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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 12:21:23 GMT -5
The Uses of the Gospel and the Law in Subservience to the Gospel
The gospel, in its strict and proper sense, is of great and manifold use
to both sinners and to saints.
Section 1. The Principal Uses of the Gospel
The gospel in its strict acceptation is, in the hand of the Holy Spirit,
of special use:
1. To reveal Christ and God in Him as reconciled, and as reconciling
sinners of mankind to Himself. The great use of the gospel is to make
Christ known to lost sinners as the only and the all-sufficient Savior;
to reveal Him to them in His infinitely glorious person as God-man
and Mediator; in His surety-righteousness for their justification
before God; in His immeasurable fullness of the Spirit for their
sanctification and consolation, and in His saving offices and
endearing relations to all who believe in Him. It serves to represent
to them how Jesus has loved them, what He has done and suffered
for them, and what blessings of salvation He has purchased for them
and is ready to dispense to them (1 Corinthians 1:24 and 2:2; 1
Timothy 3:16). It is of use also to reveal to them God as reconciled in
the Son, and as reconciling elect sinners to Himself (2 Corinthians
4:3-6 and 5:18-20). Hence the manifold doctrines, offers, and
promises of the gospel are in Scripture called “the manifold wisdom
of God” (Ephesians 3:10). They clearly show that God has devised the
scheme of our redemption with such astonishing wisdom; that our
salvation is all of grace and all of merit, all of mercy and all of justice;
that our iniquities are forgiven, and yet the punishment due for them
is inflicted; that the ungodly who believe are justified and yet
ungodliness is condemned; and that salvation is freely bestowed and,
after all, the demands of law and justice are fully answered.
2. It is the gospel which also discloses to sinners the covenant of
grace into which the Father, and the Son as last Adam, with the
infinite approbation of the Holy Spirit, have entered for the salvation
of such sinners as believe. Sinful men cannot be otherwise saved
than by being enabled to take hold of that everlasting covenant by
faith as to come into the bond of it. This, however, they cannot do
unless they are made so to know it as to discern spiritually the
reality, glory, and suitableness of it to their miserable condition as
lost sinners. But it is the gospel only, coming to them “in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” that reveals this gracious
covenant to them, and that shows them how they may be so instated
in it as to possess and enjoy the blessings of salvation. They could
never, according to the plan established in the counsel of peace, have
known that eternal contract but by the revelation of it in the
everlasting gospel. It is by the gospel, accompanied with the
illuminating influences of His Holy Spirit, that the Lord Jesus, the
Messenger of the covenant, shows elect sinners His covenant (Psalm
25:14).
3. It serves, likewise, the highly important purpose of revealing to
sinners their warrant to trust in Christ Jesus for complete salvation.
In the blessed gospel, Christ, and God in Christ, are freely offered to
sinful men, and men are graciously invited as sinners to receive the
offer and to entrust the whole affair of their salvation to Christ, and
to God in Him (John 6:32; Isaiah 55:1—4). By the gospel, they are
informed that the Lord Jesus offers Himself with all the inestimable
blessings of the everlasting covenant to them, and that He graciously
invites and urges them as sinners to accept Him as their all-sufficient
Savior, and to place the confidence of their hearts in Him for
salvation from sin and wrath. Were they to not know that a divine
warrant is thereby afforded them to receive and trust in the Savior
for their salvation, it would be as great presumption in any of them
as it would be in a fallen angel to attempt trusting that He would save
him. But by the declarations, offers, calls, and promises of the word
of grace, an ample warrant is afforded them as sinners of mankind to
trust in the divine Savior, and so to take possession of His great
salvation. And it is by the gospel, accompanied by the illuminating
grace of the Holy Spirit, that their warrant is revealed, that their full
right of access to the compassionate Savior is disclosed to them, and
that He manifests Himself to be so near them as to be within their
reach (Romans 10:6-8). Oh, how great is the importance and utility
of the gracious offers and invitations of the blessed gospel to
convinced and despondent sinners! By these, under the illuminating
influences of the adorable Spirit, they see that it is lawful and
warrantable for them to come as sinners, and to entrust, with
humble and strong confidence, the eternal salvation of their souls to
the Lord Jesus.
