{"id":4282,"date":"2021-09-11T16:38:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T16:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4282"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:44:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:44:40","slug":"the-distinction-between-law-and-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/11\/the-distinction-between-law-and-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Distinction between Law and Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Eighteenth Sermon after Trinity| September 21, 2008| St. Matthew 22:34-46<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: The Distinction Between Law and Gospel: Trinity 18 Sermon by Rolf Preus 2008\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/0nXyRIFyPLeOZxwEBo4M8q?si=0bb8e144e71045f7&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.&nbsp; Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, \u201cTeacher, which is the great commandment in the law?\u201d&nbsp; Jesus said to him, \u201c\u2018You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.\u2019 &nbsp; This is the first and great commandment.&nbsp; And the second is like it: \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u2019&nbsp; On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.\u201d&nbsp; While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, \u201cWhat do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?\u201d&nbsp; They said to Him, \u201cThe Son of David.\u201d&nbsp; He said to them, \u201cHow then does David in the Spirit call Him \u2018Lord,\u2019 saying: \u2018The LORD said to my Lord,&nbsp;\u201cSit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool\u201d\u2019?&nbsp; If David then calls Him \u2018Lord,\u2019 how is He his Son?\u201d&nbsp; And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything God teaches us falls into one of two categories: law or gospel.&nbsp; The law is what God requires us to do.&nbsp; It governs our will, our thoughts, our affections, and our actions.&nbsp; The law promises us blessing if we obey it and it threatens us with punishment if we disobey it.&nbsp; It points out what we have done wrong and it condemns us for our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gospel does not tell us what to do.&nbsp; It tells us what to believe.&nbsp; It tells us that God, for Christ\u2019s sake, fully and freely forgives all of our sins against his law.&nbsp; The gospel makes no threats.&nbsp; It points us to Jesus who lived and died for us, taking away our sins by dying on the cross.&nbsp; It promises us everlasting life for Jesus\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law does not change.&nbsp; There were time-bound features of God\u2019s law as revealed to Moses.&nbsp; There were civil and ceremonial requirements that ended with the coming of Christ.&nbsp; But the moral law \u2013 that which determines for us what is right and what is wrong \u2013 remains constant.&nbsp; The law is summed up in the Ten Commandments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pharisees of Jesus\u2019 day thought that they were obedient the God\u2019s law.&nbsp; They developed a system by which they would not fail to do everything God\u2019s law required of them.&nbsp; Or so they thought.&nbsp; They had 613 rules.&nbsp; There were 248 positive requirements and 365 negative prohibitions.&nbsp; They began with God\u2019s law.&nbsp; Then they mixed God\u2019s law together with commonsense extrapolations from it.&nbsp; From one extrapolation to another the Pharisees wove together a legalistic tapestry of requirements covering every aspect of life.&nbsp; They had rules for everything.&nbsp; They thought that their system of rules was God\u2019s law.&nbsp; But it wasn\u2019t.&nbsp; In their effort to make God\u2019s law doable, they denied it altogether.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the lawyer asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment in the law he had in mind the 613 commandments that the Pharisees had put together.&nbsp; Rabbis habitually argued with each other over which commandments were the most important.&nbsp; It was an impossible task to pick one of them as the great commandment above all the others.&nbsp; Surely, Jesus couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Jesus didn\u2019t try.&nbsp; Jesus ignored their system of rules and went straight to God\u2019s word.&nbsp; The greatest commandment was given by God: \u201cYou shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.\u201d&nbsp; The duty to love God is greater than any other duty.&nbsp; God created us in love to love him in return.&nbsp; To love God with all that we are is what makes us fully human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God teaches us how he wants us to love him.&nbsp; We are not to hold to any other god than to the One who created us in his image and called us by his name.&nbsp; He wants us to honor his name, to call on him in prayer, and to avoid every misuse of his name.&nbsp; He wants us to hear his word proclaimed and to cherish that word as more precious than our jobs, our leisure, our conveniences, or anything else in our lives.&nbsp; This is what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To love God means to love the neighbor.&nbsp; This is why Jesus says that the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is like the commandment to love God above all things.&nbsp; How can we love the Creator and hate his creation?&nbsp; How can we hate those whom God loves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God\u2019s law is not so difficult to understand.&nbsp; What is difficult about it is doing it.&nbsp; It calls for a perfect heart.&nbsp; It calls for perfect motives.&nbsp; It calls for perfect love.&nbsp; It calls for what we don\u2019t have.&nbsp; Reducing God\u2019s law to doable rules is to reject it altogether.&nbsp; If you want to know what God requires of you, commit to memory the Ten Commandments and Luther\u2019s explanation of them in the Small Catechism.&nbsp; This is how to love God and this is how to love your neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bible is a clear book.&nbsp; It is not written in a secret code.&nbsp; It means what it says and it says what it means.&nbsp; The Bible says, \u201cFor as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, \u2018Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them\u2019.\u201d<sup> <\/sup>(Galatians 3, 10)&nbsp; Those who depend on the law for their salvation are cursed by the same law in which they trust.&nbsp; It might make sense to believe that we work our way to heaven but what makes sense to us is not necessarily so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of what God\u2019s word teaches us goes against what is reasonable to us.