn us, when things are alright, it’s easy to continue on in faith, we can distinguish Law and Gospel pretty easily then. But, sometimes we end up in a place where we cannot silence the accusations of our heart. If you can distinguish Law and Gospel well right at that moment, you will find the sweet comfort of Christ. But, if you have trouble with it, you will beat yourself up from one end to the next.
It’s easy to figure out what the contents of Law and Gospel are, it’s much harder to apply the right thing at the right time to the right person. The devil would come and snatch them away, or lead us to say the wrong thing. Yet, we need to remember that Christ promised the Spirit who would guide us into all understanding; He also will guide us in this and away from the defeated devil.
Really, learning to apply Law and Gospel is no different than the rest of the Christian faith. Anyone, and really, I mean anyone, can understand the words on the page in the Scriptures. I’ve met atheists who are world-class Biblical scholars. But the words of Scripture do not affect them for they have no faith in Christ. They reject it. But to those who have been given faith, who grasp on to it, life in Christ is a constant searching for understanding. Have you grown complacent in trying to understand the Word of God? I hope not, certainly, but the same way you seek to study, meditate upon the Word of God, the same way the Christian meditates on Law and Gospel.
What do I say to a man with homosexual desires who wants to follow Jesus? What do I say to my mom who drinks too much? What do I say to my kids falling away from the faith? What do I say to the woman hurting at the loss of her husband? These questions and so many more we dwell on every day. How are we to answer them? Enlightened with faith by the Holy Spirit, we dive deeper into the text of God. And through His teaching and what He brings into our lives to experience, trusting in our Lord, we are confident He teaches us how to rightly distinguish and apply Law and Gospel.
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