This thesis today is one of my favorites, in that Walther states that you are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you turn the Gospel into a preaching of repentance. Now, often in Scripture, the words “Gospel” and “repentance” are used very similarly; they are often tied together. Repentance sometimes means a whole lot of things, conversion, embracing the knowledge of sin, contrition, and faith. This is what’s meant when Peter says, “Repent and be baptized.” Sometimes, though, maybe even often, it means more and means only the heartfelt sorrow you have over your sin. This is what’s meant when Jesus says, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
The word “Gospel” can be used similarly, then. Sometimes, Gospel means the entire teachings of the Scripture, sometimes the first four books of the New Testament, and specifically it means the promises that are found in Christ contrary to the Law’s accusations. But, when you combine the different senses of both of these words in a way in which the Scriptures speak, you might end up telling someone to believe the Gospel because the words of Jesus are so nice or repent because Jesus saved you. This completely misses the point of the Law and the Gospel and severely damages the faith of a person, especially if they should then encounter doubts or trials. When you’re brought into faith just because the words of Jesus are sweet, what happens when life gets sour?
This is the whole point of the thesis, the Gospel cannot just be turned into a, “Okay, here’s a Gospel presentation, now, don’t you want to believe?” The Gospel preached is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord of creation laying down His life for the sake of that creation, on account of their sins, and the promise of the resurrection. This can only, however, be presented as the sweet Gospel after the Law has been preached in all its sternness, to condemn hard-hearted sinners over their sins. If you get this wrong, you begin to turn faith into a work of man, and not a gift of God Himself.
We preach a perfect redemption here, forgiveness for the sake of Christ, not the sake of our works. Faith is the hand the receives, not the hand that works. And because of that, when we hear the Law, our faith informs us to repent, when we hear the Gospel, our faith informs us we are forgiven, when we gain the Law as an aid then, we see it as good works for us to do toward our neighbor. When we preach the Gospel as Law, we make it into Law itself, something to be done for salvation, not out of love. And that’s not a good and proper distinction between Law and Gospel.
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