The Bible is About God's Agenda, Not Yours (Part 3)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:17
For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at how we misuse the Bible to promote our own agendas. This last one is perhaps the most vital to understand. A great Lutheran theologian, C. F. W. Walther wrote a whole book about The Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel. Actually, it was a series of lectures given to seminary students recorded by some of his pupils.
#3 YOU CONFUSE LAW AND GOSPEL
The Bible contains two main teachings of God. The law tells us what God commands us to do and what God forbids us from doing. It tells us what reward we will receive if we obey and what punishment we will receive if we disobey.
On the other hand, the gospel only promises. God’s law demands perfection. Though we fail to be perfect, God’s gospel promises perfection and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
Keeping God’s law and gospel separate is difficult. To start again with the most glaring example of error, we only need to look to those who teach that both the gospel and the law are necessary for salvation. That is, that though we are saved by Christ, we must complete our own salvation with good works. Do you see what happens then? The gospel is gone, because if salvation depends on my works, the promise does me no good. “If by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6).
But confusing law and gospel is more than just saying works are necessary for salvation. It is also calling gospel that which is actually law. 1 Corinthians 13 is a prime example of that.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
We see that word “love” and immediately think that’s gospel. Indeed, it is God’s love for us shown most clearly in Jesus Christ our Savior that motivates us to love. BUT, if we say that our love for others, commanded by God, is gospel, then we have made our love a condition of God’s love for us. Then God loves because we love and not, as Scripture states, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
But calling law and gospel by the wrong names is not the last way to confuse law and gospel either. We also confuse them by emphasizing the law over the gospel. The gospel of salvation is the chief teaching of the Bible. Yes, both God’s law and his gospel are found in Scripture. Yes, they both have divine origin. But the law serves the gospel. The law is not the master nor are they equals.
The law serves the gospel in two ways. First, it reveals our sin to us (Romans 3:20), so that we see our need for salvation outside of ourselves. Second, because the gospel motivates us to love (1 John 4:19), God's law teaches us how to show our love to him and to our neighbor.
Let’s make it clear what’s meant by emphasizing the law over the gospel. It’s not that the gospel isn’t preached at all. It’s that it becomes a secondary teaching to the law. It’d be like a sandwich with two thick fluffy pieces of bread and one slice of thinly-cut deli meat. Yeah, the meat is there, but you can barely taste it through all that bread.
Overemphasis on the law shows up in one of two ways. The first way is fire and brimstone preaching. 95% of the sermon is spent on how bad the sinner is. How much they deserve hell. How they better shape up and fly right or they’ll miss out on salvation. Then at the end, the gospel comes in out of nowhere to save the day. But with all that emphasis on the law, the sinner is left wondering whether they really can be saved. Finally, the desire to be saved comes more from trying to escape hell than from the promise made by God.
The second way is taking the gospel for granted. Taking for granted the fact that because the listener is Christian, they already know Jesus died for their sins, and they don’t really hunger for forgiveness. What they hunger for is direction. Such preaching tells the branches of the tree to bear fruit without first watering the roots. Such preaching causes spiritual starvation. What people need chiefly and daily is the truth that their sins are indeed forgiven.
It is so easy to fall into the trap of emphasizing law over gospel because we want to see fruits in ourselves and in others. We still want to do, do, do. But we need to understand why we want to do what God commands.
It is not out of obligation. If it is out of obligation, then we still think that we must earn God’s love.
It is not because it is simply the right thing to do. “Be good for goodness’ sake.”
It is because of God’s great love for us. Aha! God’s great love for us is the gospel. The gospel motivates us to return thanks to God by obeying his commands (1 John 5:3). The again serves the gospel-motivated heart by giving instruction on how to love God back.
Keeping the proper distinction between law and gospel is essential. The gospel frees us from the burden of the law. It frees us from the burden of guilt for not doing everything the law commands. It keeps us from relying on our own works, from trusting in our own subjective experience. It proclaims Christ who died for our sins and promises us eternal life in heaven. Now, because Christ has given us eternal security, “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).