Transcribed and posted with permission.
"This transcription of "Rightly Dividing the Word:
Law and Gospel" is a
broadcast of the White Horse Inn radio program that originally aired on May
22, 2005 and is posted with permission. The White Horse Inn exists to equip
Christians to "know what you believe and why you believe it." For
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Rightly Dividing the Word: Law & Gospel
Shane Rosenthal: Hello
and welcome to another broadcast of the White Horse Inn. We’re in the middle of
a four part series on "How to Read the Bible." Which was taped before a live
studio audience in Los Angeles, California.
On this program the subject is
Rightly Dividing the Word: Law & Gospel. Now, here’s Michael Horton.
Michael Horton: Welcome
to the White Horse Inn. We are continuing our series on how to read the Bible.
Paul called Timothy to correctly divide the Word of God as one who "handles the
Word of truth properly." Not only are we called to "handle the Word of God" we
are called to handle the Word correctly. Essential to fulfilling that sacred
calling is the ability to properly distinguish between Law and Gospel—commands
and promises. As the famous Baptist, Pastor Charles Spurgeon once remarked "People
either tend to confuse Law and Gospel or emphasize one to the exclusion of the
other." So what do we mean by Law and Gospel and what’s the big deal about
distinguishing them without separating them? Are we just imposing theological
constructs on the Biblical text? What's this Law-Gospel business all about and
what difference does it make in our preaching of Scripture, our reading of
Scripture, and following of Scripture?
And our usual cast of characters is here to talk about this
important subject. Reverend Ken Jones is
patter...Pastor…Patter too… of Greater Union Baptist Church in Compton,
California. Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is pastor
of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, California.
Dr. Rod Rosenbladt is professor at Concordia
University and is Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod Minister. And I'm Mike Horton, I teach at Westminster Seminary California.
First of all out of the gate, what do we mean by Law and
Gospel? Because this is where a lot of mistakes are made, when people hear us
saying things that we are not saying. It starts out of the gate with
assumptions about the definition. What do we mean by Law and Gospel?
Ken Jones: Well
let me begin by stating something that I learned in my early years with the
White Horse Inn. A statement that you guys made that the Law is everything that
God commands and the Gospel is everything that God gives; and what He gives in
the Gospel is everything that He has demanded in the Law. I love that summary.
Michael Horton: So
in relation to our last program where we talked about the Covenantal
architecture of Scripture; how it moves historically through redemption with a
covenant of law/ do this and you shall live, and a covenant of promise/ live
and you will do this. That essentially what we are talking about here is the
difference between a covenant that is based on conditions—a Law covenant, and
conditions that we meet as opposed to a Gospel—a promise about what God will do
including giving us the faith and the
repentance and perseverance.
Kim Riddlebarger: Exactly
Rod Rosenbladt: And
one of the reasons this is worth doing with some degree of precision isn't just
for the calming of the Christian conscience as our introduction was; it isn't
just that. But think of it in terms of "it’s a basic and understandable distinction." This is not something
that’s rocket science. It is basically understandable. I remember when I was
first reading in Luther the great impact that the verse "the righteous shall
live by faith” and I could never figure out from the English rendering why that
had such an impact, and then somebody said well I think it’s a legitimate
translation to say "he who by faith is righteous, shall live." And my whole
understanding of it all of a sudden was better. "He who by faith is righteous,
will live." So it is worth doing the precision here because it's the difference
between being enslaved in a new way or if we understand it in a Reformation
way, maybe being free for the first time.
Michael Horton: Now,
do we mean, Law as Old Testament and Gospel as New Testament?
Kim Riddlebarger: That
was the point I was going to make, and I think it is really important to be
clear about this. You mentioned Mike, the overarching Covenant structure and
that's one of the differences between the way in which the Reformed who
historically who came about Law-Gospel versus the Lutherans, although in
practice it ends up being fairly similar. This means that if the overarching
structure of the Bible is Covenantal there will be Law in both the Old and the
New Testament and there will be Gospel in both the Old and New Testament. So in
the Old Testament you have the anticipation of God's promise being realized in
Christ. In the New you have that promise fulfilled in Christ active and in his
passive obedience—His fulfilling of all righteousness, His perfect obedience
that meets the demands of His Law—of His Covenant of Works. Plus you have
Christ offering himself up on the Cross in his passive obedience to pay for all
the times we didn't meet God’s righteous requirements.
