Ii.—The Connexion Of The Law With The Gospel.
CHAPTER III. THE SCRIPTURAL MODE OF PREACHING THE LAW.
The mark of a minister “approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed,” is that he “rightly divides the word of truth.” This implies a full and direct application of the Gospel to the mass of his unconverted hearers, combined with a body of spiritual instruction to the several classes of Christians. His system will be marked by Scriptural symmetry and comprehensiveness. It will embrace the whole revelation of God in its doctrinal instructions, experiential privileges, and practical results. This revelation is divided into two parts—the Law and the Gospel—essentially distinct from each other; though so intimately connected, that an accurate knowledge of neither can be obtained without the other. The preaching of the Law is therefore a main part of our subject. We shall consider it separately; and in its connexion with the Gospel.898
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I. THE PREACHING OF THE LAW—ITS CHARACTER—USES—AND OBLIGATIONS.
There can be no question, that the preaching of the law in its true character and connection forms a constituent part of the Ministry of the Gospel. Some indeed, most inaccurately identify the preaching of the law with legal preaching. Others preach the law independently of the Gospel. Others again narrow its exceeding breadth, by bringing character and conduct to the criterion of some lower rules and inferior standard—such as expediency, the opinion of the world, prudence, and consequences. But as there is a legal mode of preaching the Gospel, so there is an evangelical mode of preaching the Law. Luther’s indignation was roused by propositions brought to him against the preaching of the law, because it could not justify. ‘Such seducers’ (he said) ‘already come among our people while we yet live; what will be done when we are gone? Never’ (he observes) ‘was a more bold and harsh sermon preached in the world, than that which St. Paul preached, in which he quite abolishes and removes Moses together with his law, as insufficient for a sinner’s salvation. Nevertheless, we must drive on with the ten commandments in due time and place. When we are not in hand with justification, we ought to greatly and highly esteem the law. We must extol and applaud it in the highest degree, and (with St. Paul) we must count it good, true, spiritual, and Divine, as in truth it is.’ 899
The Apostle combines his view of the character and obligations of the law with his most expanded views of evangelical truth. He defines its character to be “holy, just, and good.” 900 He informs us that its lawful use is “good” 901 for us. The exposition of this character, and the enforcement of this use, must therefore be involved in the terms of the Ministerial commission.
The character of the law of God, as the transcript of the mind and image of God, is “holy” as presenting to man the love of God, and at the same time exhibiting that most glorious proof of God’s love to man, which is the essence of his holiness: it is “just”—being conformable to and deduced from the first, the simplest, and the clearest principles of justice between God and his creature; it is “good”—such a law as conscience tells us is suitable to the character of God; it is most useful to accomplish the Divine purpose of uniting man to God by a happy discipline of obedience; and
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constant obedience to it will bring him to that consummation of bliss which is ordained as the end and recompense of his work.” 902 Thus in its Author—in its matter—and in its end—it demands our highest regard.
The uses of the law are various and important. The world is indebted to it for many wholesome results. It reveals to them the holy nature and character of God; it informs them of their duty, and it binds them to its performance. Without the bridling restraint of the law, the world would become “a field of blood.” It also condemns those who cast off its yoke.903 Even the heathen are brought in guilty by “the work of the law, written in their hearts.” 904 It is also the medium of conviction of sin. Those indeed, who dispense with the law from their Ministry, acknowledge no medium of conviction except the cross. But did not our Lord employ the moral law with the young Ruler, for this express purpose? 905 “Was it not also the appointed means to bring the Apostle to the spiritual apprehension of his sin? 906 Its cognizance of every thought, imagination, desire, word, and work, and its uncompromising demand for absolute and uninterrupted obedience, upon pain of its everlasting penalty—convince the heart of its guilt, defilement, and wretchedness. These leave the sinner without excuse and without help; under the frown of a holy and angry God—they leave him prepared to welcome a Saviour, or be lost forever without him. Thus the prayer—“God be merciful to me a sinner” 907—is forced even from Paul, whose external deportment had been “regarding the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” 908 He now sees in himself the very character of sinfulness and misery to which the Gospel addresses itself; and stretching out the hand of desire and faith, he receives the free gift of Christ. Now he feels the advantage of the law too well: to be willing, along with the Antinomian, to cast it off because it has lost its justifying power.909 For its covenant form enlarges his apprehension of the necessity, character, and excellence of the gospel! The
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intervention of a Surety, a Redeemer, and an atonement, was the effect of the Divine determination to magnify the law, and make it honourable;” 910 so that God might honourably pardon, justify, and save the transgressors. The precept and penalty of the law explain therefore the necessity for the sufferings and death of Immanuel. Thus “the glory of the Ministration of condemnation” commends the “exceeding glory of the Ministration of life and righteousness.” 911 This mirror exhibits to us indirectly, what the Gospel shows us in direct terms—our infinite obligation to the love of Christ for what he has become, done, and suffered in our place. This is our constraining bond to his service, whose obedience has answered all the demands, allowed all the penalties standing against us, and “brought in everlasting righteousness” as our ground of acceptance before God.
