Our recent series on the “Walking Together Sunday” service seems to have caused quite a ruckus. Some were offended that published materials and public practice would be considered open to critique. Many others recognized the need for such critique and resonated with our criticism. Of central concern throughout the series was the proper handling of God’s Word, whether it rightly divided Law and Gospel. This, for many laymen, prompts a question. We hear this term “Law & Gospel” bandied about as a Lutheran distinctive and preaching requirement. Why is it important? Why is it necessary?
To teach Justification, Law and Gospel must both be taught and be properly dividedAlthough it is likely a composite of many related quotations, Luther is credited with stating the following: “Justification by faith alone is the article by which the Church stands or falls.” There is little question that the Reformation itself hinged on this essential doctrine. Rome had added works of the Law to the Gospel, teaching a form of synergism called
infused grace, by which man is imbued with a divine animating force making him capable of cooperating with the Holy Spirit in obtaining and maintaining his Justification. Quoting from the Council of Trent (1547), today’s Catholic Catechism reads:
Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:
‘When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight’ [Council of Trent (1547): DS 1525.]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1993, (emphasis mine).
In the Roman Catholic understanding, God’s grace is not “unmerited favor”, as we Lutherans teach, but is
infused as an animating force enabling Christians to perform meritorious works that are necessary for salvation. We hear Baptists and Pentecostals often speak this way as well: “God has given me the grace to do/think/say this, that or the other thing.” Thus, according to Rome, the Holy Spirit enables man to accept God's Word and perform the works of charity necessary to move himself toward justice in God's sight; but apart from His enabling, mankind could never fulfill his obligation to do so. This is a doctrine of
synergism.
Understanding the Roman definition of "charity" illuminates this further.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (
#1965 - #1974) defines “charity” as the
“Law of the Gospel”. It is the father of all virtues (
#1826 - #1827), including the other two theological virtues, faith and hope, (
#1814 - #1818), all three of which are
infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being (#1813, emphasis mine).
Rome teaches that the theological virtues are the foundation of all Christian moral activity -- the manifestation of infused grace -- but that the theological virtue of charity stands above them all as the
Law of the Gospel, which man must obey in order to merit eternal salvation. For the Roman, “Love” is a command which must be obeyed in order to secure eternity, it is made a burden, and becomes a lash with which to coercively whip fellow Christians.
For the conscientious Christian, who practices self-examination and is aware of his sin, his inability to perform the works of the Law is regularly manifest. Tortured under the requirements of the Law, Rome taught Christians to “trust the Church” in order to assuage their guilt and give them assurance of their salvation. With their minds and souls captive to the institution, Rome was free to engage in various methods and programs, declared “necessary” for various reasons, which further captivated Christians while providing for Rome’s financial stability: purgatory, indulgences, dietary restrictions, veneration of the saints and their relics, etc. False doctrine, in addition to tormenting souls, thus served corruption as well.
The corrective, of course, was the true teaching of Scripture. Suffering terrors of conscience under the impossible burden of the Law, Luther was directed to the Bible, where he read
[A] man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ... for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. ...I do not frustrate the the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain (Ga. 2:16-21)
Rather than trusting in the Church, Luther was directed by the Scriptures to trust in Christ, fully and completely. Further, he was shown that in order for Justification to be taught correctly, in order for man to make Christ the
sole object of his faith rather than also trusting the Church or his own efforts, the Law had to be stripped from it entirely. That isn’t to say that the Law was not to be taught. On the contrary, in order to understand Justification properly, it was necessary that the message of the Law precede it. In other words, Justification cannot be preached properly unless Law is distinguished and kept separate from the Gospel, and the Gospel has no application unless it follows the message of the Law.
And this is clear from the Confessions:
[I]t was very foolish for the adversaries to write that men who are under eternal wrath merit the remission of sins by an act of love, which springs from their mind, since it is impossible to love God, unless the remission of sins be apprehended first by faith. For the heart, truly feeling that God is angry, cannot love God, unless He be shown to have been reconciled. As long as He terrifies us, and seems to cast us into eternal death, human nature is not able to take courage, so as to love a wrathful, judging, and punishing God... It is easy for idle men to feign such dreams concerning love, as, that a person guilty of mortal sin can love God above all things, because they do not feel what the wrath or judgment of God is. But in agony of conscience and in conflicts [with Satan], conscience experiences the emptiness of these philosophical speculations. Paul says, Ro. 4:15: The Law worketh wrath. He does not say that by the Law men merit the remission of sins. For the Law always accuses and terrifies consciences. Therefore it does not justify, because conscience terrified by the Law flees from the judgment of God. Therefore they err who trust that by the Law, by their own works, they merit the remission of sins... (AC:IV:36-39)
[T]hey condemn us, for teaching that men obtain remission of sins not because of their own merits, but freely for Christ's sake, through faith in Christ... For they condemn us both for denying that men obtain remission of sins because of their own merits, and for affirming that, through faith, men obtain remission of sins, and through faith in Christ are justified. But since in this controversy the chief topic of Christian doctrine is treated, which, understood aright, illumines and amplifies the honor of Christ [which is of especial service for the clear, correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible], and brings necessary and most abundant consolation to devout consciences, we ask His Imperial Majesty to hear us with forbearance in regard to matters of such importance. For since the adversaries understand neither what the remission of sins, nor what faith, nor what grace, nor what righteousness is, they sadly corrupt this topic, and obscure the glory and benefits of Christ, and rob devout consciences of the consolations offered in Christ. But that we may strengthen the position of our Confession, and also remove the charges which the adversaries advance against us, certain things are to be premised in the beginning, in order that the sources of both kinds of doctrine, i.e., both that of our adversaries and our own, may be known.