So this means that Law and Gospel is to be understood in
both Testaments, not Law Old Testament and Gospel New Testament. This just
drives a stake through the heart of Dispensationalism which chops the Bible
into a series of seven separate economies that sees God relate to the human race
in the different way in each economy, so that you could say…I think it’s
dispensation number five…the Covenant of Grace…I used to know this by memory.
Dispensation five was the dispensation of Grace and this is our dispensation of
Law the dispensation of the Old Testament. So that you would hear people say, "Yeah Israel
and the Jews were saved by keeping the Law, and turn around to Hebrews 11 and
struggle with "by faith, by faith, by faith," of those same Old Testament
characters. And that’s what finally drived me out of Dispensationalism was that
the internal contradiction between dispensation five—law and dispensation six—grace.
Michael Horton: Yeah,
especially when Hebrews says don't be like those in the wilderness who had the
same Gospel that we heard preached to them, but didn't combined the hearing of
it with faith. It's the same Gospel that they heard.
Ken Jones: It did
not profit them because it wasn’t mixed with faith. I think that's in Hebrews
4:2. But that's something that is very common among a lot of Evangelicals. The
idea of the Old Testament saints being saved by the Law, and they just don't
understand the violence that it does to New Testament passages. If there are
two different ways of Salvation than the book Galatians becomes unnecessary.
Michael Horton: Yeah
in Galatians, Paul labors the point doesn't he, that the Abrahamic Covenant is
precisely the one that isn't set aside. That the Law Covenant of Sinai is what
was conditional and finally didn't avail of anything except as a schoolmaster
to lead people to Christ. But that we are children of Abraham by faith in
Christ because everyone who has been looking forward to the promise of the
Messiah and His saving work is a child of the covenant that comes by inheritance
rather than by personal performance.
Kim Riddlebarger: The
way this becomes practical, there I use the word, and to get back on Rod's
point, how this transforms your entire reading of Scripture. Suppose for
example the Dispensationalists are correct and we are no longer living in the
age of Law that explains why growing up in a Dispensational church I was never
taught the Ten Commandments. So instead what we were taught was don't drink,
don't smoke, don't gamble, don't dance, don’t go to R rated movies, don't play
cards—all of those blue Laws, so you weren’t worried about the First and Second
and Third, Fourth and Sixth commandments, you were worried about what Pastor
said was a sin.
Ken Jones: Also,
it probably would be helpful to make it clear that the Law is not confined to
the Ten Commandments. And that’s why going back to the earlier statement that
it is everything that God commands, and so therefore you do find commands even
in the New Testament. I think sometimes people forget. They kind of look at it
as if the Ten Commandments is the sole, is the totality of the Law.
Rod Rosenbladt: You
could find illustrations like the Rich Young Ruler where the Lord Himself put
Moses to the fourth power.
Michael Horton: Yeah. Ken
Jones: Yeah, exactly.
Rod Rosenbladt: If
the Ten Commandments aren't rigorous enough, try the Sermon on the Mount.
Kim Riddlebarger: "Be
Perfect as your Father in Heaven is Perfect."
Rod Rosenbladt: Matthew
5:48
Kim Riddlebarger: People
will always leave that out.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah
Michael Horton: And
a lot of times I think people will say…this was said at the time of the
Reformation too, that the Good News that the Gospel brings is that instead of
being subject to all those rigorous difficult Laws in the Old Testament all we
have to do is love in the New Testament.
Rod Rosenbladt: Wesley
believed that.
Michael Horton: Yeah
Kim Riddlebarger: Yeah, thanks a lot.
Ken Jones: As if
you could, mind you.
Michael Horton: It's
really interesting, Calvin is completely aware of that position and he says, "As if that one were easy!"
Rod Rosenbladt: And
that's what exactly Wesley said with his brother. His brother came into his
room in Oxford and after they had
there first definition of the perfected Christian, Charles came in and said "John, I don’t think I can ever live up to that." So they went to find a new
definition that the people could reach and it had to do with the perfection of
the love in the heart. And Reformation people at this point are tearing their
hair out.