As a rule of life also, the Law is of the utmost importance to the Christian. It comes to him as the chief perfection of righteousness,’ 912 with the authority of God as his Creator, his Sovereign, and his Judge. It is doubly enforced, as the law of his Redeemer; for though he is “not without law as to God,” yet he is especially “under the law as to Christ.” 913 This is his course of cheerful obedience in his Master’s yoke of love; which is his highest earthly privilege, as it will be the consummation of his heavenly enjoyment.914
The uses of the law as a rule of life are most efficient means of promoting stedfastness and consistency. Being “written in the heart,” it affords to the Christian a continual touchstone of sincerity. He has “the testimony of his conscience,” 915 that he “consents to the law that it is good;” that he “delights in it after the inward man;” that he “esteems all God’s commandments concerning all things to be right;” that he counts his lack of perfect conformity to it the sin of every moment; that he is satisfied with no attainment short of being “holy, as he that has called him is holy,” and “perfect, as his Father which is in heaven is perfect.” 916
The rule of the law also furnishes a daily standard of self-examination. The servant of God laments his natural, and often unconscious, spring of self-exaltation; however, the law, as the standard of perfection, operates as a constant and timely check to this. It lays him low in the dust; it confounds him for the sins of his services, as well as for his open transgressions; that he may “count all but dung and dross” in comparison to Christ; that he may be
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simple in his dependence on His cross, and quickened to renewed applications for pardon, acceptance, and supplies of grace.
The obligation of this law upon the Christian is as immutable as the throne of God. What can annul the necessary relation of a creature to his Creator? The additional bond of redemption strengthens—not annihilates—the original obligation. Do we cease to be creatures by becoming new creatures? And are we not therefore still bound to personal obedience by the sovereign authority of God? Or does the obligation of the law lose its force by being conveyed to us through the hands of Christ—himself Lord of all, and standing to us in the most endearing and authoritative relation? Why, we may ask, do men wish to be rid of this rule? But for some latent enemy to the holiness of the Divine character, the thought of escaping from the directive force of the law would be intolerable. So far from “gendering unto bondage,” it is “the perfect freedom” 917 of evangelical service; so that it is hard to say, whether we are more indebted for deliverance from the law as a covenant, or for subjection to the law as a rule. The proof of our love for the Saviour is “keeping his commandments;” 918 which are none others than the precepts of the moral law, bound upon the Christian’s heart with chains of the most powerful and attractive obligation. The first desire of the awakened sinner is—“Lord, what will you have me do?” 919 His constant prayer is “that his love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment;” that he may “not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” 920 It cannot therefore, be legal bondage, or indeed otherwise than evangelical privilege, to thus receive the law from the Saviour’s hands, stripped of its condemning power, and regulating our affections, temper, and conversation to his glory.
