Distinction between Law and Gospel: Fact or Fiction? Matters Much or Little? (Part 2)

The second main concept about the Law is that the way the law is administered is not mixed between the different covenants. This is where the phrase “distinguishing law and gospel” comes from. We do not mix the way the law is seen in the the covenant of works (means of meriting and keeping covenant) in the same way it is seen in the covenant of grace, nor vice-versa.

Law as it is seen in different covenants is distinct and never mixed with the other covenant.

Here is the key to understanding about distinguishing different covenants and how the law of God is seen differently in them and that these arrangements cannot be mixed and matched. We must see the law of God as it is in the conditional framework or as it is in the unconditional framework but not both (Galatians 4:21-31). You see the issue often is that we want to make the law in God's conditional works covenants and or arrangements to be mixed with the principles and realities of God’s unconditional grace covenants. A prime example of this is seen in Galatians 3 where the church was being called to seek their status and preservation and inheritance as God's covenant people through the imperfect keeping of the law covenant of Moses as they trusted in Christ's unconditional grace. They saw it like this: the law of God does not actually demand perfection in law-keeping in order to merit and sustain life and blessing, but rather we can seek to keep the Moses contract imperfectly while the grace of Christ comes in and fills the gaps. We can be saved by law in the conditional covenant so far as we have the grace of Jesus to use! Law is gospel (means of salvation) if we just get a little grace power! It's not law leading us to the gospel but about how the law becomes gospel as grace comes into the picture. Grace just makes the conditions of law to grade on a curve! But Paul emphatically declares that the law covenant demands perfection in law-keeping and also demands the curses for law-breaking. There is no grace in the law covenant! Grace does not come in and reduce the need to perfectly keep the law in the law covenant! Notice what Paul says to the Galatians:

Galatians 3:11 “Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.”

Did you hear that? The law is not based on or related to faith in grace, it does not operate on or with grace, the law is not said to be grace or gracious, the law covenant demands perfect performance! If we bring the grace of God in Christ into the law covenants, then we lose and diminish the law and we lose our need for the gospel of grace in an unconditional covenant. Grace just comes to help us meet the conditions in the conditional framework.

Let's see this somewhere else. Romans 10:5 says, “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down 7 or, “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. 8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”

Do you see this again? The law as it is in the Mosaic covenant is not about faith or grace but about the perfect keeping of the law; it is about perfection unto merit and blessing. Law in the law covenant is about achieving and earning by perfect works! However on the flip side the covenantal arrangement under Christ is not about any sort of conditional law-keeping, rather it is about trusting in Christ's law-works. When we look at the law here, there is no grace in the law covenant only perfect performance and likewise, there is no conditional law-keeping in the grace covenant. Whenever we see the law of God in a conditional framework where our law keeping is the cause of status and blessing, we must see this as an utter impossibility (2 Corinthians 3:7-15; Romans 7:1-15).

Some of us flatten out the law to be the good news of the gospel as we use God's grace to help us keep the terms of the law covenant in an imperfect manner. However, keeping the law imperfectly never can justify, but only condemn (Galatians 3:10; Romans 3:20). Others of us approach this differently as we try to operate in the covenants of grace with the conditional law-keeping principles from the conditional law covenants. ...the covenantal arrangement under Christ is not about any sort of conditional law-keeping, rather it is about trusting in Christ's law-works. Said another way some of us bring the law as it is used in family dynamic (grace covenant) into the workplace (works covenant) and others of us seek to bring the law as it is in the work place into the family context. Even though we acknowledge that we are saved unconditionally by Christ keeping the terms for us and giving us credit for what He has done, we still tend to reapply the conditional law-keeping concepts in the covenant of works. We see the grace of the gospel as if it empowers us to keep the conditional terms of law in order to merit or sustain some kind of status and ultimate blessing (Galatians 3:1-3). We turn the covenant of grace into a covenant of works as we bring the conditional law-keeping framework back into the picture (Galatians 5:1-4). We see law-keeping (assisted by grace) come in as the final capstone and finishing touch of unconditional grace. When we mix and match law as it is in different covenants, suddenly conversion becomes a mixture of faith and works and we begin to call people to salvation by calling them to faith and works or faith and faithfulness. All of a sudden, we begin to say that the way we got into this covenant is by grace but the way we know we are in and will ultimately be in is by meeting the conditional works required.

Even though we acknowledge that we are saved unconditionally by Christ keeping the terms for us and giving us credit for what He has done, we still tend to reapply the conditional law-keeping concepts in the covenant of works.

We have already affirmed that God's law is all over the unconditional grace covenants (Jeremiah 31:31-34), but simply because there is law does not mean that the law is being administered conditionally as the means to justify or condemn or conditionally qualify us. Law keeping exists at every stage of us relating to God in the covenant of grace but never does is exist causally or contingently, rather it only exists consequentially. To say that grace works is not to say that works save grace and or that the works that grace produces is weighed into justifying grace. To say that every one who has embraced God's unconditional grace must be subject to God's law is not to say that any element of that law-keeping is the reason or cause or basis of the saving relationship and ultimate blessing. That is the language of law as it is administered in conditional law covenant. The way the law of God is seen in the law covenant is all about how law-keeping defines and grounds the relationship and corresponding blessings (Luke 18:18). In the covenant of grace, however, the relationship and blessings are based on Christ's law-keeping not ours (Galatians 4:4-6; Galatians 3:10-14). Christ has met the conditions of the covenant of works so that we can now relate to God unconditionally in the covenant of grace where the law of God is our guide to godliness and Christ, not the causal basis for initial, future, or ultimate status, life and blessing. Law as it is seen in the covenant of grace is truly distinct even though it looks to the same standards.

To sum up part two on our topic of the law and gospel distinction, which is better stated as covenants of grace or works distinction, here are some key elements: First, the law of God in the covenant of works always demands perfect performance for status, life, and blessings. The standard for law unto righteousness is never lessened under the covenant of Moses nor the covenant mediation of Christ. The law is not grace here, nor is it gracious, nor a means of grace, it is all about meeting the legal terms and meriting glory. Law in the conditional covenant framework can only damn and exile us (Romans 4:15). We cannot bring the grace found in the grace arrangements and let the standard of obedience to be graded on a curve. The law in the covenant of works is always do it all or die. The grace of God does not lower the standard so we can win the game of law-keeping as the initial or ultimate cause of blessing.

Second, we cannot see the law of God as it operates under the covenant of grace in some sort of causal and contingent way where our status and final blessing is somehow connected to our law-keeping. The covenant of grace is not the launch pad for us to fulfill the law of Moses and so see some sort of contingency or cause to our initial or final redemption by law-keeping. The covenant of grace is not based on our works nor caused by them at any stage, even though there is a guarantee that we will work the works of law in the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace has nothing to do at any phase with our works (only as the consequence but not the cause) but rather it is based on Christ meeting the legal conditions of the law covenant; so now we are not under the law as a means to justify or condemn but rather we are under law as guided and informed, saved sons. Law and gospel are not opposites of each other in themselves, however law under the covenant of works is indeed opposite of law as it is seen in the covenant of grace.