Michael Horton: Well,
in a lot of mainline and increasingly Evangelical churches you have that view
of the Sermon on the Mount as a kinder and gentler Moses—the Gospel is a sort
of softer law and love is set in opposition to Law. But throughout the Bible—Old
and New Testament as Jesus Himself said, the Law is summarized by love and Love
is summarized by Law. If you want to know what love is look at the Law.
Ken Jones: Well
that's going back to what Rod said about the Rich Young Ruler. That's a perfect
illustration of it. The summation of the Law is to love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Well
the Rich Young Ruler comes up to Jesus and says, "Good Master what must I do to
inherit eternal life? Jesus says, "Why do you call me good? You know that there
is none good, but God" And as Stephen Charnocks says that's in essence saying, "Don’t call me good, unless you are going to call me God." Having acknowledged
that, Jesus now turns to him and says what do the commandments say? He goes on
and summarizes all of the commandments. Jesus says, "okay good, you think
you’ve done that." Not only does he say he’s done it, but he says its child’s
work—"I’ve done it since I was a kid." So Jesus sums up the two Laws, "Take all
of your goods, sell them, give the proceeds to the poor"—which is to love your
neighbor as yourself, and then follow me whom you called God." Young man went
away sorrowful. The point is we think we could keep the law. We think we could
love to the degree that we ought, but in truth we don't and we can't.
Kim Riddlebarger: That
is what Jesus is cleaning up on the Sermon on the Mount because it is not a
matter of external conformity to the Law as required by the Pharisees: the ceremonial
washings, fasting, feasting, doing all the things in the right way. It's not
external conformity. It's the matter of the heart.
Rod Rosenbladt: Luther
said it's not even enough that you would have even broken the external law even
that wouldn’t do it because it always has to be done from absolutely a pure
motive, no vested interest, care of your neighbor more than your own self. So even
externally never breaking it Luther said isn't enough.
Kim Riddlebarger: But
Rod, God looks on the heart. He knows.
Michael Horton: That's
bad news. Kim Riddlebarger: That's
not good news!
Ken Jones: What
does Don Kisler say, "The only thing in my heart is cholesterol and sin."
Rod Rosenbladt:
That's nice.
Michael Horton: Jeremiah
17:9 "The heart is above wicked above everything else."
Probably a lot of people growing up in sort of mega churches
at least in America today are not growing up the way Kim, you and I did with
the taboos—the Law trivialized and replaced with taboos. It's more in the form
of self-fulfillment—"if you follow these five principles that I have laid out
you will have a happy and successful life." So instead of "if you obey all of
my commandments you will live long in the land that I am giving you—I will give
you eternal life—do this and you shall live." It's the same pattern but it’s
softened, and that's why people actually think it’s the Gospel. It's softened
into "Hey look, it's not about you conforming to the glory and holiness of the
God who made you. It's about you being happy and fulfilled, and if you just
follow the rules that I am giving you." Is
this the dominant way that we really get rid of the Law and confuse the Law
with the Gospel?
Kim Riddlebarger: Well,
I think you summed it up perfectly. If you offer the diet of procedures to
improve your life and offer Christ as the one that will help you do that—you
not only lost the Law because the Law is not about my temporal circumstances as
much as my standing before God and His demand for a perfect Holiness. You also
lose the Gospel because the Gospel now becomes doing something instead of
receiving what God has done in Christ. The Gospel in many of these
circumstances and many of these churches as you described there are
programmatic—the Gospel is about doing the things that Christians do so that
they could live successful lives. And Christian leaders are held up as people
to emulate because they have lived this kind of life, and you could live this
kind of life too.
Michael Horton: Well,
what do we do then about the Law in terms of its different uses?
What are the different uses of the Law? Is the law there
only to tell us that we haven't kept it? Are there any other uses of the Law?
Rod Rosenbladt:
The Reformers talked of three uses. Both the Lutherans and the Reformed talk of
three uses of the Law. Luther and, I think, Calvin would have agreed that the
major use of the Law was what you referred to from Galatians—to break all
source of false images we have of our self and bring us to dust. Our
self-righteousness is dying on the floor in arriving heap. As a preparation to
drive us to Christ who has died for us in the place of all of our rebellion.
Then, they also talked about a first use of the law, the civil
use of the law that they said applied to everybody. That this would be true of
everybody on earth, some sort of basic Romans 2:14 and 15, basic, basic, basic
Law put into every human being, not a full tilt ethics but the basics, so that
our systems of judges and jails and all of that should reflect that first use
of the law and keep me from killing my neighbor in order not to steal his wife
or his speedboat. There will be jails and courts to deal with that and that's
God's good gift to keep sinners from doing what we would do by nature.