Some of our people, however, are so excited and enlivened by the promises of the Gospel, that the inculcation of the Law is depressing to them. But in cases of sincerity, this arises from a narrow misconception of the design and uses of the Law: while loose conduct in many other cases too plainly proves their unconscious need of its wholesome restraints and directions. Some also of our brethren seem afraid of enforcing the obligations of the law, lest they be thought to be teachers of Moses rather than Christ. But our Lord had no hesitation in establishing the obligations of the old dispensation, 921 or in leading his disciples to confess them as their bounden duty. 922Following, therefore, his example,
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we might much more easily bear the imputation of legality for enforcing the sanctions of the law, than the reproaches of our conscience for passing them by.
The leaven of Antinomianism is indeed most congenial with the corruption of the heart; and its deadly influence is but too apparent in the inconsistent lives of its professors. To substitute the law of love for the rule of the Decalogue, is to put the main-spring of the watch in place of the regulator; and to exchange a stable directory of conduct for a principle that is subject to incessant variations, and readily counterfeited by the delusions of a self-deceiving heart. The disciples of this school rarely, if ever, attain to a stedfast profession; while immortal souls perish in the too frequent defect of Christian sincerity, as the melancholy victims of delusion.
Glancing for a moment at the relative aspects and uses of the law, we remark—As a covenant, it excites “the spirit of bondage unto fear;” humbling, alarming, convincing, and leading to despondency. As a rule of life, under Divine conduct, it exercises in the Christian “the spirit of adoption”—his habitual desire, and delight in conformity to it, witnessing his interest in the family of God. As a covenant, the law brings men to Christ for deliverance from its tyranny. Christ returns them to the law as their rule: that, while they are delivered from its dominion (“that being dead in which they were held”) they “might serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” 923 And thus they show their gratitude to him for his perfect obedience to it as a covenant in their stead, by their uniform obedience to it as a rule in his service.
We cannot indeed have too much of the Gospel; but we may have too little of the Law. And a defect in the Evangelical preaching of the Law is as clear a cause of inefficient ministration, as a legal preaching of the Gospel. In such a Ministry there must be a lack of spiritual conviction of sin generally—of spiritual sins most particularly—and—flowing directly from hence—a low standard of spiritual obedience. Indeed, all the prevalent errors in the Church may be traced to this source. We should never have heard of Methodist perfection—Mystic dependence upon the inward light—Antinomian delusion—inconsistent profession of orthodoxy—Pharisaical self-righteousness—or Pelagian and Socinian rectitude of nature—if the spiritual standard of the law had been clearly displayed, and its convincing power had been truly felt. In the lack of this conviction,
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the fullest perception of Evangelical views must fail in their experiential and practical effect.
But there are Antinomian errors on the opposite side. If Antinomianism is the relaxation of obedience from the perfect standard of the law of God, then isn’t mere moral preaching a refined species of this unhallowed leaven? Equally with the professed Antinomian, the standard of the law of God is exchanged for some indefinite and ever-varying standard of inclination or caprice. The notions of mercy and salvation, as in the other case, are used here as the palliation924 of sin. All hope, and no fear—is the character of this preaching. How frightful to think of deluded souls sliding into eternity in this golden dream! And of what vast importance is it for the resistance of error, and for an effective exhibition of Divine truth—that our Ministry should be distinguished by a full display of the spiritual character, and unalterable obligations, of the law of God!
II.—THE CONNEXION OF THE LAW WITH THE GOSPEL.