4. The gospel is the means which the Holy Spirit employs for
communicating the grace of Christ to elect sinners, in order to
produce that change of their state and of their nature to which they
have been chosen. It is by means of the gospel that, in the moment of
regeneration, the Spirit of Christ and His grace enter and take
possession of the hearts of God’s elect. Sinners who are born again
“are born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (I Peter 1:23). Hence the
Psalmist, directing his speech to the Messiah, says, “The Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion; rule Thou in the midst of
Thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power”
(Psalm 110:2-3), The gospel, accordingly, is called “the spirit which
giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:6), “the grace of God that bringeth
salvation” (Titus 2:11), and “the power of God unto salvation”
(Romans 1:16). By the gospel, God exerts the exceeding greatness of
His power in quickening and converting sinners to Himself. It is by
means of it that He enlightens their minds, renews their wills,
rectifies and sanctifies their affections, and so makes them partakers
of a new and holy nature. Hence the Apostle Paul calls it “the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” which made him “free from the law
of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).
5. The gospel is also the instrument by which the Holy Spirit
implants the principle and habit of true faith in the hearts of elect
sinners. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”
(Romans 10:17). The Spirit renders the reading and, especially, the
hearing of the gospel effectual means of working faith in the hearts of
sinners, by which they believe with application the gracious offers of
Christ, and of His righteousness and fullness, and trust in Him for
salvation to themselves in particular. It is by means of the gospel,
which the Apostle Paul calls “the word of faith” (Romans 10:8), that
the Spirit of Christ implants and increases precious faith in the souls
of His elect (John 20:31). Is it then the believer’s desire that he may
make swift progress in the habit and exercise of that living faith by
which he gives glory to God and receives grace and glory from Him?
Let him, in humble reliance on the promise, and on the Spirit of
faith, read, hear, and meditate frequently on the glorious gospel.
6. It is by means of the gospel that the Holy Spirit continues to apply
Christ, with His righteousness and fullness, to the hearts of believers
for increasing their sanctification and consolation. They are said in
Scripture to be “sanctified through the truth” (John 17: 17-19), to be
clean through the word which Christ has spoken to them (John 15:3),
and to have their hearts purified by faith (Acts 15:9). The Apostle
Paul presented this prayer for the saints at Ephesus: “That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye may be filled with all the
fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19). And he informed them that
they were “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”
(Ephesians 2:20-22). It is in proportion, then, as the saints are
enabled to believe with application to themselves the offers and
promises of the gospel, and to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, that
they advance in holiness and comfort. And it is in the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, that they all come unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ (Ephesians 4:13).
7. The gospel is a means of increasing the knowledge, of restraining
the depravity, and of reforming the external conduct of many
unregenerate sinners; and so of qualifying them for being, in various
respects, serviceable to the people of God around them. It is often a
means, under the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit, of
rendering many unregenerate men less hurtful and more useful to
the saints of God than otherwise they would be. As the gospel is a
special means of the renewing influences of the Spirit in holy men, so
is it of His restraining influence on hypocrites and wicked men
(Matthew 13:20-22; 2 Peter 2:20; Hebrews 6:4—5). Now this
restraining or providential influence is of inexpressible importance
to the saints. For as no saint could continue to live in communion
with Christ and with other saints without sanctifying grace, and that
daily communicated to him, so neither could he live among sinners
unless restraining influences were afforded to them. He ought,
therefore, in a very high degree, to esteem and love the gospel not
only because it is the means of special grace to himself, but because it
is the vehicle of common influence to the unregenerate around him.
8. Last, it is by means of the gospel that the glory of Christ, and of
God in Him, is manifested to men and angels. It is in and by the
gospel that the brightest displays “of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ” are graciously afforded (2 Corinthians 4:4-7). In the
gospel, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord Jesus, and of all the
divine perfections, as harmonizing and mingling their refulgent
beams in the redemption of sinners by Him, is seen, contemplated,
and adored (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is the gospel strictly taken that,
under the illuminating influences of the blessed Spirit, serves to
discover to the eye of faith “the glory of the only begotten of the
Father, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His
person.” There the glory of the great Redeemer’s person and work
shines forth in the view of holy angels and redeemed men with the
most resplendent luster. Hence the gospel is called “the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and
“the glorious gospel of the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11). While the
Lord affords far more illustrious displays of His infinite glory in
redemption than in any other of His works, all the transcendent
displays of it in redemption which He makes are in and by the gospel.
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 12:22:41 GMT -5
Section 2. The Uses of the Moral Law in its Subservience to the Gospel
The law, both as a covenant of works and as a rule of life, is, in the
hand of the Holy Spirit, of special use, and that both to sinners and
to saints. Though righteousness and eternal life cannot, since the
Fall, be obtained by a man’s own obedience to the moral law, because
“by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16),
yet it is of manifold use to men. “The law is good,” says the Apostle
Paul, “if a man use it lawfully” (1 Timothy 1:8), that is, if he uses it
suitably, to the design for which it is given him, and to the state in
which he is, either as an unbeliever or as a believer—or, in other
words, if he improves it as a covenant for urging him to receive Jesus
Christ, and improve it as a rule for directing him how to walk in
Christ.