&nbsp; Consider, for example, the Christian teaching that Jesus is true God and true man.&nbsp; How can this be?&nbsp; The fact that the Bible teaches this cannot seriously be disputed.&nbsp; Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses try, but fail, to show from the Bible that Jesus is not God.&nbsp; But how can he be?&nbsp; How can David\u2019s Son be David\u2019s Lord?&nbsp; How can he who created all and is over all and cannot be contained by the entire universe become a man?&nbsp; And how can this almighty man suffer and die on the cross?&nbsp; It flies in the face of what is reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How can bread be Christ\u2019s body?&nbsp; How can wine be his blood?&nbsp; How can a washing with water joined to God\u2019s word bring a child out of spiritual death into spiritual life?&nbsp; How can a mere man \u2013 who is as sinful as the sinners to whom he is speaking \u2013 speak words that impart forgiveness of sins?&nbsp; We don\u2019t know how.&nbsp; But we know it is so.&nbsp; We can know that it is so.&nbsp; It is so if God says it is so.&nbsp; But we cannot always know how it can be so.&nbsp; And we must, in all humility, admit that the \u201chow\u201d of God\u2019s word is beyond our ken.&nbsp; If we think that we can figure out all divine mysteries we\u2019ll try to figure out what cannot be figured out and we\u2019ll end up rejecting what we cannot understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We cannot figure out God\u2019s love.&nbsp; It flies in the face of what make sense.&nbsp; The gospel is the good news about God\u2019s love.&nbsp; It tells us that God forgives and saves lost and condemned sinners solely by his grace on account of Christ\u2019s most holy obedience all the way to the cross.&nbsp; It tells us that God forgives us our sins for Christ\u2019s sake, not because of any good thing we have done, are doing, or will ever do.&nbsp; It teaches us a heavenly doctrine.&nbsp; Only God can teach this doctrine.&nbsp; It runs counter to all human experience, wisdom, and expectation.&nbsp; It tells us of a love we don\u2019t deserve.&nbsp; Indeed, it gives us this love.&nbsp; It gives us Jesus.&nbsp; With Jesus comes peace with God, forgiveness of sins, freedom from guilt, and everlasting life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until God\u2019s law condemns us his gospel will provide us with no comfort.&nbsp; Only those who are sick need a doctor\u2019s care.&nbsp; Only those who are hungry will enjoy a hearty meal.&nbsp; Only the thirsty want to drink.&nbsp; The law is not designed to show us how to find eternal life.&nbsp; It is written to condemn us.&nbsp; It is written to expose us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who is the Christ?&nbsp; Who cares?&nbsp; The legal \u201cexperts\u201d didn\u2019t care.&nbsp; They knew he was David\u2019s Son but they didn\u2019t seem to recall that he was also David\u2019s Lord.&nbsp; They weren\u2019t interested in the Christ.&nbsp; They couldn\u2019t see their sickness unto death.&nbsp; They did not hunger and thirst for righteousness because they thought that they were righteous.&nbsp; They had their rules.&nbsp; They followed them.&nbsp; And so they silenced the judgment of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the law\u2019s judgment is not so easily silenced.&nbsp; Only the lawgiver can silence the judgment his law levels against us.&nbsp; And he does not do so by a mere word or command.&nbsp; He does so by fulfilling the demands he placed upon us all.&nbsp; David\u2019s Lord becomes David\u2019s son.&nbsp; He rules as king.&nbsp; He gains the authority of his kingdom by obeying.&nbsp; First he joins us.&nbsp; He becomes our brother.&nbsp; He becomes our substitute.&nbsp; Then he loves.&nbsp; Divine love becomes human love as God becomes a man.&nbsp; David\u2019s Lord becomes David\u2019s son in order to love as God requires those created in his image to love.&nbsp; He is the image of God.&nbsp; He loves as the representative of all those created in the image of God.&nbsp; He loves in the face of hatred.&nbsp; He loves while facing the mockery, the whip, the nails, and the agony of crucifixion.&nbsp; He fulfills the law.&nbsp; He meets divine justice.&nbsp; When he bears in his innocence humanity\u2019s guilt he destroys the power of the law to condemn us.&nbsp; He made our enemies his enemies and he conquered sin, death, and the devil as our Champion.&nbsp; He is now at God\u2019s right hand with our enemies under his feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The law promises but cannot deliver.&nbsp; It promises life to those who obey.&nbsp; We failed to obey.&nbsp; The law cannot give what it promises except on the condition that its requirements are met.&nbsp; So the law is powerless to help us.&nbsp; It can only accuse us.&nbsp; It can only kill us and send us to hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But David\u2019s Son and Lord obeyed the law.&nbsp; He alone received the promises the law gives to those who obey because he alone obeyed.&nbsp; But he did not obey for his own benefit.&nbsp; He obeyed for our benefit.&nbsp; And he gives us the benefit of his obedience.&nbsp; He gives it in the gospel.&nbsp; The gospel tells us that God reckons to us the very righteousness that Jesus gained by obeying the law perfectly all the way to death.&nbsp; The gospel doesn\u2019t tell us what we must do to gain God\u2019s favor.&nbsp; It tells us that Christ has already done so and this favor is given to us freely.&nbsp; It is ours through faith.&nbsp; We believe the gospel and all it promises is ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To trust in the law to save you is to trust in your own sin.&nbsp; That is a false faith that sends people to hell.&nbsp; To trust in the gospel to save you is to trust in the true God and his only begotten Son, Jesus.&nbsp; He is the Christ and he alone is your Savior from sin, death, and hell.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/TrinityEighteen2008.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eighteenth Sermon after Trinity| September 21, 2008| St. Matthew 22:34-46 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.&nbsp; Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, \u201cTeacher, which is the great commandment in the law?\u201d&nbsp; Jesus said to him, \u201c\u2018You shall&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/09\/11\/the-distinction-between-law-and-gospel\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,78],"tags":[575,238,221],"class_list":["post-4282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-18","tag-matthew-22","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6731,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions\/6731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}