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Law & Gospel
December 8th, 2009 by James GrantSeveral months ago Mark Jones and I were discussing the issues of law and gospel, as well as the conditionality of the covenant. I asked Mark some questions, and he has now posted some further thoughts on this at the blog Meet the Puritans.
Mark provides several quotes from Puritans demonstrating that many of them argued that the gospel was conditional and commanded us, but the most helpful quote in the article comes from Richard Gaffin in his book By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation. Gaffin explains:
“The gospel is to the end of removing an absolute law-gospel antithesis in the life of the believer. How so? Briefly, apart from the gospel and outside of Christ the law is my enemy and condemns me. Why? Because God is my enemy and condemns me. But with the gospel and in Christ, united to him by faith, the law is no longer my enemy but my friend. Why? Because now God is no longer my enemy but my friend, and the law, his will, the law in its moral core, as reflective of his character and of concerns eternally inherent in his own person and so of what pleases him, is now my friendly guide for life in fellowship with God” (By Faith, Not by Sight, 103).
In other words, the law-gospel distinction is not an end in and of itself. It will end. The goal, redemptively speaking, is to place us back into a proper relationship with God. The problem is that because we are sinners and still live in a fallen world, we turn this on its head and try to find approval with God through the law instead of seeing the law as a guide for our fellowship and enjoyment of God. I would encourage you to read Mark’s whole article here.
Posted in Gospel, Law of God | 4 Comments »
December 8th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Hey James, I haven’t read Mark’s post yet, but I agree with you.
When you say the “law/gospel” distinction will end, I still think we have to make a distinction.
It will end in the sense that one day we will be perfect law keepers. The gospel leads to perfect law keeping.
But, I would still say that in heaven, we will still be robed in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, which alone satisfies the requirements of God’s justice. Even in heaven, we will be redeemed sinners, although fully recovered by that point.
Thus, even in heaven, our right standing, our justification, will depend wholly on Christ’s law-righteousness.
That means the law/gospel distinction continues in heaven. Our perfect conformity to the law’s terms is actually our gospel-obedience, since the gospel repeats every command of the law, only it does so on the basis of faith in our Federal Head, surety, substitute law keeper, and mediator. Christ’s law-obedience is also the legal cause/basis of the Spirit’s work in us to conform us to the law’s terms and to keep us conformed to those terms, even in heaven.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I just read and thoroughly agree with Mark’s post. Theologically, the locus of the law-gospel distinction is justification. We are not justified by our law keeping (law) but by Christ’s law keeping alone (gospel).
But, the gospel is much bigger than justification. The gospel is the good news that God in His sovereign power, is putting to rights what was destroyed by sin. At the cosmic level, this means God will renew (and is renewing) all of creation and culture. At the individual level, this means that God unites the elect to Christ and grants them the double blessing (duplex beneficium) of justification AND sanctification. The gospel not only announces what God has done, it also announces what we are to do in response. All of that is the good news.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
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December 8th, 2009 at 6:45 pm