Distinction between Law and Gospel: Fact or Fiction? Matters Much or Little? (Part 6)
We come now to the conclusion to the last part of our assertion in part four of our series which is how we see the law of God as it is administered under the covenant of grace. Again, law is not opposed to gospel so much as the law in administration of the covenant of grace is opposed and distinguished as it is administered in the covenant of works (Galatians 4:21-31; 2 Corinthians 3:7-11). Law is opposed to gospel in different covenants as it pertains to justification and redemption, not as it pertains to the need to be subject to the law.
The law of God comes to us in the hands of the mediator of the covenant of grace.
We read this in Hebrews 9:15:
He 9:15“Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
Let us simply take note here that we are under a different mediator and no longer under the law covenant mediator known as Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6). Keep this idea of Christ being our mediator who replaces Moses as we continue in Hebrews:
He 12:14 “Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness—without it no one will see the Lord.”Note how this conversation about the holiness which is essential for us to have develops.
He 12:18-24 “For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, 19 to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. (Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, 20 for they could not bear what was commanded: And if even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned! 21 The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling.) 22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels in festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to God who is the Judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 to Jesus (mediator of a new covenant), and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.”
Did you catch that? Our holiness which is required (not causally, but consequentially earlier in the chapter) is related to the kind of mediator we have (the call to pursue holiness is followed by this for statement explaining how). The author of Hebrews tells us that the call to holiness is connected to the law of God as it is under and through a mediator who is Lord over us in a different kind of covenantal arrangement (than the Mosaic one). Meaning that the law as it was in the conditional Sinai arrangement is not the cause of true holiness. Meaning that seeing holiness here as needed to enter heaven (holiness by which none will see the Lord) is not about the holiness itself, but the mediator's covenant arrangement in which the holiness exists. Consider how this conversation about holiness and mediation ends in verse 28.
He 12:28-29 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold on to grace. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”
How do we serve God with reverence and awe as the conversation about holiness in chapter 12 concludes? By nothing less than holding onto the unconditional covenant (kingdom which cannot be shaken) through the grace of our covenant mediator. How do we serve God with reverence and awe as the conversation about holiness in Hebrews chapter 12 concludes? By nothing less than holding onto the unconditional covenant (kingdom which cannot be shaken) through the grace of our covenant mediator. This means that the law of God always comes to us through our mediator (in the covenant of grace framework) and our law-keeping always is given to God through and in our mediator.
Let me show you what this looks like in other places. Paul talks about the call (law) to the other oriented life in Philippians 2:1-4 and then immediately calls us to have the mindset that is found in the life, crucifixion, and exaltation of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11). Meaning that we are to see the law of being humble and others-oriented through our mediator's saving, for-us humility and exaltation (law through the mediator's law-keeping). We are called to the law of humility through the works of our mediator, and then called to do humility through faith in our mediator's works. We are called to the law of humility as the law is given through the grace of our mediator (the humiliation of Christ on the cross). Consider the call to be united and not be divisive and defined by human factions in 1 Corinthians. Paul calls the church to obey the law of God as it pertains to a humble and loving community, but again does so through the covenantal grace of our mediator. So look at how the conversation ends in 1 Corinthians 1:
1 Cor 1:26-31, “Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord,”
Paul calls us to obey the law of God as it pertains to the need to be a humble unified community through the person and works of Christ who is said to—in Himself—be our sanctification (1 Cor 1:30). We receive this law through the grace mediation of Christ and we obey this law as we trust and offer this obedience through faith in our mediator. We live for Christ as Christ, Himself, is for us our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So this law conversation (about pride and factions) must be seen through Christ's works and our law conformity must be done through Christ's works. We hear the law through a grace law fulfilling mediator and obey the law through that same grace law fulfilling mediator. I could give endless examples of this in a lengthy book, however sparing you this, the picture here is clear. In the covenant of grace, we always hear God's law through the veil of our grace giving, law accomplishing mediator, and we always obey God's law unto God by faith through the lens of our grace giving, law accomplishing mediator. Failure to distinguish the law of God as it is administered in the covenant of grace (through our law-keeping mediator) is why we seem to always be dealing with people who administer the law of God by itself as Moses did on Sinai. Every sermon sounds like another lecture on ethics and holiness with the grace law fulfilling mediator absent from sight. In the law covenant, the demands are given and we say all these things we will do (Exodus 19:8), however in the grace covenant, we see the glory of God and His law in the face of Christ, our ‘for us’ law keeper (2 Corinthians 3:18) and we say all that we should do has been done. Therefore, if we administer the law in itself outside of the law-keeping tent of our mediator, we administer it wrongly and subtly call our people to lawless law-keeping. We behold all God's will through Christ and observe God's will through Christ.