And then a third use of the Law; that's for Christians only.
That fleshes out what is it that I am to reflect as a Christian if I’m not free
in the sense of libertine. What is the Christian life to look like? And it was
to flesh that out. This is what it's to look like—it was content, it was "this
is what it would look like." Is it still Law? Yeah, it’s still Law and if that
use of the Law is killing you, you go back to the second use and go to Christ
again. This is why in the White Horse Inn and the MR we have as a theme "Christ
death is great enough to even save a Christian." Christ death could even save a
Christian. And I think both of us—our traditions could easily get into that,
that third use stuff for most of the sermon, and we ought not do that.
Kim Riddlebarger: Yeah,
Yup, Yup.
Michael Horton: Yeah,
I think when Calvin calls the third use, the principle use…
Rod Rosenbladt:
There's only one of those references isn't there?
Michael Horton:
Yes, and the context is that for the Christian the Law's threatening curse has
been quenched, the Law no longer is able to accuse us before the throne of God
and because of that, really, all that the Law can do now is guide us. It could
no longer condemn us.
Kim Riddlebarger: Right,
right.
I think one of the ways that's helpful to look at Romans 6
and 7 in Paul’s discussion of sin as holding us in bondage and in slavery and
now because of Christ we've been set free; we're not freed from Law. We're free
now to obey for the first time. We are no longer condemned by the Law. Our good
works are no longer filthy rags because we are covered with the righteousness
of Christ. Our Father is genuinely delighted in the feeble attempts we make to
do good.
Michael Horton: Like
a good father.
Kim Riddlebarger: Like
a good father, so now we have been saved free from the slavery of sin. We are
free to obey God and what does God wish us to do? Well the commandments.
Rod Rosenbladt: Well,
first to believe in Jesus.
Kim Riddlebarger: Yeah,
having assuming that has already been done and you are already in Christ and
have been set free. The Law now is our teacher of Righteousness, the law is our
rule of gratitude as our catechism says.
Ken Jones: But
that's another area where…I know that in the tradition that I grew up in, where
it gets confused because when we talk about grace it's as if the Law in and of
itself is an evil thing and so therefore we are no longer under the Law. But Paul
says in Romans 7 that the Law is good, it's Holy, it’s righteous, it's just
because it reflect the Law giver which is God. But in Romans 3:31 he says, "what
do we say then do we nullify the Law because of Grace, God forbid," but we have
been saved to uphold it. So there is a relationship between the Law and
Christians. But as Kim pointed out, now in Christ the penalty of the Law has
already been satisfied, so therefore it is no longer a threat to us.
Michael Horton: Now
when we are talking especially about the third use of the law. Is it important
to ground this particularly in the distinction between indicative and imperative?
Kim Riddlebarger: Absolutely.
Michael Horton: You
talk about not imposing things on the text, you actually have Greek moods in
the text that are indicatives and imperatives it’s a form of…
Kim Riddlebarger: An
indicative is a statement of fact…
Rod Rosenbladt: Christ
has died for you, carried your sin in His body on the tree it will count before
the Father at the end all these things are true whether you believe them or
not!
Michael Horton: Therefore.
Kim Riddlebarger: Therefore.
I'm always amazed in the book of Romans for example when Paul moves from his
discussion of Justification in chapter 3, 4, and 5 into some would consider his
discussion on sanctification in 6 through 8. The first imperative in chapter 6
is "reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God." The first command is to
consider your Justification. That’s the basis for any sanctification is to
consider yourself dead to what you were in Adam, and alive to what you are in
Christ!
Ken Jones: I love
Colossians 1. He sets forth everything we have in Christ: You have been
translated to the Kingdom of His
Son, you have been conformed…you have all of
these things. And then later in chapter 3 he goes on to say: Now put to death
the members which are upon the earth. Now if you begin in chapter 3 and think
you could work back to chapter 1 you will die of depression.
Michael Horton: I
remember growing up how Romans 6 just scared me to death because I was raised
with the carnal Christian teaching, you know you could be a first class Christian
and go to heaven up in the front of the plane—live in victory, or you could
sort of get in by the hair of your chinny, chin, chin.