All Scripture ought to be distributed into these two principal topics, the Law and the promises. For in some places it presents the Law, and in others the promise concerning Christ, namely, either when [in the Old Testament] it promises that Christ will come, and offers, for His sake, the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal, or when, in the Gospel [in the New Testament], Christ Himself, since He has appeared, promises the remission of sins, justification, and life eternal. Moreover, in this discussion, by Law we designate the Ten Commandments, wherever they are read in the Scriptures...
Of these two parts the adversaries select the Law, because human reason naturally understands, in some way, the Law (for it has the same judgment divinely written in the mind); [the natural law agrees with the law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments] and by the Law they seek the remission of sins and justification. (AC:IV:1-7)
...Because, therefore, men by their own strength cannot fulfill the Law of God, and all are under sin, and subject to eternal wrath and death, on this account we cannot be freed by the Law from sin and be justified, but the promise of the remission of sins and of justification has been given us for Christ's sake, who was given for us in order that He might make satisfaction for the sins of the world, and has been appointed as the [only] Mediator and Propitiator. And this promise has not the condition of our merits... but freely offers the remission of sins and justification as Paul says Rom. 11:6: If it be of works, then is it no more grace. And in another place, Rom. 3:21: The righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, i.e., the remission of sins is freely offered. Nor does reconciliation depend upon our merits. Because if the remission of sins were to depend upon our merits, and reconciliation were from the Law, it would be useless. For as we do not fulfill the Law, it would also follow that we would never obtain the promise of reconciliation. Thus Paul reasons, Rom. 4:14: For if they which are of the Law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. For if the promise would require the condition of our merits and the Law, which we never fulfill, it would follow that the promise would be useless.
But since justification is obtained through the free promise it follows that we cannot justify ourselves. Otherwise wherefore would there be need to promise? [And why should Paul so highly extol and praise grace?] For since the promise cannot be received except by faith, the Gospel which is properly the promise of the remission of sins and of justification for Christ's sake, proclaims the righteousness of faith in Christ, which the Law does not teach. (AC:IV:40-43)
C.F.W. Walther, quoting Luther and Chemnitz, states the matter just as directly:
Commenting on Ga. 3:19, Luther says (St.L. Ed. IX, 415): “If the Gospel is not fundamentally and plainly set apart from the Law, it is impossible to keep the Christian doctrine unadulterated. Again, when this distinction has been correctly and firmly established, we can have a fine and correct knowledge of the manner how, and by what means, we are to become righteous in the sight of God...” In conclusion, Chemnitz writes in his Chapters on Theology (Loci Theologici), in the chapter on Justification: “Paul states distinctly that the righteousness which is valid in the sight of God is revealed in the Gospel, apart from the Law. Hence the principal matter in this inquiry regarding justification is that the true and proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel be fixed and carefully maintained... Is there any other light, besides the one furnished by the true distinction between the Law and the Gospel, that has so forcibly broken up the dense darkness of the Pope’s dominion?”... If this light is not carefully guarded, it will soon go out. For instance, we find that this light was still burning in the days when the earliest writings of the Church Fathers were composed. But in the writings of the ecclesiastical teachers who followed them no definite statement is found regarding the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. That is the reason why the Papacy, in a later age, made such rapid headway. The same danger is now threatening us.
Walther, C.F.W. (1986). The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (W.H.T. Dau, Trans.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. (Translation originally published 1928, original German work published 1897). pp. 65-67.
The centrality of the Doctrine of JustificationReturning again to Luther’s statement,
Justification by faith alone is the article by which the Church stands or falls, we begin to see the importance of Justification. The fact is, Justification is the
central article of faith in the Lutheran body of doctrine. All other teaching emanates from this doctrine, and returns to it.
In Lutheran theology the article of justification is the central, chief article by which the Christian doctrine and the Christian Church stands and falls; it is the apex of all Christian teaching. And in assigning to justification this central position the Lutheran Church did not follow its own wisdom, but the teaching of Scripture... In general, Paul preached “all the counsel of God” (Ac. 20:27). When he then declares that he preached Christ only, he asserts that all other doctrines which he preached stand in close relation to the central truth that men are saved without any merit of their own, by faith in the crucified Christ [Ro. 3:9,19; Ac. 10:43; 1 Co. 2:2]... In Scripture, all doctrines serve the doctrine of justification... The Christian doctrine as taken from Scripture, without any foreign admixture, is not a conglomeration of disconnected truths, but an unbroken harmonious unity in which justification by faith, without the deeds of the Law, stands in the center and all other doctrines are either antecedent or consequent to it.
Pieper, F. (1951). Christian Dogmatics (Vol. II; T. Engelder & T. Mueller, Trans.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. (Original work published in German, 1917). pp. 512-514.
There is no teaching of Lutheran Doctrine – that is, of true Christian doctrine – that can be taught apart from also teaching Justification. And only the message of Law and Gospel teaches Justification. Thus, Law and Gospel, properly divided and properly used and applied, is not only
central to all Lutheran preaching and teaching, it is
necessary to all Lutheran preaching and teaching.
In coming days, the teachings of the Law and of the Gospel will be adduced from Scripture, in detail.