V. The Law and the Gospel
[Statement of the Controversy]
[1] The distinction between the Law and the Gospel is a particularly brilliant light. It serves the purpose of rightly dividing God’s Word [2 Timothy 2:15] and properly explaining and understanding the Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles. We must guard this distinction with special care, so that these two doctrines may not be mixed with each other, or a law be made out of the Gospel. When that happens, Christ’s merit is hidden and troubled consciences are robbed of comfort, which they otherwise have in the Holy Gospel when it is preached genuinely and purely. For by the Gospel they can support themselves in their most difficult trials against the Law’s terrors.
[2] In this matter a disagreement has occurred among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession. One side asserted that the Gospel is properly not only a preaching of grace, but is, at the same time, also a preaching of repentance, which rebukes the greatest sin: unbelief. The other side held and argued that the Gospel is not properly a preaching of repentance or rebuke. That properly belongs to God’s Law, which reproves all sins, including unbelief. The Gospel is properly a preaching of God’s grace and favor for Christ’s sake. Through the Gospel the unbelief of the converted, which previously dwelt in them, and which God’s Law reproved, is pardoned and forgiven.
[Clarification of Terms]
[3] When we see this disagreement clearly, we note that it has been caused chiefly by this: the term Gospel is not always used and understood in one and the same sense. It is used in two ways in the Holy Scriptures and also by ancient and modern Church teachers. [4] Sometimes it is used to mean the entire doctrine of Christ, our Lord, which He proclaimed in His ministry on earth and commanded to be proclaimed in the New Testament. Therefore, this includes the explanation of the Law and the proclamation of the favor and grace of God His heavenly Father. For it is written, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). And shortly afterward the chief points are stated: Repentance and forgiveness of sins. So when Christ after His resurrection commanded the apostles to “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15), He compressed the sum of this doctrine into a few words. He also said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46–47). Paul, too, calls his entire doctrine the Gospel (Acts 20:21). He summarizes this doctrine under two points: Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. [5] In this sense the general definition of the word Gospel, when used in a wide sense and without the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel, is correctly said to be a preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. For John, Christ, and the apostles began their preaching with repentance and explained and taught not only the gracious promise of the forgiveness of sins, but also God’s Law. [6] Furthermore, the term Gospel is used in another way. In its proper sense, Gospel does not mean the preaching of repentance, but only the preaching of God’s grace. This follows directly after the preaching of repentance, as Christ says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
[7] Likewise, the term repentance is not used in the Holy Scriptures in one and the same sense. In some passages of Holy Scripture it is used and taken to mean a person’s entire conversion. For example, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). And, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7). [8] But in this passage (Mark 1:15) and elsewhere, when repentance and faith in Christ (Acts 20:21), or repentance and forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:46–47), are mentioned as distinct, to repent means nothing other than to truly acknowledge sins, to be heartily sorry for them, and to stop doing them. [9] This knowledge comes from the Law. It is not enough for saving conversion to God if faith in Christ is not added. The comforting preaching of the Holy Gospel offers His merits to all penitent sinners who are terrified by the preaching of the Law. The Gospel proclaims the forgiveness of sins, not to coarse and self-secure hearts, but to the bruised or penitent (Luke 4:18). The preaching of the Gospel must be added so that the repentance may lead to salvation and not to the Law’s contrition or terrors (2 Corinthians 7:10).
[10] Merely preaching the Law, without Christ, either makes proud people, who imagine that they can fulfill the Law by outward works, or forces them utterly to despair. Therefore, Christ takes the Law into His hands and explains it spiritually (Matthew 5:21–48; Romans 7:14; 1:18). He reveals His wrath from heaven on all sinners and shows how great it is. In this teaching sinners are directed to the Law, and from it they first learn to know their sins correctly—a confession that Moses could never wrestle out of them. For as the apostle testifies (2 Corinthians 3:14–15), even though Moses is read, the veil he put over his face is never lifted. So they cannot understand the Law spiritually, and what great things it requires of us, and how severely it curses and condemns us because we cannot keep or fulfill it. “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Corinthians 3:16).