Mr. Newton admirably remarks on the importance of this subject—‘To clearly understand the distinction, connexion, and harmony between the Law and the Gospel, and their mutual subservience to illustrate and establish each other, is a singular privilege, and a happy means to preserve the soul from being entangled by errors on the right hand or the left!’ 925 Some in the Apostle’s time “desired to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they said, nor what they affirmed.” 926 This seems to imply the importance, in a Christian teacher, of a clear understanding of the law in all its connexions. And indeed the momentous matter, of a sinner’s acceptance with God cannot be accurately stated without a distinct view of the subject. The Judaizing teachers of the Galatian Church, misconceiving this point, had “darkened the counsel” of God “by words without knowledge;” “bewitched” their “foolish” hearers from the simplicity of the Gospel; and instead of establishing them “in the liberty, with which Christ had made them free,” had nearly “entangled them again with the yoke of bondage.” 927
I. The subject embraces an explicit statement of the difference between the law and the Gospel. It was an axiom in the old schools of divinity—‘Qui scit bene distinguere inter Legem et
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Evangelium, Deo gratias agat, et sciat se esse Theologum.’ 928 There is much difference in the original revelation. The law, partially at least (as in the case of the heathens), is discoverable by the light of nature;929 whereas the Gospel is “the hidden mystery of God,” which could only be known by the light of revelation.930 Therefore, we find that man in his natural state is partially acquainted with the law, but wholly unacquainted with the Gospel. There is also a difference in their respective regards to man. The law contemplates man as the creature of God, as he was at the period of the law’s first promulgation—“standing perfect and complete in all the will of God.” But the gospel contemplates man as he is—a sinner, equally unable to obey, or to offer compensation for his disobedience; he is guilty, condemned, helpless, and lost. The law and the gospel differ also in the power of their sanction. They both inform us what we ought to be and do. But the Gospel alone provides the necessary resources, in union with the Son of God, and by participation in a heavenly life derived from him. Command is the characteristic of the law; promise and encouragement are the characteristics of the Gospel. In the one case, obedience is required on penalty of death; in the other, it is encouraged by the promise of life. A promise is indeed attached to the obedience of the law,931 but it is placed beyond our reach, on terms far more difficult than those of Adam’s covenant. This is because he was endued with sufficient strength for perfect obedience; while we are entirely helpless for even the lowest spiritual requirements. The Gospel, on the other hand, gives the promise of life freely, with obedience as the principle and the motive of it.
In its condemning power also, the law is widely different from the Gospel. As a valuable writer tersely observes—‘the law condemns, and cannot justify, a sinner; the Gospel justifies, and cannot condemn the sinner that believes in Jesus. In the law, God appears in terrible threatenings of eternal death; in the Gospel, he manifests himself in gracious promises of eternal life. In the former he curses, as on Mount Ebal; in the latter he blesses, as on Mount Gerizim. In the one, he speaks in thunder, and with terrible majesty; in the other, with soft whispers, or “a still small voice.” By the trumpet of the law he proclaims war with sinners; by the jubilee-trumpet of the Gospel he publishes peace—“peace on earth, and good-will toward men.” The law is a sound of terror to
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convinced sinners;932 the Gospel is a joyful sound, “good tidings of great joy.” The former represents God as a God of wrath and vengeance; the latter as a God of love, grace and mercy. The one presents him to sinners as “a consuming fire; the other exhibits the precious blood of the Lamb, which quenches the fire of his righteous indignation. The one presents to the view of the sinner a throne of judgment; the other presents “a throne of grace.” Every sentence of condemnation in Scripture belongs to the law; every sentence of justification forms a part of the Gospel. The law condemns a sinner for his first offence; but the Gospel offers him forgiveness of all his offences.’ 933 Thus in every point of difference, “that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.”
II. The harmony of the law with the Gospel is also a most important subject of our Ministration. Though distinct, they are not opposite. As coming from the same source, they must ultimately meet in the same plan, and subserve the same end. Like the seemingly opposite perfections of their glorious Author, they harmonize in mutual subservience in the Christian system. The provisions of the Gospel are fully commensurate with the demands of the law. Its righteousness fulfils the law as a covenant; its grace obeys it as a rule. Both have a commanding and condemning power. Both combine to “bring the sinner to Christ”—“the law acts indirectly—as a school-master,” showing his need of him: the Gospel acts directly, exhibiting him in all points suitable to his need. In this centre of everlasting love, the “mercy” of the Gospel “and the truth” of the law “meet together.” The “righteousness” of the law and the “peace” of the Gospel here “embrace each other.” 934 Both unite to endear the ways of God to us—the law, as the instrument of conviction, teaching us to prize the grace of the Gospel; the Gospel, as the principle of holiness, exciting us “to delight in the law of God after the inward man.”
