"The Law is for the proud and the Gospel for the brokenhearted." - Martin Luther
"When God gives orders and tells us what will happen if we fail to obey those orders perfectly, that is in the category of what the reformers, following the biblical text, called law. When God promises freely, providing for us because of Christ's righteousness the status he demands of us, this is in the category of gospel. It is good news from start to finish. The Bible includes both, and the reformers were agreed that the Scriptures taught clearly that the law, whether Old or New Testament commands, was not eliminated for the believer (those from a Dispensational background may notice a difference here). Nevertheless, they insisted that nothing in this category of law could be a means of justification or acceptance before a holy God ... The law comes, not to reform the sinner nor to show him or her the "narrow way" to life, but to crush the sinner's hopes of escaping God's wrath through personal effort or even cooperation. All of our righteousness must come from someone else-someone who has fulfilled the law's demands. Only after we have been stripped of our "filthy rags" of righteousness (Isa. 64:6)- our fig leaves through which we try in vain to hide our guilt and shame-can we be clothed with Christ's righteousness. First comes the law to proclaim judgment and death, then the gospel to proclaim justification and life. One of the clearest presentations of this motif is found in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. In the sixteenth century, the issue of law and grace was more clearly dealt with than at almost any other time since the apostles."
Jesus came to fullfill the law.By grace we are redeemed to freely get salvation and entrance into heaven.By the blood of jesus we are redeemed forever.The law shows use the errors of our ways and jesus redeems us.Dennis
"The law vs. The gospel" topic has been seen in a new light in recent years --- most notably in what has been called "The New Perspective on Paul." The most noted thinkers of oppeosing views are John Piper, a "traditional Reformed/Calvinist thinker" and N.T. Wright. Piper is Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, has written The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright." N.T. Wright is Bishop of Durham, The Church of England, and author of "Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision.
"Here's a Christianity Today link "The Justification Debate: A Primer"
Excerpted from the above: (On First-Century Judaism)
PIPER: Many Jews in Jesus' day (like the Pharisees described in the Gospels) did not see the need for a substitute in order to be right with God, but sought to establish their own righteousness through "works of the Law." Whether keeping Sabbath or not committing adultery, these works became the basis of one's right standing with God. The inclination to rely on one's own ceremonial and moral acts is universal, apart from divine grace.
WRIGHT: Jews in Jesus' day believed that the Law was given to them as people who were already in covenant with God. Therefore, the Law was not viewed as a way to earn God's favor, but as a sign that one was already in covenant with God. The "works of the Law" are not ways to earn favor with God, but badges of covenant identity by which one determines who is in the covenant and who is not. Many Jews in Paul's day were clinging to these identity markers (Sabbath, circumcision) in a way that made their Jewish identity exclusive. Therefore, their exclusivism was keeping the promise of God from flowing to the nations (END CT ARTICLE QUOTATION).
Like Wright, I believe Martin Luther and other Reformers "read their experience into Paul" and misunderstood him as a result. Luther most particularly confused the "righteousness" he was trying to attain to as an unconverted Catholic monk -- in or by the "righteous works" of his Catholic variety -- with what Paul meant by works of the Law. In other words, Wright's view (and mine) is that believers in God, whether Jews under the Law (B.C.) or believing Christians since Christ came DIDN'T "try to BECOME righteous by obeying the Law." On the contrary, they obeyed the Law (that is, GOD) because this is what God's Covenant People "DO." So Wright's view (and mine) does not see the The Law and The Gospel as being *opposed* to one another in terms of "how one BECOMES righteous." Rather, those who have been justified in Christ (and are, thus, are DECLARED by God to be in covenant with Him) simply seek to obey God as His Covenant Members always have. Thanks!