[11] Christ’s Spirit must not only comfort, but also through the office of the Law “convict the world concerning sin” [John 16:8]. In the New Testament, as the prophet says, He must do the work of another (reprove), in order that He may ‹afterward› do His own work, which is to comfort and to preach grace [Isaiah 28:21]. To this end the Spirit was obtained for us through Christ and sent. For this reason He is also called the Comforter, as Dr. Luther has explained in his comments on the Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, in the following words:
[12] Anything that preaches about our sins and God’s wrath (let it be done however or whenever it will), that is all a preaching of the Law. Again, the Gospel is such a preaching as shows and gives nothing else than grace and forgiveness in Christ. Yet it is true and right that the apostles and preachers of the Gospel (as Christ Himself also did) confirm the preaching of the Law. They begin the Law with those who do not yet acknowledge their sins nor are terrified at God’s wrath; as Jesus says, “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin … because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:8–9). Yes, what more forceful, more terrible declaration and preaching of God’s wrath against sin is there than the suffering and death of Christ, His Son? But as long as all this preaches God’s wrath and terrifies people, it is not yet the preaching of the Gospel nor Christ’s own preaching, but that of Moses and the Law against the impenitent. For the Gospel and Christ were never ordained and given for the purpose of terrifying and condemning, but for comforting and cheering those who are terrified and timid. [WA 22:87, 3–18]
[13] And again, Luther wrote:
Christ says, “[The Holy Spirit] will convict the world concerning sin” (John 16:8), which cannot be done except through the explanation of the Law. [WA 15:228, 15–17]
[14] So, too, the Smalcald Articles say:
The New Testament keeps and urges the office of the Law, as St. Paul does when he says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” [Romans 1:18] … But to this office of the Law, the New Testament immediately adds the consoling promise of grace through the Gospel. [SA III III 1–4]
[15] The Apology says: “In the preaching of repentance, it is not enough to preach the Law, or the Word that convicts of sin. … The Gospel must be added (Ap V 136). Therefore, the two doctrines belong together and should also be taught next to each other, but in a definite order and with a proper distinction. The Antinomians, or nomoclasts [destroyers of the Law], are justly condemned. They abolish the preaching of the Law from the Church and want sins to be rebuked, and repentance and sorrow to be taught, not from the Law, but from the Gospel.
[Affirmative Statements]
[16] In order that everyone may see that we conceal nothing in the disagreement we are describing, we present the matter to the eyes of the Christian reader plainly and clearly:
[17] We unanimously believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a divine doctrine in which God’s righteous, unchangeable will is revealed. It shows what the quality of a person should be in his nature, thoughts, words, and works, in order that he may be pleasing and acceptable to God. It also threatens its transgressors with God’s wrath and temporal and eternal punishments. For as Luther writes against the law-stormers [Antinomians]:
Everything that reproves sin is and belongs to the Law. Its peculiar office is to rebuke sin and to lead to the knowledge of sins (Romans 3:20; 7:7).
Because unbelief is the root and wellspring of ‹all sins that must be rebuked and reproved›, the Law rebukes unbelief also.
[18] It is true that the Law with its doctrine is illustrated and explained by the Gospel. Nevertheless, it remains the Law’s peculiar office to rebuke sins and teach about good works.
[19] The Law rebukes unbelief, that is, when people do not believe God’s Word. Now the Gospel is God’s Word, and it alone properly teaches and commands people to believe in Christ. The Holy Spirit, through the Law’s office, also rebukes unbelief, that is, when people do not believe in Christ.
[20] Yet it is properly the Gospel alone that teaches about saving faith in Christ. Now, a person has not kept God’s Law, but has transgressed it when his corrupt nature, thoughts, words, and works fight against it. Therefore, he is under God’s wrath, death, all temporal calamities, and the punishment of hellfire. The Gospel is properly a doctrine that teaches what a person should believe, so that he receives forgiveness of sins with God. In other words, it teaches that God’s Son, our Lord Christ, has taken upon Himself and borne the Law’s curse and has atoned and paid for all our sins. Through Him alone we again enter into favor with God, receive forgiveness of sins through faith and are delivered from death and all the punishments of sins, and are eternally saved.
