V. The Law and the Gospel
Status of the Controversy
The Chief Question in This Controversy
[1] Is the preaching of the Holy Gospel properly not just a preaching of grace (which announces the forgiveness of sins) but also a preaching of repentance and reproof (rebuking unbelief, which some people say is not rebuked in the Law but only through the Gospel)?
Affirmative Statements
The Pure Doctrine of God’s Word
[2] 1. We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be kept in the Church with great diligence as a particularly brilliant light. By this distinction, according to the admonition of St. Paul, God’s Word is rightly divided [2 Timothy 2:15].
[3] 2. We believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a divine doctrine [Romans 7:12]. It teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and it rebukes everything that is sin and contrary to God’s will.
[4] 3. For this reason, then, everything that rebukes sin is, and belongs to, the preaching of the Law.
[5] 4. But the Gospel is properly the kind of teaching that shows what a person who has not kept the Law (and therefore is condemned by it) is to believe. It teaches that Christ has paid for and made satisfaction for all sins [Romans 5:9]. Christ has gained and acquired for an individual—without any of his own merit—forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life [Romans 5:10].
[6] 5. The term Gospel is not used in one and the same sense in the Holy Scriptures. That’s why this disagreement originally arose. Therefore, we believe, teach, and confess that if the term Gospel is understood to mean Christ’s entire teaching that He proposed in His ministry, as His apostles did also (this is how it is used in Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21), then it is correctly said and written that the Gospel is a preaching of repentance and of the forgiveness of sins.
[7] 6. The Law and the Gospel are also contrasted with each other. Likewise also, Moses himself as a teacher of the Law and Christ as a preacher of the Gospel are contrasted with each other [John 1:17]. In these cases we believe, teach, and confess that the Gospel is not a preaching of repentance or rebuke. But it is properly nothing other than a preaching of consolation and a joyful message that does not rebuke or terrify. The Gospel comforts consciences against the terrors of the Law, points only to Christ’s merit, and raises them up again by the lovely preaching of God’s grace and favor, gained through Christ’s merit.
[8] 7. Concerning the revelation of sin, Moses’ veil hangs [2 Corinthians 3:12–16] before the eyes of all people as long as they hear the bare preaching of the Law, and nothing about Christ. Therefore, they do not learn from the Law to see their sins correctly. They either become bold hypocrites ‹who swell with the opinion of their own righteousness› like the Pharisees [Matthew 23], or they despair like Judas [Matthew 27:3–5]. Therefore, Christ takes the Law into His hands and explains it spiritually (Matthew 5:21–48; Romans 7:14). In this way God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all sinners [Romans 1:18], so that they see how great it is. In this way they are directed back to the Law, and then they first learn from it to know their sins correctly—a knowledge that Moses never could have forced out of them.
[9] According to this, the preaching of the suffering and death of Christ, the Son of God, is a serious and terrifying proclamation and declaration of God’s wrath. By such preaching people are first led into the Law correctly—after Moses’ veil has been removed from them. Then they understand correctly for the first time what great things God requires of us in His Law, none of which we can keep. Therefore, they know we are to seek all our righteousness in Christ.
[10] 8. Yet as long as all this (namely, Christ’s suffering and death) proclaims God’s wrath and terrifies a person, it is still not properly the preaching of the Gospel. It remains the preaching of Moses and the Law, and it is, therefore, an alien work of Christ. Passing through this teaching, Christ arrives at His proper office, that is, to preach grace, console, and give life, which is properly the preaching of the Gospel.
Negative Statements
Contrary Doctrine That Is Rejected
[11] We reject and regard as incorrect and harmful the teaching that the Gospel, strictly speaking, is a preaching of repentance or rebuke and not just a preaching of grace. For by this misuse the Gospel is converted into a teaching of the Law. Christ’s merit and Holy Scripture are hidden, Christians are robbed of true consolation, and the door is opened again to ‹the errors and superstitions of› the papacy.