Law keeping in the covenant of grace is not self-interested it is God interested.
One of the great errors of not distinguishing law as it administered in the covenant of grace versus the covenant of works, is in this issue of assurance (“doing” is the essence of assurance in law covenants while “trusting Christ's doing” is the essence of assurance in grace covenants). We use the law as the essence (explicitly or implicitly) of assurance before God and so often make law-keeping to be for the essential reason of obtaining security concerning our eternal state. There is something deeply wrong with this use of the law. We use the law as the essence (explicitly or implicitly) of assurance before God and so often make law-keeping to be for the essential reason of obtaining security concerning our eternal state. There is something deeply wrong with this use of the law. At the heart of lawlessness is not simply lawbreaking but a self-interested bent in our morality... At the heart of lawlessness is not simply lawbreaking but a self-interested bent in our morality (Colossians 3:5). This means that we do the right things for selfish reasons rather than God-centered reasons. If we preach the law for the purpose of assuring people that their law-keeping is in essence about their positional security before God, then we create a selfish reason to do the law of God. This goes complete against the way the covenant of grace works in the souls of God's people where they are motivated not by obtaining assurance of their ultimate status by their works, rather they are motivated from the assurance of their already-status from Christ' work in the application of the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-38; Ezekiel 36:26-36; 2 Peter 1:9). It is only when we are assured of our ultimate state before God that we can serve God and obey His law for non-selfish reasons; this is true assurance which contrasts with a false, measured assurance derived from feeling like we are not going to hell because we are obeying enough. When we preach the law of God in the covenant of grace we obey not for the purposes of self preservation, but from the freedom and joy that we have in our unconditional justification (through faith in Christ who met the conditions). In the convent of grace we are under the law, but not under it for essentially serving our self-preserving, pragmatic, humanistic reasons to feel ok about our eternity; we are under the law to obey it because we genuinely want to owing to the immensity of gratitude that abounds from an assured state based upon our covenant law-keeper and fulfiller who is Christ. When law-keeping is preached to essentially assure (as it is in covenant of works), we create a culture of people who please God to use God for ultimate self-preservation and not free adoration. Only when the law of God is preached in the covenant of grace does our law-keeping become God-centered and truly God-interested.
Our law-keeping is paternal, not legal, though it is according to legal standards.
One of the real issues with failing to distinguish how law is administered in different covenants is in the nature and tone and dynamic that it is administered. Meaning, the law is often preached to the church in a shaming and defining (defines and proves you) manner. Said another way, the law comes to us to humiliate us into conformity to it and/or it comes to us in the courtroom where we are either gaining positional or practical approval or condemnation from it. The law is preached to intimidate, shame, and bully us into being law-keepers. This is how the law comes to the sinner in the covenant of works (Romans 7:1-14), but not in the covenant of grace. Here are some examples:
Romans 8:14-16 “All those led by God's Spirit are God's sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ 16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children.”
If you follow the conversation from chapter 7 and the beginning of 8Law-keeping is essentially unto a Father who loves and cherishes not a judge who threatens, tests, and insults us. you see that this fear comes from seeing the law of God outside of the covering provisions and realities of grace (Romans 7:24-25; Romans 8:1). Paul is saying that we live unto God and for God not from the fear of the conditional, legal framework, rather we live unto God from the familial dynamic in the unconditional setting. Law-keeping is essentially unto a Father who loves and cherishes not a judge who threatens, tests, and insults us. In Galatians 4, Paul says similarly,
Ga 4:1-7 “Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Observe something very carefully here. When the law of God was administered under the conditional framework to the corporate people of God, we operated and lived as slaves. Meaning that we existed in this place of fear and insecurity as God remained our legal judge. However, the law of God in and through the covenant of grace (because of Christ's law-keeping) puts us into the family status and category as the essential category which qualifies the relationship. In the covenant of grace we obey our irrevocable and unconditional Father not our legal and conditional judge (though He is our legal judge). ...the ongoing testimony of the Spirit is that we are relating to God and His law from, and through, and in fatherly affections (in the belovedness of the Son). Ironically, however, it seems that preachers want to administer the law from Sinai where it comes to install fear and shame in the sinner (Hebrews 12:18-24), and to either vindicate or damn the sinner based upon his/her zeal for law-keeping. However, the law of God in the covenant of grace administers God's law not from the intimidation and insecurity of the courtroom, but rather from the security and affection of the family room. It sounds different and looks different because it is operating in a different context with different dynamics. Paul makes it clear that the law in the conditional framework should shame, kill, and crush us (Romans 7:1-14); however, the law of God sounds very different in the unconditional framework (1 John 5:2-4). Failure to distinguish the law of God in the family and legal dynamic found in these frameworks makes the household of God to smell of homes that were defined by parents who treated their kids more like defendants in a courtroom than children. According to the texts we have seen, the ongoing testimony of the Spirit is that we are relating to God and His law from, and through, and in fatherly affections (in the belovedness of the Son).
