The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (ESV)

by C.F.W. Walther

Accordingly, while the devil holds you in a single sin, you are not yet a proper subject for the Gospel to operate upon; only the Law must be preached to you.

Christ has avenged this. He has proclaimed to the devil: “I have conquered thee, and men, created after the image of God, shall not be lost. I have procured salvation for them.” Only those perish who absolutely refuse to be saved; for God coerces no one in this matter.

Only those perish who absolutely refuse to be saved; for God coerces no one in this matter.

However, the universal law that pertains to all of us is this, Matt. 22, 39: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’; give him advice and aid in any emergency; if he is hungry, feed him; if he is naked, clothe him, and so on.

the universal law that pertains to all of us is this, Matt. 22, 39: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’; give him advice and aid in any emergency; if he is hungry, feed him; if he is naked, clothe him, and so on. This is properly delimiting the Law and sequestering it from the Gospel. Law

“The difference, then, between the Law and the Gospel is this: The Law makes demands of things that we are to do; it insists on works that we are to perform in the service of God and our fellow-men. In the Gospel, however, we are summoned to a distribution of rich alms which we are to receive and take: the loving-kindness of God and eternal salvation.

In the writings of the Church Fathers we find hardly anything concerning the distinction between the Law and the Gospel.

You may land either in the bog of fanaticism or in the abyss of rationalism.

A person can be deprived of his soul’s salvation by a single false comfort or a single false reproof administered to him.

A person can be deprived of his soul’s salvation by a single false comfort or a single false reproof administered to him.

The Law must be preached in all its severity, but the hearers must get this impression: This sermon will help those still secure in their sins towards salvation. Whenever the Gospel is preached, this is the impression that the hearers are to receive: This sermon applies only to those who have been smitten by the Law and are in need of comfort.

The Law produces thirst; it leads the hearer to hell and slays him. The Gospel, however, refreshes him and leads him to heaven.”

when Christ invites those who thirst, He means such as have been crushed under the hammer-blows of the Law. Directly Christ invites only these to come to Him; indirectly, indeed, He invites all men. A person thus thirsting is not to do anything but drink, that is, receive the consolations of the Gospel.

You will ever be in doubt; to-morrow you will repeat your confession of to-day; the general confession will always apply to you. Now, where will your conscience find rest and a foothold because you assuredly know how God is disposed towards you? Your heart cannot tell you, even though you may be doing good works to the limit of your ability. For the Law remains in force with its injunction: Thou shalt love God and man with your whole heart. You say: I am not doing it. The Law replies: You must do it. Thus the Law puts me in anguish;

‘I have more than a thousand times lied to God that I would become godly and never did what I promised. Now I shall never again make up my mind to become godly; for I see that I cannot carry out my resolution.

topographical division of this kind is worthless. Both doctrines may be contained in one sentence. But in your audience every one must get the impression, “That is meant for me.” Even the most comforting and cheering sermon must contain also the Law.

The Gospel, however, is a blessed word; it makes no demands upon us, but only proclaims good tidings to us, namely, that God has given His only Son for us poor sinners to be our Shepherd, to seek us famished and scattered sheep, to give His life for our redemption from sin, everlasting death, and the power of the devil.”

Enter into that darkness (Ex. 20, 21) where neither the Law nor human reason gives its light, but only the dark word of faith. The believer relies with a certainty on being saved in Christ, without the Law and regardless of it.

Both teachings are to be distinguished in such a manner that you place the Gospel in heaven, the Law on earth;

“Therefore, when we are speaking of faith and are ministering to men’s consciences, the Law is to be utterly excluded;

But in affliction you will realize that the Gospel is a rare guest in men’s consciences, while the Law is their daily and familiar companion. For human reason has by nature the knowledge of the Law.

For the doctrine of the Gospel that man is made righteous in the sight of God and saved by nothing but the pure grace of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, is, as everybody knows, the most important doctrine, the marrow and substance of Christian teaching.

Had Luther yielded, the Church would have become a prey to rationalism, which places man’s reason above the plain Word of God.

A single false teaching vitiates the entire doctrine.

These two may not be commingled, nor the one substituted for the other, without a falsification of doctrine. For while the Law and the Gospel are indeed equally God’s Word, they are not the same doctrine.”

“O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?”

The Law does not belong in the doctrine of justification. That is a most important point. We cannot be saved by the Law; accordingly, God provides another means for us by which we can be saved.

must not be brought into the august place where our justification in the sight of God occurs. For at that point there is a ceaseless conflict between man’s doing and his believing, between God’s grace and man’s works, between Law and Gospel.”

Faith is not the mere thought “I believe.” My whole heart must have become seized by the Gospel

Forgiveness of sin must not be proclaimed to impenitent and secure sinners.”

Woe to him who injects poison into the doctrine of justification!

God has created us without our cooperation, and He wants to save us the same way. We are to thank Him for having created us with a hope of life everlasting.

For Jesus is called the Savior, not a helper towards salvation, such

All these things Thou hast used as means to bring me into heaven, while I was always striving for perdition.”

that there has not been an hour when God did not work in us to save us, and that there has not been an hour when we — wanted to be saved.

“Nevertheless, according to His grace, God will receive me.”

1 Cor. 8, 2: “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.”

(Alas, how great is our ignorance!). The more truly learned a person is, the humbler he is; for he knows how much he is still lacking, within what narrow boundaries his knowledge is confined, and how much there still remains unexplored.

The more truly learned a person is, the humbler he is; for he knows how much he is still lacking, within what narrow boundaries his knowledge is confined, and how much there still remains unexplored.

Ps. 51, 10. 11: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

He cried: “Renew a right spirit within me.”

One who is spiritually dead regards it as foolish to torment himself with former sins. He becomes increasingly indifferent towards all sins.

Remember this: When the Law condemns you, then immediately lay hold upon the Gospel.

He is verily the precious Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that He has reconciled man with His Father in heaven, and from pure grace, freely and for nothing, gives to all who believe this everlasting righteousness, everlasting life and bliss. Let him cling solely to this message; let him call upon Christ, beseeching Him for grace and forgiveness of sin; and since this great gift is obtained by faith alone, let him firmly believe the message, and he shall receive according as he believes.

for instance, the statement in Matt. 19, 17: ‘If you would enter life, keep the commandments’; likewise this one in Matt. 7, 21: ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.’

Does not God frequently snatch one away in the flower of his youth in order to impress upon others how necessary it is for everybody to consider that he, too, must die?

The forma of a Christian, — that which makes a person a Christian — is that he knows how to seek salvation in Christ and thus to escape the Law.

“In your tribulations you will become aware that the Gospel is a rare guest in men’s consciences, while the Law is their daily and familiar companion. For man has by nature the knowledge of the Law.”

If you are Christians, you will admit that you are far oftener troubled and worried than comforted. When you feel the comfort of the Gospel in your heart, that is a glimpse of the light that may come to you on a certain day; but then several days may pass when you will not catch that glimpse again.

Whenever your relation to God is not under review, you must act in accordance with the Law, yet not like a slave, but like a child.