Kim Riddlebarger: The
self is still on the throne.
Michael Horton: Your carnal Christian. And of course no
Christian, no one who really is dwelt by the Holy Spirit wants to be a carnal
Christian, so your striving to get into that upper region, and Romans 6 was the
victorious Christian life. Romans 7 was the defeated Christian life or the
carnal Christian—it's not the same Paul at the same time, it's two different
stages of a persons life as a victorious Christian or as a carnal Christian.
The thing that was just revolutionary for the Christian life
was not only Justification but realizing too that Sanctification was by the
Grace of God, and that Sanctification was rooted in the triumphant indicative
when Paul says [in Romans 6], "Shall we then sin that grace may abound?" He
doesn’t say, either on one hand, "Sure, God likes to forgive and I like to sin,
that’s a great relationship." Nor does he say on the other hand "You better not
unless you want to be a victorious Christian." What he says is you cannot! It
is impossible for you to be carnal Christian. It is impossible!
Ken Jones: Because
you have died to sin! Michael Horton: You
have died. I've buried
you with Christ. I raised you up, it's done, get over it, stop
trying to walk around in grave clothes.
Kim
Riddlebarger: Well, the great change
in Romans 8 that theology produces because if your in the carnal Christian
Romans 8 then sets out the option of walking in the flesh or walking in the
Spirit, when the contrast is between all Christians who walk in the Spirit
versus all those in Adam will and can only walk in the flesh. And once you are
freed from that now you make real progress in the Christian life.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah,
ironically when that victorious life teaching has its stake put through its
vampire heart it becomes possible in following what we are discussing in
Romans. Finally it becomes possible to maybe hear the Law and have a shot at
it, you know, to fight the fight.
Michael Horton: That's
right, yeah exactly.
Ken Jones: Because
now you have the victory—the real victory which is Romans 8:1 "There is therefore
no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ."
Michael Horton: Yeah. Rod
Rosenbladt: Right on.
Michael Horton:
Anytime you hold out victory as a reward for my personal performance whatever
kind of victory it is, I'm going to eventually become a Pharisee or…
Rod Rosenbladt and
Michael Horton: …suicidal.
Michael Horton: but
the alternative isn’t "Oh, we get a free seat in heaven and obedience doesn’t
matter." The alternative is to obey from freedom.
Kim Riddlebarger: The
person that I get is the person who has been to every church, gone to every
seminar, read every book, and still has some sin or some struggle that has them
in what they think is a death grip. And they are wondering "Am I a Christian because
I still keep doing this. I try and stop it. I can’t or I don’t seem to make
much progress." That’s the person I get.
Michael Horton: That’s
got to be the biggest pastoral problem.
Kim Riddlebarger: That
is the biggest pastoral problem. You have people who kick up their heels and do
all kinds of unholy things in the name of Christ and they need to be
disciplined and dwelt with but that is not…
Rod Rosenbladt:…that
is not the major problem
Kim Riddlbarger: The major category is somebody who's been
in the church for a long time, and who is seriously questioning God's favor toward
them because of their miserable performance and obedience to the Law.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yup.
Kim Riddlebarger: And
as more Pastors try to deal with that by making sanctification more of an
emphasis and stressing the need to get beyond that by trying this and trying
that the more frustrated people become.
Michael Horton: One
of the things that we ought to take a look at is the way in which the Law is
distinguished from the Gospel in various ways. I know that both of our
traditions, Reformed Confessions and Lutheran Confessions, and our dogmatics basically
say the same thing. Here's a quote and I betcha Rod this is right out of what
you guys would say too. Zacharias Ursinus commentary on the Heidelberg
Catechism:
"The doctrine of the church is the entire and uncorrupted
doctrine of the Law and the Gospel concerning the true God together with His
will, works and worship. This is the
whole doctrine of the Church can be subdivided into two parts…The doctrine of
the church consists of two parts: the Law, and the Gospel; in which we have
comprehended the sum and substance of the sacred Scriptures…Therefore, the Law
and Gospel are the chief and general divisions of holy scriptures, and comprise
the entire doctrine comprehended therein…For the Law is our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ constraining us to fly to Him and showing us what that
righteousness is which he has brought out and now gives to us. But the Gospel
professedly treat of the person, office, and benefits of Christ. Therefore we
have in the Law and Gospel the whole of the Scriptures comprehending the
doctrine revealed from heaven for our Salvation. The Law prescribes and enjoins
what is to be done and forbids what ought to avoided whilst the Gospel
announces the free remission of sin through and for the sake of Christ alone.
