Last week, we investigated Martin Luther’s teaching on the Law-Gospel (Grace) distinction as presented by Dr. Hans
Wiersma, a Lutheran theologian. Wiersma followed up their comments with what he called “guidelines” to understanding them. Here they are, word-for-word:
“1. Keep in mind that the Word of God is (a) very sharp and (b) is stickin’ it to you. Yeah, that’s in the Bible: ‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NRSV).
You may think that you are reading the word of God in scripture or hearing the Word of God in a sermon. In reality, as you are reading or hearing it, the Word of God is acting upon you, doing a number on you. Understood in terms of Law and Gospel, the Word of God is (a) PUTTING SINNERS TO DEATH with the unremitting pronouncement of commandments and punishments—including the punishment of death—and (b) RAISING UP SAINTS with the unrelenting pronouncement of the unmerited grace, forgiveness, and new and eternal life given in Jesus Christ.
2.Remember that Law and Gospel are necessarily related and therefore cannot be separated. This is why Lutheran Christians prefer to talk about “distinguishing” or “discerning” Law and Gospel, rather than separating Law from Gospel. Just as the words of the Bible are bound up into a single authoritative and holy scripture, so, too, are the words of law and gospel bound up into a single divine Word that does what God wants it to do (see Isaiah 55:11-12). Biblically speaking, faithfully confessing, you can neither have law without gospel, nor gospel without law. If you read and apply the word of God as law only, you get legalism. If you read and apply the word of God as gospel only, you get antinomianism (the belief that the law has no use).
3. Do not confuse Law and Gospel. The previous sentence is intentionally stated as a law (rather than a guideline). Perhaps even more dangerous than separating Law from Gospel is confusing the Law with the Gospel, or vice versa. Confusing Law and Gospel has the result of replacing faith in Christ’s work with faith in one’s own work—which amounts to no faith at all.
One common way in which law and gospel are confused is when we imagine that we make ourselves eternally right with God by deciding to do what God wants us to do. For example, in a popular religious tract called the “Four Spiritual Laws” it is insisted that one must “receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.”[3] Such a “law” appears to make faith ultimately a matter of our own doing. Lutherans instead insist (with the Apostle Paul) that “by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NRSV).
4. Look for how Law and Gospel function literally. Law and Gospel can be discerned in the message of the Bible or in the message of the preacher or, really, in any kind of message. Wherever and however you encounter a message, ask: what is the literal sense? Is that message worded as a command? Is it telling me to do something? Does it contain a quid pro quo (“If you do X, then you’ll get Y”)? Is there an implied consequence for not heeding the message? If so, you are likely dealing with the law.
On the other hand, if the message declares that something good is going to happen, something to your benefit, and that the promised blessing does not depend on your attitude or activity, then you are almost certainly dealing with a word of grace, that is, unearned favor, that is, Gospel.
5. Look for how Law and Gospel function functionally. Beyond the literal (or literary) meaning of a message lies a functional meaning. The ways in which words function often depend upon context. “I love you” can mean one thing when said over a candlelit dinner; “I love you” can mean something else when said just after the words, “Honey, I totaled the car.” Take, for example, the so-called “Gospel in a Nutshell”: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NRSV). Literally, the words sound like pure Gospel to those who believe: God gave his son so that they will not perish. But to those who do not believe, the words can function as law: “I guess I should believe…or else.”
6. Tell the difference between Law and Gospel. You’ll note that throughout this little essay, the phrase “tell the difference between Law and Gospel” has been used. Usually, when you are asked if you can tell the difference between two things you are really just being asked whether you know or understand the difference between two things.
But when you are being asked to tell the difference between Law and Gospel, you are being asked to do more than merely know or understand the difference. In addition, you are being asked literally to tell it—to speak it, talk about it, declare it, proclaim it! For Lutheran Christians, telling the difference between Law and Gospel especially means preaching the difference between Law and Gospel. For when you preach it, faith will come (Romans 10:14-17).”
That concludes this excellent article that represents what Martin Luther and today’s traditional Lutherans believe about Law and Gospel. I found it in Lutheran Theology: An On-Line Journal, 26 April, 2011.
It’s fascinating to me how “salvation by grace alone” is almost impossible to really believe. After writing a powerful, insightful, life-changing article, in his last point, I believe Wiersma himself falls prey to putting a “hook in grace.”
He has just preached the gospel powerfully. However, rather than leave this gospel to do its work naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU), he could not restrain himself from exhorting his readers, now that they KNOW the Law-Gospel distinction for themselves, to “do something”—be “preaching the difference…,” i.e., WITNESSING! This is a classic example of us still being hooked on the drug of “knowing good and evil for ourselves,” that we fell for in the first place in Adam, at the Tree in the Garden
The subject of Wiersma’s article is the basis for the name of my ministry, Two Edges of the Sword. This Law-Grace, (or Kingdom-Gospel) distinction is foundational to our faith. We will explore its ramifications in our three Kingdom institutions (family, church and civil government) in coming weeks.