The directive power of the law is in equal consonance with the spirit and end of the Gospel. The grace of the Gospel regulates our heart and life by the rule of the law. “Love,” which is “the fulfilling of the law,” is also the great end of the Gospel. The
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Gospel dwells, only “where the law of God is written in the heart.” Thus, as they are both parts of the same revelation, they unite in the same heart; and though the offices of each are materially distinct, neither will be found separate from the other. As both are transcripts of the Divine mind and image, both must be hated or loved together. The hatred is the radical principle of the carnal mind; the love is the mind of Christ, and the commencement of the service of heaven.
III. The law as a preparation for the Gospel, is also a part of our Ministry. The preaching of John—partaking mainly of the character of the law—was ordained to prepare the way for Christ. The Epistle to the Romans—the most systematic scheme of Ministerial instruction—clearly sets forth this order of “dividing the word of truth.” 935 The Apostle speaks of us, “before faith came, as being under the law”—not left in imprisonment—but “shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.” Thus “the law is our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith;” which Luther explains to mean—‘that the law must be laid upon those that are to be justified, that they may be shut up in its prison until the righteousness of faith comes—that—when they are cast down and humbled by the law, they should fly to Christ. The Lord humbles them, not to their destruction, but to their salvation. For God wounds, that he may heal again. He kills, that he may quicken again.’ 936
This appears to have been the uniform opinion of the church. Augustine remarks—‘The conscience is not to be healed if it is not wounded. Preach and press the law, comminations,937 the judgment to come, with much earnestness and importunity. He that hears, if he is not terrified, if he is not troubled, is not to be comforted.’ 938 The Reformers were evidently of this judgment. Tindal writes thus—‘It becomes the preacher of Christ’s glad tidings, first, through the opening of the law, to prove all things are sin that do not proceed from the Spirit, and faith in Christ; and thereby bring them to know themselves,
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and their misery and wretchedness, that they might derive help.’ Again—‘Expound the law truly’—he writes to John Frith—‘to condemn all flesh, and to prove that all men are sinners, and all deeds done under the law (before mercy has taken away its condemnation) are sin, and damnable; and then, as a faithful Minister, set abroad the mercy of our Lord Jesus, and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of life. Thus your preaching shall be with power, and not as the hypocrites [preach]. And the Spirit of God shall work with you; and all consciences shall bear record to you that it is so.’ 939 Luther has already been referred to. Calvin observes—‘that the law is nothing else but a preparation for the Gospel.’ And elsewhere—‘The faithful cannot profit in the Gospel, until they are first humbled; which cannot be until they come to the knowledge of their sins. It is the proper function of the law, to call the consciences into God’s judgment, and to wound them with fear.’ 940 Beza remarks briefly, but to the point—‘Men are ever to be prepared for the Gospel, by the preaching of the law.’ 941 Archbishop Usher replies to the question before us—‘What order is there (in the Ministry) used in the delivery of the word, to beget faith?’ He answers—‘First, the covenant of the law is urged, to make sin and its punishment known; upon which the sting of conscience pricks the heart with a sense of God’s wrath, and makes a man utterly despair of any ability in himself to obtain everlasting life. After this preparation, the promises of God are propounded; upon which the sinner, conceiving a hope of pardon, sues to God for mercy.’ 942 The ablest of the Puritan divines took this view of the subject. Mr. Perkins (one of the most systematic of them) speaks of the influence of the work of the law, as making way for the Gospel. ‘And then,’ (he says) ‘succeeds seasonably and comfortably, the work of the Gospel.’ 943 Mr. Bolton (one of the most eloquent and experienced Ministers of his day) observes—‘Let the power of the law first break and bruise, which is a necessary preparation for planting grace: and then pour in (and do not spare) the most precious oil of the sweetest Evangelical comfort. But many—very many—mar everything by missing this method; either from lack of sanctification in themselves, or lack of skill to manage their Master’s business.’ 944 Mr. Rogers of Dedham (a most experiential
