LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 90

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90 ESSAY AND BIBLE STUDY

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The Law and the Gospel—according to our Lutheran
Confessions “all Scripture should be divided into these
two chief doctrines” (Ap IV, 5). To say this is to say that
it is necessary that the Law and the Gospel be properly
distinguished one from the other. It would seem that this
should be a rather simple task. Nothing should be easier
to do, it would seem, than to distinguish that portion of
Scripture which reveals our sins by telling us how we are
to be and what we are to do and not do from the glorious
teaching of the Scriptures in which God tells us the good
news of what He has already done for us and for our
salvation through the merits of His Son’s suffering,
death, and resurrection.

And yet, although apparently easy to do in the
abstract, nothing is more difficult than to distinguish
properly the Law from the Gospel in actual practice. As
Luther writes:

Without the Holy Spirit it is impossible to rightly divide

Law and Gospel. I experience it in my own case, also daily

observe it in others, how difficult it is to separate the

doctrine of the Law from that of the Gospel. The Holy Ghost
must here be pedagog and teacher, or no man on earth will
ever have the knack of it or be able to teach it.... Thetheory
is easy; quickly we can explain how the Law is another word
and doctrine than the Gospel; but to divide them (in)

practice and to apply the art to life, that is trouble and toil.
(St. L. IX, 802, 806 f.)

It is not an overstatement to say that itis through the
God-given ability to distinguish properly between the
Law and the Gospel that an individual becomes and
remains a Christian. Let us therefore pray for the
presence and power of the Holy Spirit as we study the
pure milk of the Word so THAT WE MAY GROW in the
high and blessed art of distinguishing properly the Law
and Gospel in our daily living.

In order to distinguish the Law from the Gospel
properly, it is not only necessary to know what the Law
is and what the Gospel is—it is also necessary to know
when each is to be applied and how. This point is
illustrated by a conversation between a dying man and
his pastor in Bo Giertz’s novel The Hammer of God:

The sick man shook his head.

“Not for me! Not for me! Eternal damnation, punish-
ment according to the measure of my sin, the judgment of
wrath, and the everlasting flames—that is for me. To me He
will say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!”

“But God is good,” said Savonius quietly.

The sick man looked straight up at the ceiling.

“Yes, God is good, very good. It is just for that reason I
am in such a bad way. Pastor, you do not know how good
God has been to me. He has sought my soul and bidden me
walk the way of life. But I have not done so. He has shown
me heaven’s purity, but I shall never win it. Isat in...
church and heard the angels sing. Then I saw my mother in
the women’s pew, and I thought: Mother has aged, this
winter she may die; then I shall inherit the farm. And my
heart wept, for I saw that, more than I loved Mother, Iloved
the filthy dollars. Then the pastor came to the pulpit.
Potbelly, I thought. You can play cards and fish for trout,
but you cannot feed God’s poor little lambs with the Word.
But I had not prayed for him. Was that love? ...” Johannes
had suddenly turned his fever-reddened eyes toward the
pastor and looked penetratingly at him.

“That is how it is with me, Pastor. Day after day,
moment upon moment, it is sin added to sin, and nothing
but sin.” (Giertz, The Hammer of God, pp. 18-19)

So spoke the dying peasant Johannes of Borsebo.

This conversation illustrates the disastrous effect of
applying the Law to a conscience already terrified by its
sin.

There is only one word which can bring genuine
comfort and hope to such a stricken conscience—and
this is the word of God’s Gospel! Although Dr. Savonius,
the young pastor in Giertz’s novel, did not know how to
divide the Word of God properly, Johannes’ friend
Katrina did. We pick up the story of Johannes a few
moments later:

The sick man had become perfectly still. His sister
fanned the flies from his face. Except for that, no one moved.

“Have you anything more to say, Katrina?”

“Yes, one thing more, Johannes, ‘Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’”

He lay quiet for a moment.

“Do you mean ...? Do you really mean that He takes
away also the sin that dwells in my unclean heart?”

“Yes, He atoned for all that sin, when He died in your
place.”

“But I still have it in me, don’t I?”

“Yes, as surely as Paul still had it with him. Have you
never read, ‘I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth
no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I find not.’”

“Yes, that’s how it is,” whispered Johannes.

“That is the way it has always been for us, and for all
others. ‘With his stripes we are healed.’ ‘He is the
propitiation for our sins: and ... also for the sins of the whole
world.’”

The sick man lay breathlessly quiet. Then he
whispered, “One word more, Katrina, a sure word, and I will
believe it.”

The woman got up quietly, took the Bible that lay on the
table, and sat down again. Opening the Bible, she read:

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.”

“Amen. I believe!” said Johannes, in a voice that could
barely be heard.

Katrina rose and replaced the Bible on the table.

“Now God’s work has taken place. Now you must ask
the pastor to give you the holy sacrament.”

Johannes nodded slowly. ‘Master, at thy word I will let
down the net.” (Giertz, The Hammer of God, pp. 30-31)

The Gospel is God’s gracious promise of the
forgiveness of all sins on account of the substitutionary
suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. After
the Law had performed its work of clearly revealing
Johannes’ guilt before God, thereby plunging him into
deep despair over his inability to answer before his
Creator rightly angry over his sin, Katrina applied the
sweet Gospel promise of full and complete forgiveness
for all of his sins through the blood of the Lamb of God.
By the power of the Holy Spirit working through the
word of the Gospel, Johannes believed the promise of the
forgiveness of all of his sins. Healed by the stripes of
Jesus Christ, his stricken conscience was quieted, and
fortified by the sacrament of our Lord’s body and blood
in the Holy Communion, he was ready to stand before
His God and Judge, confident of complete forgiveness
and eternal salvation.

Faith and Works

The proper distinction between the Law and the
Gospel is indispensable for a right understanding of the
relationship which exists between faith and good works.

“Your adversary, the devil,” warns St. Peter, “prowls
about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1