Nonprincipal differences between Law and Gospel.
Nonprincipal differences between Law and Gospel.
§ 63. (V) From these primary and chief points of difference between Law and Gospel Bellarmine derives some others, as from springs. As the third difference between Law and Gospel, he claims that “the Law of Moses was given to only one people and that the Law of Christ was given to all nations.” Fourth, that “the Law for the most part embraces the shadow and figures of things to come while the Gospel shows the actual body and the truth.” Fifth, that the Law of Moses “had to be changed when the Law of Christ came, but no other law ought to be the successor to the Law of Christ.”
We respond. If by “Law” we understand the teaching of the Old Testament and by “Gospel” the teaching of the New, in which sense Bellarmine takes them, this can be said in a tolerable fashion. But here we are asking about the distinction between Law, properly taken as the doctrine of works, and the Gospel, also properly taken as the doctrine of faith. We must also point out that even though the Law of Moses was indeed given to only one people and entered the fullness of nations finally at the time of the New Testament, nevertheless the doors of the church were open to all even in the Old Testament, as countless examples of proselytes prove. The fact that the old Law had figures and shadows of things to come and was abrogated by the coming of Christ should be taken to refer to ceremonial laws but not to the moral Law, which is perpetual.
(VI) As a sixth difference, Bellarmine claims that the Law of Moses “did not have the power to justify, but the Gospel does have it because it gives the grace to fulfill the Law.”
We respond. Justification is on the basis of the Gospel not because the Gospel gives the grace to fulfill the Law but because it is the preaching of faith through which we embrace the benefits of Christ which are offered in this message of grace for our justification. Clearly the gift through grace—that is, the renewal through which we do good works—is also a benefit of the Gospel, yet it must be carefully distinguished from the forgiveness of sins of which our justification consists and which the gift of renewal or the grace of charity follows, as we shall explain more fully in its own place [On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 184–248]. What Bellarmine denies—that the teaching of the Gospel is ever set against the Law of Moses—is false (especially if “Law” is taken to mean the doctrine of works and “Gospel” to mean the message of grace), for the apostle clearly asserts: “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith in the Gospel apart from the Law” (Rom. 1:17; 3:21–22). Also, in the article of justification there is a perpetual contrast between Law and Gospel, works and faith, merit and grace, doing and believing.
(VII) Bellarmine’s seventh distinction is that “the Law of Moses is a law of fear and slavery while the Gospel is the law of love and liberty. In fact, the commandments of the Law establish people as guilty without grace while Christ gives the Spirit, through whom love is poured forth in the heart [cf. Rom. 5:5].”
(VIII) Finally, the eighth difference is that “the Law of Moses is very heavy, impossible to carry, while the Gospel of Christ is an easy yoke [cf. Matt. 11:30].”
** Salmeron (vol. 1, p. 421) says that the new Law (the proper teaching of Christ) began to bind us not while Christ was alive but after His death. Gregorius de Valentia lists three opinions about this matter: that the law of the Gospel began to be binding on the day of Pentecost, according to Capreolus; or at the point of Christ’s resurrection, according to Scotus; or at the point of the Lord’s death after He had said, “It is finished” [John 19:30]. He prefers this last to the others. **
We respond. It is, of course, a benefit of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit, who is given in regeneration, impels us to a spontaneous and voluntary obedience; that the Son frees us so that we are no longer “slaves to sin” (John 8:[34–]36); that “God’s love is poured forth into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5); that God’s Commandments are no longer “burdensome and bothersome” (1 John 5:3). Yet this consequence of justification must not be confused with the very act [of justification]; [more] on this in its own place [On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 184–248].
1 Lectures on Galatians (1535), WA 40/1:207 (cf. AE 26:115).
2 How Law and Gospel Are to Be thoroughly Distinguished (1532), WA 36:8–42 (AE 57:61–76).
3 [First] Lectures on Galatians (1519), WA 2:500 (cf. AE 27:235).
4 Lectures on Galatians (1535), WA 40/1:527 (cf. AE 26:343).