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Divine) speaks strongly on this view—‘Let none speak against the preaching of the law; for it is the wholesome way that God himself and his servants in all ages have taken. The Law first humbles; then the Gospel comforts. None can prove that faith was wrought in an instant at first, without any preparation going before it.’ 945 Greenham (of the same school, highly esteemed in his day) briefly writes—‘When the word is administered in any power and sincerity, there doubtless the preaching of the law strikes in, and the preaching of the Gospel brings us to Christ.’ 946 Another writer of consideration observes—‘Such is the nature of man, that before he can receive a true justifying faith, he must, as it were, be broken in pieces by the law. 947 Gurnal expresses this view with his characteristic familiarity with illustration—‘The sharp point of the law must prick the conscience, before the creature by the promises of the Gospel is drawn to Christ. The field is not fit for the seed to be cast into it, till the plough has broken it up; nor is the soul prepared to receive the mercy of the Gospel, till it is broken with the terrors of the law.’ 948 We conclude this series of quotations with the full and decided testimony of Dr. Owen, not more remarkable for his powerful defence of Christian doctrine, than for his deep insight into every part of experiential godliness—‘Let no man think’ (he says) ‘to understand the Gospel, who knows nothing of the Law. God’s constitution and the nature of things themselves have given the law the precedence with respect to sinners; “for by the law comes the knowledge of sin.” And Gospel faith is the soul’s acting according to the mind of God, for deliverance from that state and condition which it is cast under by the law. And all those descriptions of faith, which abound in the writings of learned men, which do not at least include in them a virtual respect to this state and condition, or to the work of the law on the consciences of sinners, are vain speculations. There is nothing in this whole doctrine that I will more firmly adhere to, than the necessity of the conviction mentioned, prior to true believing; without which not one line of it can be understood correctly; men only beat the air when they contend about it.’ 949
These preparative operations of the law do not act in all cases with the same intensity. Yet some impression of guilt, as in the case of our fallen parents,950 seems necessary to excite the desire, and
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to make way for the reception of the Gospel. We must, however, be careful not to load the sinner with threatenings from an apprehension of a superficial work of contrition. The genuine spirit of humiliation is not the separate work of the law, but of the law preparatory to, and combined with, the Gospel—it is the sense of sin and misery connected with the hope of mercy. Still less must we insist on these preparatory exercises as meritorious, or as entrenching in any degree on the unconditional freeness of the Gospel. They are necessary, not as qualifications to recommend us, but as pre-dispositions to draw us, to Christ. We must come to him, if at all, on the terms of his own gracious invitation, “without money and without price.” 951 But the sense of misery is the preparation for the remedy. “The healthy do not need a physician, but those who are sick.” 952 As Calvin remarks—‘Christ is promised only to those, who are humbled and confounded with the sense of their own sins.’ 953 The invitation is specially addressed to those “that labour and are heavy laden;” and none but those will “incline their ear and come.”
Mr. Newton observes, in the case of Mr. Grimshaw, ‘that a Minister walking with God in a conscientious use of the light received, deeply convinced under the law, and only imperfectly acquainted with the Gospel, is particularly qualified to preach with effect to ignorant and wicked people—those whose habits of sin have been strengthened by a long disregard of the Holy Law of God, and who have had no opportunity to hear the Gospel. They cannot at first receive or even understand the accurate and orderly statement and discussion of Evangelical truth which renders Ministers (who are more advanced in knowledge) acceptable to judicious and enlightened hearers. But they feel a close and faithful application to their consciences, and they are “persuaded,” by “the terror of the Lord” to “consider their ways,” before they are capable of being influenced much by the consideration of his tender mercies. The Minister is sufficiently before them to point out the first steps in the way; and as he goes gradually forward, “growing in grace, and in the knowledge of the Saviour,” they gradually follow him. Thus many of our most eminent Evangelical modern preachers were led.’ 954
IV. We must not forget the establishment of the law by the Gospel. The Apostle thus anticipates a feasible objection against his statement of justification—“Do we then make void the law
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through faith? God forbid! Indeed, we establish the law.” 955 The faith or doctrine of the Gospel “establishes the law” in its covenant form—by exhibiting a Divine Suretyship of obedience to the law as the price for justification; and the Gospel “establishes the law” in its directive form—by inculcating practical obligations on a stronger foundation, and fulfilling them by the power of a heavenly life, and by the impulse of evangelical motives. Thus the offices of Christ delightfully combine. As our Surety, he delivers us from the curse of the law. As our King, he brings us under its rule. This Scriptural faith saves us from the law’s condemnation, and it enables us to meet its requirements. Take away this principle, and we are under the full penalty of the broken law—nor is there any root on which to engraft a corrupt tree, so that it might bring forth good fruit.