The Law is known within us by nature. The Gospel is divinely revealed outside
of us in His Word. The Law promises life upon the condition of perfect
obedience. The Gospel on the condition of faith in Christ and commencement of
new obedience."
And Theodore Beza Calvin’s successor in Geneva
says…
Kim Riddlbarger: That great Lutheran Theologian…..
Michael Horton: …Yeah,
exactly. "Ignorance of the distinction between the Law and Gospel is one of the
principle sources of all the abuses which corrupt and still corrupt
Christianity."
Kim Riddlebarger: Beza
is absolutely right.
Rod Rosenbladt: Preach
it brother.
Michael Horton: How
important is it that we recognize for one thing that the Law is in us by
nature? How important is that for pastors who veer toward application, and our
hearers are always saying "Pastor, your not practical enough, you don’t preach
enough application." Now sometimes that’s true, but a lot of times…
Rod Rosenbladt: It's
a request for Law.
Ken Jones and Kim
Riddlebarger: Yeah.
Michael Horton: Do
we have to be aware that are radar, Adam's radar, naturally goes toward Law
because that's what we were wired for in creation in the Covenant of Works, but
the Gospel is a foreign announcement from heaven.
Kim Riddlebarger: We
can pick up the Scripture and read "Yes we’re forgiven." But we
need someone who stands in Christ place in the official
capacity of minister of Word and Sacrament to declare to us "Your sins are
forgiven, go in peace."
Rod Rosenbladt:
Amen.
Kim Riddlebarger: And
that is then the basis for people to leave that place on the Lord's Day saying "Wow, now I can actually…I'm free to obey because God is not angry with me.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah,
I will never be charged. He delights in me because of Jesus blood. Amazing. You
know, there’s a reason that we have the word Benediction for the closing word in
a church service, "Good word." The last word shouldn't be the application, the
last word should be a Benediction.
Kim Riddlebarger: Absolutely.
Ken Jones: One of
the reasons I think that we really have to make clear as Pastors is, because a
great part of spiritual warfare among Christians, is Satan attempting to keep
the Gospel out. Paul says in Galatians that if the Gospel is hidden it's hidden
from those who have been blinded by the gods of this age. And Satan’s great
device is to keep us away from the Gospel; to make Christians think that
somehow you are now undeserving of Grace, as if you ever were, but to make them
think that their sin is so grievous that it separates them from the love of God
through Christ.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah. "There was a chance for me when I was first converted but now that I've been in
the doctrines of Grace for ten years, and it's getting worse, I have crossed
the line, there’s no hope for me." That’s
what we meet as Pastors.
Kim Riddlebarger and
Ken Jones: Yes.
Michael Horton: Ralph
Erskine was an 18th century Scottish Presbyterian and minister. He
expresses a view that I think we could identify with in our day:
From anti-evangelic aphorisms;
A legal spirit may be justly nam'd
The fertile womb of ev'ry error damn'd.
Hence Pop'ry, so nat'ral since the fall,
Makes legal works like saviours merit all;…
Hence dare Arminians too, with brazen face,
Give man's free-will the throne of God's free grace;
Whose self-exalting tenets clearly shew
Great ignorance of law and gospel too…
Christ is not preach'd in truth, but in disguise,
If his bright glory half absconded lies.
When gospel-soldiers, that divide the word,
Scarce brandish any but the legal sword.
While Christ the author of the law they press,
More than the end of it for righteousness;
Christ as a seeker of our service trace,
More than a giver of enabling grace.
With legal spade the gospel-field he delves,
Who thus drives sinners in unto themselves;
Halving the truth that should be all reveal'd,
The sweetest part of Christ is oft conceal'd.
So, this is practical preaching. The most practical
preaching is not "how-tos." The most practical preaching is really
understanding what God requires in the Law, not kinder, gentler "how-to" Laws
that we come up with. [But] Really
understanding what he requires in the Law, driving us to Christ so that
whatever obedience—meager beginnings in obedience we make in this life
correspond to the Law but are empowered by the Gospel.
