The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Law and Gospel

What is the different ways that a Presbyterian and a Lutheran would look at the Law and Gospel in the Bible?

Here is the Lutheran definition of the Law:

Therefore [we shall set forth our meaning:] we unanimously believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a divine doctrine, in which the righteous, immutable will of God is revealed, what is to be the quality of man in his nature, thoughts, words, and works, in order that he may be pleasing and acceptable to God; and it threatens its transgressors with God's wrath and temporal and eternal punishments. For as Luther writes against the law-stormers [Antinomians]: Everything that reproves sin is and belongs to the Law, whose peculiar office it is to reprove sin and to lead to the knowledge of sins, Rom. 3:20,7:7; and as unbelief is the root and well-spring of all reprehensible sins [all sins that must be censured and reproved], the Law reproves unbelief also.

And from the same the definition of the Gospel:

For everything that comforts, that offers the favor and grace of God to transgressors of the Law, is, and is properly called, the Gospel, a good and joyful message that God will not punish sins, but forgive them for Christ's sake.

Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord: Law and Gospel

Thanks Peter but I wanted the different ways the "Reformed" and the Lutherans look at the law and gospel. Iv heard 1st hand Lutherans say that every verse in the Bible is either Law or Gospel.


SDG,

Dan

Presbo,

First, let me state that the historically orthodox Lutheran understanding of the distinction between Law & Gospel is not fundamentally different from the historically orthodox Reformed position. The Law consists of the commandments of God, which reveal our duties toward God & toward our fellowman. It has three uses:

• First, to show us our sin (pedagogical);
• Second, to restrain evil in society (civil); and
• Third, to teach us how to live a life pleasing to God (didactic).

(Lutherans would reverse the order of the 1st & 2nd uses.)

It is important to note that the Law is never a means or way of obtaining salvation. The Law has to do with justice, & it never gives grace; the Gospel has to do with grace, & it supercedes justice.

For Luther & the Lutherans, the first or pedagogical use of the Law is of primary importance, because it shows us our need for the Gospel. For Calvin & the historical Reformed tradition, greater emphasis is laid on the third or didactic use of the Law. The Law is the way by which we come to know the perfection of Christ, and thus it is through obedience to the Law, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we become sanctified & conformed to the image of the Savior.

It mostly boils down to a difference of emphasis, as far as the historical orthodox positions of the two camps go.

However, especially in recent years, many Lutherans have questioned whether Luther himself allowed for the third use of the Law. They posit a stong opposition between Law & Gospel that they find no positive role for the Law in their own lives, to the point that Law becomes strictly a negative thing which convicts us of sin. This idea has been creeping into Reformed circles as well -- so much the worse, as it can only lead to practical antinomianism.