The law of God in the covenant of grace is more about re-experiencing and re-rehearsing the narrative of death and resurrection than reinforcing the precepts and primacy of law-keeping.
I think one of the issues that often occurs is misinterpretation of God when He says something; we somewhat overlook how He says things and where He says things. Consider how Paul develops a topic concerning our growth and maturity in law-keeping in Colossians. It seems that the Colossian church was being influenced by a teaching that mixed legalism and mysticism as the means of creating us to conform to and reflect God's will. Notice how Paul addresses this issue and how he does not:
Colossians 2:8-15 “Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah. 12 Having been buried with Him in baptism, you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.
As Paul addresses this idea of our maturing and being complete concerning God's will, he re-rehearses the gospel narrative of death and resurrection. He not only re-rehearses and re-scripts the gospel narrative of death and resurrection, but he places his audience (and us) back in that narrative in the present. According to Paul, we are ever and always made keepers of God's law as we are re-scripted and re-appropriate the gospel narrative of our positional death and resurrection (that we have already been brought into). God doesn't say to us, “after you believe the gospel move on to perfection and law-keeping by rehearsing the laws of God obsessively.” He says to us, “re-rehearse and find yourself anew in the death of Christ where you died and in the resurrection of Christ where you where raised (Romans 6:1-10).” The key to law-keeping is in the power of finding ourselves anew in this redemptive narrative. It is the power of re-encountering the drama that leads to devotion and obedience. The key to law-keeping is in the power of finding ourselves anew in this redemptive narrative. In Galatians, Paul goes extensively into the fruits of Christian living and then makes a fascinating statement. He says, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. 26 We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Did you hear that? Our lawless life in its domineering extent (capacity to be enslaved by lawlessness) has been crucified and the key to our current law keeping is found in finding ourself in this powerful narrative which has changed everything. Consider what happens to the cowardly doubting disciples in Luke 24 when Christ brings them into the narrative of death and resurrection in all the scriptures. It says that their hearts burned with passion (Luke 24:32). Their present state of Godward affection was dependent on the present clarity and appropriation of the gospel narrative. Or how about when Paul talks about how we should not live like the gentiles in sexual impurity. Paul says, “But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, 21 assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus. 22 You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; 23 you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; 24 you put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” Paul says you should not be sexually lawless by virtue of bringing the church in the present back into the narrative of their positional death and resurrection in and with Christ! Meaning that the key to law-keeping in the covenant of grace is in the power of God presently and regularly rewriting us into the narrative of our death and resurrection in and with Christ. This is why in Colossians 3:16, Paul says to let the word about Christ dwell richly among the church (the narrative of our death and resurrection) which is the ground of all the indicatives about men, woman and children in the following verses. Law-keeping is primarily about regularly rehearsing the narrative of our death and resurrection in the story about Christ. ...the key to law-keeping in the covenant of grace is in the power of God presently and regularly rewriting us into the narrative of our death and resurrection in and with Christ. In the covenant of grace it is all about how the Spirit through the ongoing announcement (also made visible in sacrament) of the gospel narrative of our death and resurrection powerfully renews and compels us to conform to God's law. We tend to think of the gospel as a cognitive word about our past and future salvation that we need to do something with to create or unleash the actual and present power, but in actuality the gospel narrative is the actual effective power that acts on us (2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 3:1-3). It seems that modern preachers think that the power is in emphatically and primarily rehearsing God's commands to die to self and live unto God when in actuality it is the ongoing hearing and re-appropriation of our in-Christ already death and new life that is. As you regularly find yourself in the positional death of Christ and resurrection, you regularly find your capacity to be under the law of God in light of the Christ narrative more than the “you should do” precept regurgitation. You may say, “what do you do with all the commands in the word of God.” I say that I hear them all and see them all as fully binding. But I also say that they are shadowed by and stated in the ongoing and regular experience of our place in the gospel narrative. Preaching is about God in Christ regular taking of the center stage in the souls of His people in the wonder of the historic Christ. My dear friends, Christianity is not about the will's power to kill sin but about the Spirit's power to regularly unleash our death and resurrection in and with Christ (Romans 7:4). When we regularly attend the drama of the gospel where we were ended and raised, we regularly leave the theatre of the narrative compelled to live unto God. Now that we have thoroughly explained how the law is administered differently in the different covenants, our next topic in the series addresses the various uses of the law in the bible.