Kim Riddlebarger: Right,
exactly.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah
and the phrase in both of our traditions I think, the "sweetness of the
Gospel." The reasons that they use that phrase in our writings was the Gospel
makes no demands. It simply announces your sin is forgiven, go in peace. There
is no demand in the Gospel. It just announces that which is too good to be
true, but really is true. “I took care of it one afternoon for you.”
Michael Horton: But
when you say that a lot of people hear, because Gospel has come to encompass
the whole Christian faith a lot of people say “Well Rod you’re saying that
there is no place for the Law in the Christian life.”
Rod Rosenbladt and
Ken Jones: Yeah
Michael Horton: We're
saying that there is a place for the Law in the Christian life and there's a
place for the Gospel in the Christian life…
Kim Riddlebarger: The
Gospel should have the last word. That ought to be ringing in your ears when you
leave the public assembly of God’s people, rather than your list of things your
supposed to do next week that you won’t even make it out the door before you
have broken half of them.
Michael Horton: Well
Calvin said not that he’s the last word on it, but I think he made a very good
pastoral point. "Whenever you need to know what you need to do, go to the law,
but whenever you hear the law threatening you, you must set the law aside and
tell the law I will not hear your thunderings and flee to Christ and listen to
him only."
Ken Jones: Yeah,
there are two dangerous extremes that come from Christians not understanding
the Gospel and in only looking to the Law. Either there is the defeatism we
talked about where you are led to almost a sense of spiritual suicide or I see
this at an increasing rate among Evangelicals: a self delusion, where people
actually think that they are looking into the Law, and they actually think that
they are actually reading their own spiritual resume. They actually think that they
kept it and have accomplished it. And you will think that if you do not
understand what is clearly and completely given in the Gospel.
Kim Riddlebarger: That's
the danger of the blue laws because I could actually go for a time and not
consume adult beverages, and go for a time and not smoke, and go for a time and
not watch R rated movies or whatever. There are actually things in the list
that I could sorta do.
Michael Horton: It
is also the danger of the Christian bookstore and Joel Osteen getting rid of
the blue laws but instead say, "If you follow my five principles…" people have
their notebooks out and pens out and there writing those things down. I could
follow that just like I could go to a real estate seminar and do what he tells
me and not make any money. But the thing is, eventually call us when you get to
the end of that rope because you’re going to be a burn out, your going to be a
casualty…
Ken Jones: If you're
honest about it Mike. Because I'm telling you people stay in that system for an
extended period of time because they are so diluted, there not hearing enough
[of] that contrast to what they’re hearing in that system to recognize that
they’re really in despair.
Kim Riddlebarger: Well
I said it before and bears repeating; why is it that modern Evangelicalism is
so preoccupied with therapy?
Because that Wesleyan holiness strain that has no true
Gospel ends up breading this neurotic sense of self-examination to the point
that your minister is to be busy giving you things to do and not at all telling
you "it's finished. God has taking it care of for you." So that the longer you
are at church, the more time you spend in meetings, the more things you pour
yourself into the more miserable you become. Your minister can’t help you so
you gotta pay 175 bucks an hour to a marriage and family counselor or a
psychiatrist who will tell you "It's not really your fault."
Ken Jones: But
you see that's why there's always going to be room for another trend because
pretty soon each one burns out, so there's gotta be a new one to replace the
old one.
Kim Riddlebarger: Exactly.
Michael Horton: And
this is because Adam keeps reinventing new versions of the Law that is native
to him. That's already there.
Rod Rosenbladt: uh
hmm
Kim Riddlebarger and
Ken Jones: Yup
Michael Horton: To
end on an encouraging note there are a lot of Pastors out there—the church
hosting us now—where this wouldn't be the case and we're seeing a greater
number of churches out there. Some of them outside of confessional Reformed and
Lutheran circles that really are realizing the benefit, even the therapeutic,
there I say, benefit of preaching Christ—that it is practical, it really does
help people work out their Salvation with fear and trembling.
Kim Riddlebarger: It
is wonderfully therapeutic to hear that God is not angry at you because of
Christ.
Michael Horton: Yeeah.
Kim Riddlebarger: That's
as practical as it gets.
Rod Rosenbladt: Yeah.
