The Basics -- The Law and the Gospel

Often identified as a Lutheran distinctive, the law-gospel distinction is recognized by the Reformed tradition as well. Reformed theologians such as Zacharius Ursinus (the principle author of the Heidelberg Catechism) and Louis Berkhof (a distinguished Reformed theologian) have spoken of the Bible as containing two parts–the law and the gospel. Although people often assume that this means the Bible has two testaments (the Old Testament being identified with “law” while the New Testament is identified with “gospel”), this is mistaken. In making the law-gospel distinction, we mean that law and gospel are two distinct but intimately connected “words” from God found throughout both testaments.

A definition or two is helpful at this point. The law is that which God demands of us (Genesis 2:17; Exodus 20:1-18), while the gospel is the good news that in Jesus Christ, God freely and graciously gives to us everything which he demands of us under the law (Romans 5:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). The content of the law is that which God revealed first to Adam in Eden, and then published in the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were written down on two tablets of stone and given to the people of God (Exodus 24).

The gospel is the message of what God has done in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. It is good news which is declared to us from the Word of God. The revelation of this gospel begins in Genesis 3:15 when God promises to rescue Adam from the curse pronounced upon him after he rebelled against his creator and brought our race under condemnation. God promised to crush Satan under the heel of a redeemer, and ensures Adam that one day no longer will there be any curse (Revelation 22:3). The law is what God commands of us. The gospel is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The law says “do.” The gospel announces to us what has been “done.”

The importance of this distinction becomes clear when we survey the course of biblical history. When God created Adam and placed him in Eden, Adam was created in a covenant relationship with God (the so-called covenant of works). Adam had the natural ability to obey all of God’s commands, which are written upon the hearts of all of Adam’s descendants because we are divine image bearers (Romans 2:12-16). These commandments are not published until God gives them to Israel at Mount Sinai. In the contents of the Sinaitic covenant, we see that both law and gospel are found together in the Old Testament.

When God made his covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, that which was written on the human heart was now made public for all to see and obey. The Ten Commandments are called the “moral law” because they reflect this universal knowledge of God’s will which he has implanted in every human heart (Romans 2:14). Failure to obey these commandments will bring down the covenant curses upon all those who disobey them (Romans 3:19-20). Fail to obey a single commandment and we are guilty of breaking all of these commandments (James 2:10).

At the same time, God revealed the plans for a tabernacle (where God would be present in the midst of his people–Exodus 25:9), installed Moses as covenant mediator (Exodus 3:15), and gave the nation a priesthood complete with animal sacrifices to deal with the guilt of sin, all of which are elements of the covenant of grace and which pointed the people of God ahead to the coming of Jesus Christ, whose death upon the cross these elements prefigured (Hebrews 8:1-13).

Although the Ten Commandments reflect the will of God with blessings promised for obedience, and curses threatened for disobedience, the law is given to Israel within a covenant context in which God provides a means for the guilt of the sins of the people to be remitted (the sacrifices), all the while pointing them ahead to the coming of Jesus Christ—Israel’s great high, final prophet, all conquering king, and mediator of the covenant of grace. The law and the gospel, while to be carefully distinguished, are often revealed together. The commandments serve to show the people of God the guilt of their sin (Galatians 3:10-14), while at the same time preparing them for the coming of Jesus Christ, their Messiah and redeemer.

As Paul puts it, “for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), while the gospel is the message of what Jesus Christ has done to save us from our sins (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). The law is to be obeyed, while the gospel is to be embraced through faith. The gospel is the declaration of all that God has done to save sinners from the guilt and consequences of their sin (Romans 10:14-17). The law condemns and gives no power to obey its stipulations. The gospel declares that the law no longer condemns those who trust in Jesus, and at the same time creates faith in the heart. We “obey” the gospel only in the sense of “believing” in the gospel (John 6:28-29).

The irony here is that because the gospel creates faith (Romans 10:17), it is the preaching of the gospel which leads God’s people into holy living (Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 3:2-14). The law is indeed holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), but because we are sinful, when the law is preached to us, we are incited to even greater levels of sin (Romans 7:5-12). But once we trust in Jesus Christ, and are united to him through faith (Galatians 5:17), we will struggle with our sins, we will realize that we have failed to keep God’s commandments, and then find ourselves desiring to obey the law (cf. Romans 7:22-23).

The content of the law does not change once we are justified through faith. Rather, it is our relationship to the law which changes. Before we were Christ’s, the law stood in judgment upon us, condemning us because we cannot keep it. The law inflicts its curse upon us. But once we trust in Christ as proclaimed in the gospel, we have died to the law and its curse, and suddenly we come alive to the commandments of God, which now reveal to us the will of God, and what we may do to please him (Psalm 1:1-2).

This is why the old theologians were correct when they affirmed that the law is both the teacher of sin, and the rule of gratitude. If we are not clear about the law-gospel distinction, we will not be clear about the gospel, and the fact that God has done everything in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.