¶ Law and Gospel
Law and Gospel are God’s commands and God’s saving promise.
The law came in to increase the trespass,
but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone who believes.
Do not turn the command into the promise, or the promise into a new yoke.
The Law tells what God requires. The Gospel tells what God has done in Christ for sinners who cannot meet it. Paul says the law is holy, and that by works of the law no one will be justified. The promise to Abraham came before the law, and the law did not annul it. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The church still hears the command. It does not offer the command as the way to be righteous before God.
- Moses is the law’s servant. Christ is the promise’s fulfillment. John says the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
- The law increases the trespass so that grace may be seen as grace. It is not a rival gospel.
- A believer is not under the law as the covenant of justification. Love still fulfills the law’s aim. Freedom is not a permit for the flesh.
Command and promise stay distinct. The law exposes. The gospel gives Christ. Do not preach the command as if it were the promise.
By works of the law no human being will be justified.
The law came in to increase the trespass.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
- Law is God’s command. Gospel is God’s saving promise in Christ.
- Paul says the law is holy, and that it cannot justify.
- The promise to Abraham stands. The later law did not cancel it.
- Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- The church still obeys. Obedience is not the ground of righteousness.
- Mixing them turns the command into a yoke or the promise into a license.
¶ Key Aspects of Law and Gospel
- The Law – What God requires.
- The Gospel – What God gives in Christ.
- The Use – The law exposes the trespass.
- The End – Christ, for righteousness, to everyone who believes.
- The Order – Promise before Sinai.
- The Guard – Do not make one into the other.
- Romans 3:20 – “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
- Romans 5:20 – “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
- Romans 10:4 – “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
- Galatians 3:17-18 – “The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.”
- John 1:17 – “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
By works of the law no human being will be justified.
The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Keep the command and the promise distinct. The law exposes. The gospel gives Christ. Do not preach one as the other.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.