Thus also, the grace of the Gospel “establishes the law” in its two-fold character. What the doctrine of faith reveals, the grace of faith applies; both for acceptance, being exposed to the penalty of the covenant; and for ability to exercise that “love, which is the fulfilling of the law.” Here, therefore, believing and doing, though opposed as light and darkness in the matter of justification, yet they agree in the life and conduct 956 of the justified sinner.
Indeed, if “the law” is the transcript of the Divine image, and a perfect rule of righteousness, and if conformity to its precepts is the essence of holiness, then how could the Gospel, as a subsequent revelation, “make void” its authority and obligation? But which part of the law does the Christian desire to “make void”? That which inculcates love for God, or the corresponding obligation of love for his neighbour? Does he not rather wish both parts to be confirmed by additional obligations? And do not the doctrines and motives of the Gospel establish his cheerful habit of obedience?
The whole discussion will remind us of the importance of accurately distinguishing in our Ministry between the Law and the Gospel;’ that we, through the misunderstanding of the Scriptures, do not mistake the Law for the Gospel, nor the Gospel for the Law; but skilfully discern and distinguish the voice of the one
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from the voice of the other.’ 957 This distinction is confounded, when the law is preached as in any measure the efficient cause of salvation;958 or when its requirements are inculcated, as if to be performed in our own strength. This unevangelical confusion of statement blocks up the way of free and immediate access to God, by interposing legal qualifications as indispensable to receiving the Gospel. Even sincere Christians sometimes look for their comfort more from obedience to the law, than from the righteousness of the Gospel; and the continual disappointment brings them under “the spirit of bondage to fear;”959 instead of rejoicing, and “standing fast in the liberty, with which Christ has made us free.” 960 This preaching of “another Gospel” 961 encourages a self-righteous temper, brings perplexity and distress to awakened consciences, and it hinders consistency and establishment in the Gospel.
But while we preserve the distinction of the two, let us also maintain their mutual dependence and connexion. ‘Worldly epicures962 and secure mammonists,963 to whom the doctrine of the law properly pertains, receive and apply to themselves most principally the sweet promises of the Gospel.’ 964 Therefore, to preach the Gospel without the Law, would encourage self-delusion. On the other hand (as Luther beautifully observes)—‘As thunder without rain did more harm than good; so Ministers that preach the terrors of the law, but do not at the same time drop in the dew of gospel instruction and consolation, are not “wise master-builders;” for they pull down, but build nothing up again.’ Our commission directs us to preach the Gospel under the solemn sanctions of the law, and to preach the law under the gracious encouragements of the Gospel.
In brief—‘This shows the ignorance and absurdity of those men who decry preaching the law as a course leading to despair and discontentment—though we find by St. Paul that it leads to Christ. To preach the law alone by itself, we confess, is to pervert its use: nor do we have any power or commission to do so; for we have “our power for edification, and not for destruction.”965 It was published as an appendant to the Gospel, and it must be preached thus. It was published “in the hand of a mediator,” and it must be preached in the hand of a mediator. It was published evangelically, and it must be preached thus. Yet we must preach the law, in its own fearful shapes; for though it was published in mercy, it was published in thunder, fire, tempests, and
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darkness, even in the hand of a Mediator; for this is the method of the Holy Ghost, to convince first of sin, and then to reveal righteousness and refuge in Christ. The law is the forerunner that makes room, and prepares welcome in the soul, for Christ.’ 966