Michael Horton: I
know that I've used this illustration before, but I'll close with it. I know
nothing about sailboats so if you have a sailboat and you think that I really…
am all wet, sorry, doesn’t matter because it's my illustration.
This guy gets a brand new sailboat and it's equipped with
all the bells and whistles. It has sonar, it has satellite technology. This guy
doesn't have to look at a map, the thing talks to him and says "Go to the left,
go to the right." He has all the bells and whistles. He goes out into the wide
blue ocean on a beautiful day, but it's a sailboat for peak sake, he doesn't
have a motor. He gets out there and the radio tells him "A squall is coming, it
suddenly came up out of the West and it is coming towards you." All of the instruments
are giving him instructions telling him what he needs to do. The problem is the
boat is dead in the water it can't move. A lot of Christians go sailing out
with their new study Bible under their arm and there new excitement about
living for Christ and because the Spirit is at work in their hearts they have
this great zeal for the Lord, but then start looking at what they're doing and
they find that they are dead in the water. The tough times come, the squall
comes, they can't move and they have 8 thousand people telling them what they
need to do to get out of way of the squall, but what they really need is wind
to fill the sails. We need both. We need God's guidance in the Law, and we need
the Gospel to fill our sails. And every single time for the Christian as well
when you become a Christian for the first time throughout the Christian life
it's always the same: the Law can do nothing more then tell you what God’s
holiness requires and provide nothing…
Rod Rosenbladt: …to
help you do it.
Michael Horton: The
Gospel alone is what gives what the Law commands.
Question and Answers
(which I did not transcribe all but the final one)
Conclusion
Question from
Audience: I'm concerned of a dichotomy between Law and Gospel which
emphasizes the second use to such a degree that the third use is under
emphasized almost to the point to the Christ saving us to a lawless covenant.
Rod Rosenbladt: I
had a seminary professor…
Michael Horton to Rod
Rosenbladt: Can you first define what the second use…
Rod Rosenbladt (off
the last question): The second use is from Galatians a pedagogues driving
us to Christ—we translate tutor but that's much to nice. A pedagogues was not a
nice little high school girl helping you with Algebra. A pedagogues was
pictured with a stick in his hand, and the father hired him to follow his son
around all day and to whack him if he associated with the wrong kind of friends
or if he had the wrong cd's….
Michael Horton: This
is a Catholic school not public schools.
Ken Jones and Kim
Riddlebarger: Laughing
Rod Rosenbladt: That's
right. The pedagogues was to whack that kid. So pedagogues is a strong term not
a friendly one. The second use of the law is that pedagogues to drive us to Christ and in this way we
had several professors several professors I did, that said, "Brethren when your
in the ministry you are going to be frustrated that your congregation is not
living the kind of lives that you think they ought to live. You are going to
think this. And the next thought that you will think is that you are tempted to
fix this by preaching the Law more vigorously and more heavily, resist the
temptation brethren." The Law will not do what you are dreaming it will do,
this is just you resenting your congregation and taking out your resentment on
them. It is not the preaching of the law or the Gospel, so contrary to what you
want to do preach the Gospel more deeply and more sweetly if your looking for
effects.
Michael Horton: So this stuff is practical. This is the most practical kind
of subject that we can embark on, isn't it?
Kim Riddlebarger: It
gets down to the well being of the soul and not only in an internal sense, but
also in a daily therapeutic well-being kind of sense.
Rod Rosenbladt: Absolutely.
Michael Horton: Yeah
because even when you talk about, "well what about building community?" The Gospel
creates the church. "But what about Sanctification?" The Gospel drives
Sanctification. "But, what about Evangelism?" The Gospel is the evangel.
John Newton the author of Amazing Grace another one of his
hymns. "Let us love and sing in wonder. Let us call and praise His name. He has
hushed the Law's loud thunder. He has quenched Mt.
Sinai's flame. As we ponder grace
and justice let us point to mercy’s store when through grace in Christ our
trust is, just as smiles and asks no more."
We’ll be with you next week on the White Horse Inn.
"This transcription of "Rightly Dividing the Word:
Law and Gospel" is a
broadcast of the White Horse Inn radio program that originally aired on May
22, 2005 and is posted with permission. The White Horse Inn exists to equip
Christians to "know what you believe and why you believe it." For
more
information about the White Horse Inn, please visit www.whitehorseinn.org
or
call (800) 890-7556."
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