Distinction between Law and Gospel: Fact or Fiction? Matters Much or Little? (Part 8)
We continue our examination of the various nuances of the way law is used in scripture in order to rightly understand it. In order to continue this topic, we need to address how the law is used specifically in the covenant of grace.
Law as it Speaks to its Usage in the Covenant of Grace
Review what is written in Titus:
Titus 3:1-8 “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.”
Notice a few things about the way the law is used in verse 1 and 3 and verse 8. First, the law of God does not come to justify and or condemn the church positionally. It is telling us what faith-fueled righteousness looks like, not providing a conditional standard to potentially attain. Second, we get no indication here that the statement of the law has the capacity to create law-keeping. We often assume that hearing the law in the covenant of grace assumes that simply by hearing it one can attain what it demands. However, what we see here from verses 3-7. is that it is faith in the finished work of Christ which is the efficient cause to law-keeping not the law itself. The law of God in this context (covenant of grace) is speaking to what godliness looks like consequentially, not causally. In other words, this is not about how we can be justified nor sanctified by law, but it is about what is required and what saving faith looks like in the covenantal framework of grace. If a preacher uses the law here to justify or condemn the Christian (positionally) based on how well or much he works the law's requirements here, he totally misses the point and misuses the law. He has failed to distinguish both law and gospel as he has not picked up on the covenantal setting it is being used in.
Law as it is Speaking about the New Covenant
Turn and review what is written in James:
James 2:8-12 “Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn't shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.'
Let us consider a few things in this text. James begins by speaking about the Royal law which is efficient to condemn us of any kind of transgression. This sounds like the law as it was administered in the Mosaic framework as its function was to condemn and kill us for any single infraction. But notice how when it comes to the issue of obedience, James says that we should act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. Meaning that the previous reference to law is not our covenantal context which presently defines us. We are to speak and act as those who are under a different covenantal context known as the law of freedom.
Note also that it is being under this law (law of freedom) which is the cause or reason to be able to abide by what the royal law demanded. Ironically, people hear the phrase “the law of freedom” here and take it to mean that the law (ten commandments) is the decisive and effective cause to our new creation, obedient life. James is contrasting the way the church is under the royal law with the law of freedom; so this use of law is not about the the power or need to keep the law but it is about what covenantal system of law we are operating under. The law of freedom which informs and qualifies our actions for James is none other than the new covenant (last administration of the covenant of grace). James is using law, in the phrase law of freedom, to speak about the covenantal realities of the new covenant as opposed to the Mosaic covenant. Law is being used here to speak about the New Covenant system and how we see God's royal law differently under that new covenant system (which is said to be the law of freedom). So the way we distinguish law here is not by using law of freedom as some sort of reason to champion the redeeming and sanctifying power of the law but, the law here is being used to discuss the new covenant administration of law in its moral superiority for those who are under it.
Law as it Speaks to Ceremonial Types and Shadows of Mosaic Covenant as a Whole
Hebrews 8:4-6 “Now if He were on earth, He wouldn't be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain. 6 But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on better promises.”
Hebrews 9:22 “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Hebrews 10:1 “Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.”
There is a common thread in the three verses above. And that is, the author of Hebrews is not speaking about the law as a guide to life, nor is he speaking about it as it is in the covenant of works to condemn the sinner for inability to meet perfection, but rather it is speaking about the law as it pertains to the types and shadows of its ceremonial/typological elements under the Mosaic period. The audience in Hebrews was seeking to go back to the shadows of the law as it pertained to the priesthood and sacrifices and so the use of law here is speaking to the typological function of the ceremonial law. Law is being used here to speak to the necessity to see Christ as the fulfillment of all the typological elements of the Mosaic time period and to never go back to those shadowy elements. We must distinguish the law of God in its typological elements that were fulfilled in Christ and in its eternal elements that are always valid in and through and beyond the eras of types and shadows.Law here is not about obeying the will of God in precepts so much as it is in seeing the ceremonial elements of the Mosaic system as being fulfilled in Christ once and for all. We must distinguish the use of law here if we are to rightly understand its use. We must distinguish the law of God in its typological elements that were fulfilled in Christ and in its eternal elements that are always valid in and through and beyond the eras of types and shadows.
Law of God as It Spoke to Adam Before Fall and to Us after the Fall
This distinction of law is often overlooked but it is essential for carefully seeing the law of God in its unique and contextual expressions, meaning how it is used before the fall conditionally to Adam and how it is used after the fall conditionally to us. Notice how the law comes to Adam in the covenant of works before the fall.
Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.’”
A critical element to notice here is that God bringing about conditional terms to man before the fall is a described as blessing. Meriting and keeping the covenantal terms conditionally to Adam in His perfection was something good and attainable. Man before the fall hears the law in its conditionality and it is a good thing and a real and attainable means to enter into the end time ultimate rest that we see in Revelation 22. But look at how the law administered conditionally is seen in the conditional covenant after the fall.
Romans 7:7-12 “What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.”
What happened? The law in its conditional setting which presented true promise and true ability to abide by its terms is now a very negative thing which seals and affirms our death? The law administered conditionally after the fall of Adam does not come positively to give us the capacity to meet its terms and pass probation; no it comes to show us how we have failed catastrophically and could never and only fail ultimately. One of the big issues that occurs is making no distinction with how the law comes conditionally to Adam in His perfect glory and to us in our imperfections (before and after salvation) is that we see the law as our friend and advocate coming to encourage us along the way with what we have the capacity to do. Let us affirm something in all this as crystal clear, the law conditionally given to Adam before the fall had true and actual potential to bring him to earn and enter into glory, but the law conditionally given to us on Sinai after the fall could only condemn, kill, and seal our fate. Covenant conditionality before the fall was good and promising but conditionality after the fall never held any promise or hope to the sinner. Let us affirm something in all this as crystal clear, the law conditionally given to Adam before the fall had true and actual potential to bring him to earn and enter into glory, but the law conditionally given to us on Sinai after the fall could only condemn, kill, and seal our fate. Some of us think that the grace of Christ puts us back into the garden where the law of God administered conditionally is our friend and advocate that can bring us into glory. However, the law of God in its conditional covenant framework (post fall) is never the friend of the sinner which offers him a means to attain anything before and from God. In all of our new obedience from the new birth we still violate the law of God and put ourselves under the curses of the conditional administration (if we operate under the covenant of works framework). We cannot see the law given conditionally to the perfectly righteous Adam in the same way as it is given to the imperfectly righteous us. We must distinguish the conditional law covenant giving the law to Adam from the Mosaic law covenant coming to sinners after the fall. The conditional law framework has only one purpose post-fall and that is to bury the sinner in that framework and bring him into the unconditional framework.
Having gone through all the nuances of law, you would think we have accomplished our task to make a biblical case for law and gospel (covenantally administered) distinction correct? Bear with me here, there is still one more loose end that we must deal with in this conversation for us to hold this cohesive structure together.
