Rightly Dividing the Word

God gives two words. These two words are law and gospel. Neither necessarily carries more weight, but each has a particular function in Christian life and preaching. They stand as complete words separately, yet complement each other beautifully. Failure to distinguish between the two words or to preach some mixture of them as the same word invariably leads to confusion and often to exasperation and rejection of both. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that we learn to carefully distinguish between the two and understand their respective functions.

The Law is meant to terrify. It never comforts, and offers no relief from its relentless demands of perfection. It says “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not” and can bring nothing but wrath upon those who fail to keep it. It does nothing to woo us to obedience, but demands obedience with no offer of aid. We cannot be justified by doing it because it was never intended to justify. As Paul states in Romans 3:20, ”…by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” This passage indicates what the law does and does not do; it does not justify but makes us aware of our sin.

The first function of the Law is to show sinners their sinfulness. It is the very thing that destroys our illusions of self-righteousness. It shows us that we are law-breakers, and in so doing leads us to despair. We might be ever so secure in our sinning – imagining ourselves to be ‘pretty good’ relative to others – until the law comes and shows us that the standard is not ‘pretty good’, but perfection. Since none of us is perfect, the law passes judgment on our imperfection and exposes us to the truth that we are “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” (Romans 9:22 ESV) The law is meant to terrify.

The other word of God is the gospel. It is meant to comfort those who have been terrorized by the law. The law points the accusing finger at us and declares “guilty”. The gospel says to us, “There is one who has fulfilled the law on your behalf. Believe that He has done it and be declared righteous.” The gospel, unlike the law, makes no demands of perfection. It is an invitation to enter into the rest which was won by Christ – to be sheltered from the terrifying demands of the law. The person who has accepted this invitation has been released from the tyranny of law.

In practice, as Christians, the law will often come to terrify us with its threatenings. It will repeatedly remind us that we are not yet perfect in thought, word or deed. But, for the Christian, the law does not carry the promised wrath that it does for the non-Christian. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 ESV) The law still threatens us, but has no power to condemn us. To the Christian, the law is a sheep dog. If a sheep strays from the heard, the purpose of the sheep dog is to threaten it in such a way as to drive it back to the safety of the shepherd without injuring it. Like the sheep, we don’t always understand that the law has no intention of injuring us. When it barks at us, we might bolt away from the shepherd in terror or stubbornly challenge it. This causes the law to redouble its efforts to drive us back to the shepherd and safety. If we learn that comfort and safety are found when we are near the shepherd, we can save ourselves much grief and terror. The shepherd is the only one who can truly protect us from both the threats that lay outside the heard and the sheep dogs within. We must come to understand that the shepherd and the sheep dogs are on the same team, and the goal of the team is our safety, but they have very different functions. In the end, we must not run at the dogs, but to the shepherd. The closer we stay to him, the less the dogs will threaten us.

This is where we so often get ourselves in trouble. When we sin, we fall back into our old habits of either softening up the law to make it appear possible to keep, comparing ourselves with others to justify our sin, or believing that this is the only word of God that applies to us and running from it. This is because we misunderstand the purpose of the law, again thinking that we are somehow justified or condemned by it. When we sin, it is not struggling to meet or run from the law that will bring us back to God, but the richness God’s mercy which is demonstrated in the gospel. If the gospel of God’s kindness is mixed with the wrath of the law, it cannot comfort us but only force us to continue running. This ‘law/gospel hybrid’ does not maintain either the sharp edge of the law or the welcoming comfort of the gospel and in the end is good for nothing.

It is important for us to learn to make a sharp distinction between the two words of God and allow each to function as it is intended in our lives. It is doubly important that we understand this when presenting the two words to others. If we terrorize with the law without offering the comfort of the gospel, there is no balance in our evangelism and we will produce sheep that run from the shepherd. If we comfort the self-righteous who have never been broken by the law, we will produce sheep that have no regard for the safety that the shepherd alone offers and wander without regard for the law. If we mix the two as if they are one, we produce sheep that are ultimately brought to absolute confusion and disgust with the whole thing.

That is the gospel truth.

God Bless