[21] Everything that comforts, that offers God’s favor and grace to transgressors of the Law, is, and is properly called, the Gospel. It is a good and joyful message that God will not punish sins, but will forgive them for Christ’s sake.
[22] Every penitent sinner ought to believe (i.e., place his confidence) in the Lord Christ alone. For Christ “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). “He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). His obedience is credited to us for righteousness before God’s strict court, so that the Law, as set forth above, is a ministry that kills through the letter and preaches condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:6, 9). The Gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16), which preaches righteousness and gives the Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:18; Galatians 3:2). Dr. Luther taught this distinction with special diligence in nearly all his writings and has properly shown that the knowledge of God from the Gospel is far different from that which is taught and learned from the Law. Even the pagans, to a certain extent, had a knowledge of God from the natural law. But they neither knew Him nor glorified Him correctly (Romans 1:19–32) [LW 22:150–54].
[Using Law and Gospel]
[23] From the beginning of the world these two proclamations have always been taught alongside each other in God’s Church, with a proper distinction. The descendants of the well-respected patriarchs, and the patriarchs themselves, called to mind constantly how in the beginning a person had been created righteous and holy by God. They know that through the fraud of the Serpent, Adam transgressed God’s command, became a sinner, and corrupted and cast himself with all his descendants into death and eternal condemnation. They encouraged and comforted themselves again by the preaching about the woman’s seed, who would bruise the Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15); Abraham’s seed, in whom “all the nations of the earth [will] be blessed” (Genesis 22:18); David’s Son, who should “bring back the preserved of Israel” and be “a light for the nations” (Isaiah 49:6; see also Psalm 110:1; Luke 2:32), and who “was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities … and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
[24] These two doctrines, we believe and confess, should always be diligently taught in God’s Church forever, even to the end of the world. They must be taught with the proper distinction of which we have heard: (a) through the preaching of the Law and its threats in the ministry of the New Testament the hearts of impenitent people may be terrified, and (b) they may be brought to a knowledge of their sins and to repentance. This must not be done in such a way that they lose heart and despair in this process. “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24); so the Law points and leads us not from Christ, but to Christ, who “is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4). [25] People must be comforted and strengthened again by the preaching of the Holy Gospel about Christ, our Lord. In other words, to those who believe the Gospel, God forgives all their sins through Christ, adopts them as children for His sake, and out of pure grace—without any merit on their part—justifies and saves them. However, He does not do this in such a way that they may abuse God’s grace and may sin hoping for grace [Romans 6:1]. [26] Paul thoroughly and forcefully shows this in the distinction between the Law and the Gospel (2 Corinthians 3:6–9).
[27] The doctrines of the Law and the Gospel may not be mixed and confused with each other. What belongs to the one may not be applied to the other. When that happens Christ’s merit and benefits are easily hidden and the Gospel is again turned into a doctrine of the Law, as happened in the papacy. For then Christians are deprived of the true comfort they have in the Gospel against the Law’s terrors, and the door is again opened in God’s Church to the papacy. Therefore, the true and proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel must be taught and preserved with all diligence. Whatever causes confusion between the Law and the Gospel should be diligently prevented (i.e., by which the two doctrines, Law and Gospel, may be confused and mixed into one doctrine). It is, therefore, dangerous and wrong to convert the Gospel (properly so called, as distinguished from the Law) into a preaching of repentance or rebuke. Otherwise, if understood in a general sense of the entire doctrine, the Apology says also several times that the Gospel is a preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Meanwhile, the Apology also shows that the Gospel is properly the promise of the forgiveness of sins and of justification through Christ, and the Law is a doctrine that reproves sins and condemns.