What is Law/Gospel Distinction? | Theocast Clips

The Law and Gospel Distinction in Reformed Theology

Many people think that the law and gospel distinction is a Lutheran category only, and that is false. The distinction between the law and the gospel is also a reformed doctrine and a reformed category.

You can read any number of people, William Perkins, John Calhoun, I could name many others, right, who articulated these things, Theodore Beza, etc, etc, etc, that articulated what we are about to say.

The distinction between the law and the gospel spoken relatively simply is this, that in the Old and New Testaments, you have law and gospel in both. So there's law and gospel in the Old Testament. There's law and gospel in the New.

Whenever we read of what God requires of mankind for righteousness, that is law. Do this. Any kind of imperative, you need to do this for righteousness, that's law. Anytime we read of what Christ has done, that is then given to us, that we receive by faith, that's gospel.

So simple ways to remember this in your mind. Do is law. Done is gospel. Do this and live, Leviticus 18 5, Jesus in Luke 10, a number of other places. Paul picks this up in Galatians 3. We could go on there.

Do this and live, that's law. Christ has done it. Now live in him, that's gospel. Remember this too, that everything God requires in his law, he gives in his gospel. That's right. Last one, and then I'll throw it over to you.

The Law Demands and the Gospel Gives

Yeah. The law demands everything and gives nothing. The gospel demands nothing and gives everything. That's right. The law's standard is one of perfect, perpetual, personal obedience at a spiritual level.

Nothing else will meet its righteous requirements. And so it is all or nothing. Whereas in the gospel, the covenant of grace, right? So when we say law, we mean covenant of works, do this and live. When we say gospel, we mean covenant of grace, receive.

When it comes to the gospel piece, we don't do anything. We simply receive with an open hand what Jesus has done and are thereby saved. If you don't get the law and the gospel correct, then you're going to misinterpret a lot of scripture and it happens, Justin.

Jesus as the Greatest Preacher of the Law

We try and point this out quite often in our podcast that, for instance, when someone comes up to Jesus and says, what must I do to enter the kingdom? Jesus tells them what they must do. He does not give them the good news of what he's about to do.

He's like, if you want to know what you need to do, that's fine. If you come and ask me what I'll do for you, that's a whole nother answer. Now, all of the prostitutes and all the tax collectors came and asked Jesus that, what are you going to do for me, Jesus?

He's like, I'll save you. The righteous came judging him saying, who are you to say what we can and cannot do in the kingdom? He's like, because I am the king. Jesus was the greatest preacher of the law.

Pick Up Your Cross and Follow Me Is Not the Gospel

For instance, I'm not going to answer this to you now, but we answered in the Law Gospel podcast, when Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me, that's not the gospel. We'll do it. It's a debate going back hundreds and hundreds of years.

It goes back to Rome. This is where Rome collapsed the law and the gospel. This is what Martin Luther and the Reformers saw and have been fighting to rip it apart and put it on either side. Both are holy, both are necessary, both honor and glorify God, but one condemns you and one saves you.

It's important to understand the distinction between the two. Justin Perdue. That's exactly right.