Law & Gospel Distinctions

Law & Gospel

Imperatives & Indicatives

How we live & What we believe

What we are to do & What has been done on our behalf

As I have listened to The White Horse Inn over the past several years, this subject has often been the topic of conversation and I have benefited greatly from the discussions they have recorded for the teaching and edification of the church, so I can't take any credit for the list above which contains some ways of describing the distinctions between the Law and the Gospel.

The confusion of these two categories has caused and will cause many Christians to despair in their sanctification; constantly trying to gain favor with a God who is never pleased with their performance. Some times pastors, with the good intention of provoking his sheep to the good works to which they were called, use the Law to help them to test whether or not they are on God's "good side"; whether or not they are depleting the "rewards" column in their journey of sanctification. Certainly, the Law is to guide us and tell us how to live, but whenever anyone adds anything you must do to the gospel besides belief, then this confusion has taken place. We must constantly be reminded that, though the Law of God is good and perfect and true, there is noting in it that gives us the power to obey it; the only power there is for Christians to obey the Law of God is the power of the gospel; we all know that we are justified by the power in the proclamation of the gospel, but we too soon forget that the power God uses to sanctify us does not come from the Law but from the very same place from which the power He uses to justify us...the good news that Christ came to save sinners from the wrath of God by His perfect obedience of the Law and His substitutionary death on the cross.