The relationship betweenLaw and Gospel—God's Law and theGospel ofJesus Christ—is a major topic inLutheran andReformed theology. In theseProtestanttraditions, the distinction between the doctrines of Law, which demands obedience to God'sethical Will, and Gospel, which promises theforgiveness ofsins in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ, is critical. Ministers use it as ahermeneutical principle of biblical interpretation and as a guiding principle inhomiletics (sermon composition) andpastoral care. It involves thesupersession of theOld Covenant (including traditional Jewish law, orhalakha) by theNew Covenant andChristian theology.
Other Christian groups have a view on the issue as well, or more generallyviews of the Old Covenant, though the matter has not usually been as hotly debated or rigorously defined as in theLutheran andReformed traditions.
Sometimes the issue is discussed under the headings of "Law andGrace", "Sin and Grace", "Spirit and Letter", and "ministry (διακονíα,'diakonia') of death/condemnation" and "ministry of the Spirit/righteousness".[1]
TheLutheran Churches divide Mosaic Law into three components: the (1) moral law, (2) civil law, (3) ceremonial law.[2] While the civil law (that governed Israel) was applicable to that theocracy and the ceremonial law (that prescribed the ritual for the Jews) was applicable until the arrival of Jesus, the moral law as contained in theTen Commandments remains in force today for Christians.[2]
A specific formulation of the distinction of Law and Gospel was first brought to the attention of the Christian Church byMartin Luther (1483–1546), and laid down as the foundation of evangelicalLutheran biblical exegesis and exposition in Article 4 of theApology of the Augsburg Confession (1531): "All Scripture ought to be distributed into these two principal topics, the Law and the promises. For in some places it presents the Law, and in others the promise concerning Christ, namely, either when [in theOld Testament] it promises that Christ will come, and offers, for His sake, the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal, or when, in the Gospel [in theNew Testament], Christ Himself, since He has appeared, promises the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal."[3] TheFormula of Concord likewise affirmed this distinction in Article V, where it states: "We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be maintained in the Church with great diligence..."[4]
Martin Luther wrote: "Hence, whoever knows well this art of distinguishing between Law and Gospel, him place at the head and call him a doctor of Holy Scripture."[5] Throughout theLutheran Age of Orthodoxy (1580–1713) this hermeneutical discipline was considered foundational and important by Lutheran theologians.
This distinction was the first article inPatrick`s Places (1528) byPatrick Hamilton.[6]
Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (1811–1887), who was the first (and third) president of theLutheran Church–Missouri Synod, renewed interest in and attention to this theological skill in his evening lectures at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis 1884–1885.[7]
TheFormula of Concord distinguished three uses, or purposes, in the Law in Article VI. It states: "[T]he Law was given to men for three reasons ..."
The primary concern was to maintain that the Law should continue to be used by Christians after they had beenregenerated by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel to counter the doctrine ofJohannes Agricola, who taught that theLaw was no longer needed by regenerate Christians."[8][9]Confessional Lutheranism teaches that the Law cannot be used to deny the Gospel, neither can the Gospel be used to deny God's Law.[10] With regard to the third use of the law, the Lutheran priestDietrich Bonhoeffer said that it functions "as God's merciful help in the performance of the works which are commanded."[11]
The threeuses of the Law are:
The distinction between law and gospel is a standard formulation inReformed theology, though in recent years some have characterized it as distinctively Lutheran.[14]Zacharias Ursinus sharply distinguished the law and gospel as "the chief and general divisions of the holy scriptures" in his commentary on theHeidelberg Catechism.[15]Louis Berkhof called the law and the gospel "the two parts of the Word of God as ameans of grace," since law and Gospel are found in both testaments.[16]
In his 1536 bookInstitutes of the Christian Religion, the ReformerJohn Calvin distinguished three uses in the Law. Calvin wrote the following: "[T]o make the whole matter clearer, let us survey briefly the function and use of what is called the 'moral law.' Now, so far as I understand it, it consists of three parts."
This scheme is the same as theFormula of Concord, with the exception that the first and second uses are switched.
