This quick study on Law and Gospel was given at the end of service at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on May 13, 2018. The text of the study is included and you may play the audio of the study here.
Thesis six of Walther’s Law and Gospel says that you are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you do not preach the law in its full sternness and the Gospel in its full sweetness. Similarly, you should not mingle Gospel elements with the Law or Law elements with the Gospel. Basically this, the Law doesn’t half-condemn you; it fully condemns you. The Gospel doesn’t half-save you; it does save you.
All over the Scriptures, God speaks His holy Law. Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t covet, don’t steal, believe in Me, listen to Me, follow Me. All of this Law is good. As Christians, redeemed by Christ, it shows us how we are now to live in righteousness and purity. But, this Law also should always accuse us. The Law says crank it to 11 and we can only crank it to 2, well, the Law accuses us of not making it. It says don’t commit adultery, but then we lust after someone, well, it accuses us of being little fornicators. The Law always accuses us, even if it is meant for our good.
The Law never makes a concession, it never allows an excuse. Well, if I didn’t take that bread from the baker, I wouldn’t be able to feed my family. Too bad, the Law is going to condemn you. There’s no mercy in the Law. The Law says what it says and it says you’re a sinner and there’s no way around it. You can’t get away from it. The Law says, “You have to do it. If you fail to do it, there’s not patience, loving-kindness, long-suffering of God for you. You will have to go to Hell.”
I mean, think of it. Whenever God spoke to His people, there was great fear and trembling. Israel fell to pieces each time it happened. They felt they were lost. They promised to do what God said, which, in and of itself, had to have been a lie, and so they rightly groveled at God’s feet. You only do that when you know you’re a sinner, when you know the depth of your sins, and that only comes when the Law has been preached to such an extent that, when a person hears it rightly, it condemns them where they stand. It has to, otherwise, people will never experience the depth of the sweet good news in Jesus Christ.
In the person of Jesus Christ, you have God incarnate, yet, whenever He spoke, people didn’t fall down trembling, they didn’t grovel. He has the very voice of God, yet it did not kill. That’s because in Christ Jesus, the Gospel is given. Through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, the Good News of salvation comes to all those who confess their sin to Him. He is not abolishing the Law, but the Law comes to its completion in Him.
While we should be terrified under the Law, we should also realize the comfort that comes through the Gospel, that Christ has saved us from condemnation, that He took our place, and, moreover, that He has given to us His righteousness, earned through His obedience to the Law, so that we never will be damned but welcomed into everlasting life.
The Law should be given to those who need to tremble, and certainly we all need that else we grow confident in our works and not Christ’s. And the Gospel should be given only to those who tremble before the righteous God, else we despair of our life and not depend on Christ. Law and Gospel must be kept separate to such a point that we do not go wishy washy on any of its fullness. The Law must condemn and instruct. The Gospel must save and strengthen. If you do this, you will have succeeded.
Our fifth thesis is this: the most common way people mingle Law and Gospel–and one that is also the easiest to detect because it is the most crude–is… [turning] Christ into a kind of new Moses or Lawgiver. This transforms the Gospel into one of meritorious works. The flip side of this is people who fight against the idea that the Gospel is the message of the free grace of God in Christ.
Now, this is different than saying that the Christian needs to be spurred on to good works. Of course we need this. However, we draw the line at saying that these good works are meritorious, that is, that they earn our salvation or count towards it. It’s not as if Christ came to give us a higher Law or more difficult Law. It’s not as if He came to give us an easier Law. In fact, while Christ speaks Law all over the place, it’s the very same Law that Moses gave, for that even was given by Christ Himself. Christ is radically consistent.
However, when Christ gives the Law, He does so to show us how far we’ve fallen from the standard of perfection, to show how deep our sin goes, and to guide us then into good works, not for ourselves, but for our neighbors. Then, the Lord follows this up with the preaching of the Gospel. When the Son of Man is lifted up… three days and He shall rise again… whatever sins you forgive are forgiven… go and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christ, all over the place, gives Law and Gospel, but never that you would earn God’s favor, always showing that He has earned God’s favor for you, in your place.
This is why Lutherans and Roman Catholics have such a hard time at getting along. This is the very foundation of the rift in theology between us. Christ to the Romans is a lawgiver, who teaches how to achieve heaven with His help. Christ to Christians is the Son of God who completely wins heaven as a free gift for all mankind, no matter who they are, what they’ve done, what they’ve left undone. Christ did all of the Law for us, did it where we can’t, that we might live forever with Him.
And this is the reality, too: that these are the only two sides–either you will see the free gift of God’s grace for you, or you will do something to try to earn it. It’s only ever one or the other for all people, all humanity. It’s what everyone falls into. Either you depend fully on Christ, or you depend on yourself to varying degrees. You can’t escape it. And it’s so pernicious. If you get grace and faith wrong, you will get everything else about Christ wrong. It’s why Lutherans are famous for not preaching much about good works, but the reality is that we have the best and brightest understanding of good works. We should be good, we should be amazing at keeping the Lord’s commandments, but they don’t matter for us; they matter for our neighbor.
You will either be Christian in your speaking to others or you will fall into the errors of the world, the easiest thing to spot when your eyes are open to it. Will you keep Law and Gospel rightly divided? Or will you turn faith into a religion of works? We’ll continue with our sixth thesis next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment