I have been drawn to the topic of law and gospel lately. Growing up spiritually I was never instructed on the proper relationship between these two. Trying make sense of them with out completely separating them has been quite difficult. So I have been reading on this subject lately. To find out that these two are not opposed to each other but in fact quite complementary to each other has been a joy.
Bryan Gumpy and I have been reading a book together on this very subject. Michael Horton's "The Law of Perfect Freedom" has been a refreshing read thus far. Here is how he defines law and gospel.
“Law” does not equal “Old Testament”, while “grace” or “gospel” equals the New Testament. “Law” refers to any command, from Genesis to Revelation. “Gospel” refers to any place in either testament where the promise of salvation by grace alone through faith alone is found. The law tells us what we ought to do, and this leads us to despair of meeting God’s standard. Then the gospel tells us what God has done for us already in Christ, meeting the standard as our substitute and taking our punishment on Himself so that we could be regarded as righteous.
This is so helpful in understanding the way that the Testaments should be read and understood. Like the belief that God has always had one covenant people called the Elect (not separating Israel and the Church) brings unity between the to testaments so does this understanding of law and gospel. The Bible is a unified unified revelation of God. Any theology that amputates the Old from the New Testament is a deficient theology. I love the unity that is found in God's Word. The more I look the more I see it everywhere.
1 comments:
I agree. And I couldn't say this any better so in the words of Ray Comfort:
Paradox though it may seem, the Law does make Grace abound in the same way darkness makes light shine. It was John Newton (the writer of "Amazing Grace") who said that a wrong understanding of the harmony between Law and Grace would produce "error on the left and the right hand." I don't know if any of us could claim to have a better understanding of Grace than the one who penned such a wonderful hymn. The world will never clearly see the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, until the blackness of sin is explicitly painted on the canvas of a just and holy Law. When a Christian sees what he has been saved from, he will realize what he has been saved for. He will have a love for God, for the unspeakable gift of the cross. It will be a continual source of joy. Gratitude will motivate him to reach out and do the will of God, to seek and save that which is lost. That is the key to genuine church growth, and that is how to see revival.
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