In laterReformed scholasticism the order is the same as for Lutherans. The three uses are called:
TheHeidelberg Catechism, in explaining the third use of the Law, teaches that the moral law as contained in theTen Commandments is binding for Christians and that it instructs Christians how to live in service to God in gratitude for His grace shown in redeeming mankind.[18] John Calvin deemed this third use of the Law as its primary use.[18]
Scholastic Lutheran and Reformed theologians differed primarily on the way in which the third use of the law functions for believers. The Reformed emphasized the third use (tertius usus legis) because the redeemed are expected to beargood works. The Lutheran Churches teach that God rewards good works done by Christians; theApology of the Augsburg Confession declares: "We also affirm what we have often said, that although justification and eternal life go along with faith, nevertheless, good works merit other bodily and spiritual rewards and degrees of reward. According to 1 Corinthians 3:8, 'Each will receive his wages according to his labor.'"[19]
John Warwick Montgomery states:[11]
Whether or not the formulation of a didactic use of the Law first appeared in Melanchthon (Helmut Thielicke [Theologische Ethik] and others have eloquently argued for its existence in Luther's own teaching; cf. Edmund Schlink,Theology of the Lutheran Confessions), there is no doubt that it became an established doctrine both in Reformation Lutheranism and in Reformation Calvinism. One finds it clearly set out in the LutheranFormula of Concord (Art. VI) and inCalvin's Institutes (II, vii, 12 ff.). It is true that for Luther the pedagogic use of the Law was primary, while for Calvin this third or didactic use was the principal one; yet both the Lutheran and the Reformed traditions maintain the threefold conceptualization.[11]
John Wesley admonishedMethodist preachers to emphasize both the Law and the Gospel:[20]
Undoubtedly both should be preached in their turn; yea, both at once, or both in one. All the conditional promises are instances of this. They are law and gospel mixed together. According to this model, I should advise every preacher continually to preach the law—the law grafted upon, tempered by, and animated with the spirit of the gospel. I advise him to declare explain, and enforce every command of God. But meantime to declare in every sermon (and the more explicitly the better) that the flint and great command to a Christian is, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ': that Christ is all in all, our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; that all life, love, strength are from Him alone, and all freely given to us through faith. And it will ever be found that the law thus preached both enlightens and strengthens the soul; that it both nourishes and teaches; that it is the guide, 'food, medicine, and stay' of the believing soul.[20]
Methodism makes a distinction between the ceremonial law and the moral law that is theTen Commandments given to Moses.[21] In Methodist Christianity, the moral law is the "fundamental ontological principle of the universe" and "is grounded in eternity", being "engraved on human hearts by the finger of God."[21] In contradistinction to the teaching of the Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Churches bring the Law and the Gospel together in a profound sense: "the law is grace and through it we discover the good news of the way life is intended to be lived."[21] John Wesley, the father of the Methodist tradition taught:[21]
... there is no contrariety at all between the law and the gospel; ... there is no need for the law to pass away in order to the establishing of the gospel. Indeed neither of them supersedes the other, but they agree perfectly well together. Yea, the very same words, considered in different respects, are parts both of the law and the gospel. If they are considered as commandments, they are parts of the law: if as promises, of the gospel. Thus, 'Thou shalt love the Lord the God with all thy heart,' when considered as a commandment, is a branch of the law; when regarded as a promise, is an essential part of the gospel-the gospel being no other than the commands of the law proposed by way of promises. Accordingly poverty of spirit, purity of heart, and whatever else is enjoined in the holy law of God, are no other, when viewed in a gospel light, than so many great and precious promises. There is therefore the closest connection that can be conceived between the law and the gospel. On the one hand the law continually makes way for and points us to the gospel; on the other the gospel continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law .... We may yet further observe that every command in Holy Writ is only a covered promise. (Sermon 25, "Sermon on the Mount, V," II, 2, 3)[21]
Certain recurring grammatical patterns in theOld Testament[22] and in theNew[23] involving the sequencing ofimperative andindicativepredicates are taken bytheologians as central to the relationship between Law and Gospel.Daniel Defoe discusses three pairs of these predicates in his second and final sequel toRobinson Crusoe,Serious Reflections (1720): "forbear and live", "do and live", "believe and live". According to Defoe, the first was established with Adam in paradise, the second as the Law with the children of Israel, and the third as the Gospel of Jesus Christ[24]
However Luther viewed all imperative commands as law, even the command to believe the Gospel. InThe Bondage of the Will he writes,
"[T]he commands exist to show, not our moral ability, but our inability. This includes God's command of all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, an impossible act of will apart from a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit uniting us to Christ .." p. 149
We embrace a parallel principle in our division of God's word into law and gospel. The law (e.g., "God hates sinners," Psalm 5:5) cannot be used to deny the gospel ("God loves sinners," John 3:16), neither can the gospel be used to deny the law. Law passages teach the law, while gospel passages teach the gospel.
Lutheran
Reformed
Lutherans and Reformed in Dialogue
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