[That] the Law comes alone, and the Gospel comes with grace.
[That] the Law comes alone, and the Gospel comes with grace.
§ 62. (IV) Bellarmine draws the second distinction between Law and Gospel from things connected to them [ex annexis]: “The Law was given through Moses, who was only a lawgiver. The Gospel was given through Christ, who was not only a Lawgiver but also the Redeemer. Thus the Law comes alone, but the Gospel does not come alone but with grace.”
We respond. (1) Bellarmine takes “grace” to mean the grace of doing good works and of fulfilling the Law itself, that is, the gift through grace [donum per gratiam]; yet in the article of justification, grace means the free [gratuita] mercy of God by which He forgives the sins of those who believe in Christ, as we shall show in its own place [On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 17–30].
(2) Surely the primary meaning of this word should not have been omitted; instead, he should have connected both blessings of the Gospel: grace and the gift through grace. To be sure, through the Gospel not only the remission of sins but also the Holy Spirit, who begins to renew our nature and conform us to the Law, is given.
(3) Therefore if “Law” is properly understood as the teaching of works and “Gospel” as the free promise of the forgiveness of sins, then we acknowledge this distinction: that the Law only commands and demands but does not give the strength to accomplish them while the Gospel confers the Holy Spirit on believers, through whom they are impelled to do good works of every kind. “This only I wish to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law or by hearing through faith?” (Gal. 3:2), that is, from the Gospel. Augustine deals with this subject in detail in many places (especially in De spiritu et litera).
(4) Although this gift through grace, that is, the renewal of the Spirit, is no less a benefit of the Gospel than grace, that is, the free [gratuita] forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, yet still in the article on justification the renewal must be distinguished from the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, since we are justified not by that inchoate and incomplete renewal which is the consequence of justification but by faith in Christ.
(5) If the word “Law” is taken to mean the doctrine of the Old Testament as it is comprehended in the writings of Moses and the prophets, then the benefit of grace is to be hoped for from here. Indeed, the message of grace about the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ the Mediator sounds forth no less in the Old than in the New Testament, the message through which all the saints are justified and saved no less in the time of the Old Testament than in the New. “We believe that we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as our fathers were” (Acts 15:11). “The promise to Abraham and his seed that they should inherit the world did not come through the Law but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). “The Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the world” (Rev. 13:8).
(6) Whether and to what extent Christ is a Lawgiver shall be explained a little later [§§ 64–70].