LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Sheet 89

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on this score blunts the radical nature of the Gospel.

Second, there is the potential for confusing Law and
Gospel in the church’s life. It has been observed that “the
Gospel is the basic governing principle in every area of
faith and life” (Harry G. Coiner, The Lutheran Witness,
March 3, 1964, p. 10). Specifically, this means that cal-
culating, legalistic, and autocratic lording over the people
of God has no place in His church. “Legalism is not em-
ployment of the Law to the exclusion of the Gospel; it is
every effort to accomplish through the Law ... what only
the Gospel can accomplish.” Perhaps legalistic practice and
procedure has the appearance of greater courage and
quicker success than evangelical practice. But the “legal-
istic approach lacks true course; it does not allow God to
reign and His Word to work” (Coiner, p. 14). Certainly, all
use of the Law must not be rejected; but both Law and
Gospel must be employed in an evangelical way.

Third, Law and Gospel must not be confused in the
church’s witness. Appropriately understood and articu-
lated to others, the Gospel does not threaten and it has no
conditions. It is pure promise, undeserved yet certain.
Nevertheless, the “ifs” of Christians continue to multiply—
the “ifs” of a Gospel that is not a Gospel at all. If you feel
sorry, God will forgive you. If you modify your behavior,
you can be regarded as a true Christian. If you trust in
Jesus, your troubles will be over. If you have faith, God
will grant mercy. Those “ifs” and others like them threaten
the Gospel by rendering its promise dependent on some-
thing we do. In one of his homilies, Luther spoke about
those who, in his words, “talk a lot about faith but then

they mix things together .. . by saying if you live in such
and such a way God will be gracious to you, and they turn
the mercy seat into a judgment seat and the judgment seat
into a mercy seat.” The Law expresses itself in commands
and conditions; “Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28
RSV). It places the burden of performance on us. The
Gospel expresses itself differently: Jesus died and rose
again the third day to give you new life. This promise takes
the burden from us and places it on Christ. In the domain
of the Gospel, no conditions apply. When we neglect this
truth and mingle God’s Word of Law and His Word of
Gospel in our personal witnessing, the result is that nei-
ther word is expressed clearly.

“No one is an orthodox teacher simply because he pre-
sents all the articles of faith according to Scripture,”
Walther asserted in one of his famous theses. “An orthodox
teacher must also properly distinguish the Law from the
Gospel.” Orthodoxy means correct doctrine and for all of
us there is one central doctrine, justification by faith for
Christ’s sake through the Gospel. If there is one task to
which this great teacher of the church calls us today it is
to proclaim the Gospel; to commit ourselves anew to the
challenge of maintaining that Scriptural tension between
God’s two messages so that He may meet men and women
at their need and deliver them from a world of despair,
failure, and death to a new world of life in Christ. This is
our calling and our obligation. It is also our privilege, our
joy, and our glory.

John F. Johnson, Th.D., Ph.D.