The law is of use to men in general:
1. To reveal to them the holy nature and will of God, or to show
them the infinite holiness and rectitude of His nature and will.
Jehovah said to the Israelites in the wilderness, “I am the Lord your
God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I
am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). “The law is holy,” says the Apostle Paul,
“and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12).
2. It serves to inform them of their duty to God, to themselves, and
to others around them; and to oblige them, by His sovereign
authority, to perform it. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8)?
3. It is of use, likewise, to restrain men from much sin. By its
peremptory commands and awful threatenings, it serves in some
measure to keep them in awe, and to frighten them from committing
many external acts of sin in which they otherwise would freely
indulge themselves. It is of use, by its terrible denunciations, to curb
those who, destitute of every good principle, would rush forward to
all manner of sin, and to deter them, through fear of punishment,
from many gross enormities. In this view, it serves as a curb to hold
sinners within the limits of external decency, and to prevent the
world from becoming a scene of robbery and blood. Accordingly our
apostle says, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy
and profane, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers (1 Timothy 1:9-10).
4. The law conduces also to excite and encourage sinners to the
practice of virtue, from the consideration that even the external
resemblance of true virtue will often be rewarded with exemption
from many outward calamities, and with the possession of many
outward advantages (Isaiah 1:19). Nay, it tends to impel sinners to
virtuous actions, even from the consideration that, in the event of
their performance of them, and afterward of their dying in an
unregenerate state, their punishment in hell will be more tolerable
than if they had not performed them. Although sinners cannot, by
their obedience to the law, procure for themselves a title to heaven;
yea, and though they should never be driven by the law from
themselves to Christ for righteousness and salvation, but should die
under condemnation; yet the more external obedience they yield to
the law, the lighter will their punishment be (Luke 12:47-48). They
cannot, by their obedience to the law, merit even the lowest place in
heaven; but they can by it obtain for themselves an exemption from
the lowest place in hell.
5. Moreover, it is of special use to convince sinners of their
sinfulness and misery, and also of their utter inability by any
righteousness and strength of their own, to recover themselves from
their state of sin and misery. “What things soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore
by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight;
for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20). And again,
“But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which
is good; that sin by the commandment, might become exceeding
sinful” (Romans 7:13). The precepts of the law serve to convince men
of their sins of omission, and the prohibitions of it to convince them
of their sins of commission. There are various evils which men would
never have known to be sins unless the holy law of God had revealed
the sinfulness of them. Accordingly our apostle says, “I had not
known sin but by the law: for I had not known lust except the law
had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet* ” (Romans 7:7). While the precepts
of the law are of use to convince sinners of the reality and sinfulness
of their sins, the threatenings of it are employed to discover to them
the tremendous wrath and curse of God due to them for their
transgressions (Galatians 3:10). And by disclosing to them the deep
depravity of their nature, the precepts and threatenings of the law
serve, in the hand of the Spirit, to convince them of their utter
inability to recover themselves, and so to humble them under a
painful sense of their sinfulness and misery (Romans 3:9).
6. Last, the law serves to show them their extreme need of Christ,
and of His righteousness and salvation. “Wherefore then serveth the
law?” asks our apostle, “It was added because of transgressions, till
the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (Galatians
3:19). It awakens their consciences to a conviction of their guilt, and
to a dread of everlasting punishment, and so discovers to them their
absolute need of Christ and His perfect righteousness for their
justification in the sight of God (Galatians 3:24; Romans 10:4). Thus
the moral law is of use to men in general.
7. It is of special use to unregenerate sinners. Under the awakening
influences of the Holy Spirit, it serves as a covenant of works to
convince them of sin, and to show them that as they are sinners, and
so cannot perform perfect obedience to entitle them to life, it is
absolutely impossible for them ever to attain to justification and
salvation by their own performances. “By the deeds of the law,” says
the Apostle Paul, “there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by
the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “I was alive without
the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:9).
It reveals the wrath of God against them for their innumerable
transgressions of it, and so impresses them with fear of eternal
punishment. “The law worketh wrath” (Romans 4:15). It condemns
every sinner who is under it to death in all its direful extent, and so it
awakens his conscience to expect infinite and insupportable wrath as
the just recompense of disobedience to its righteous precepts. Hence
the law, in this point of view, is called “the ministration of
condemnation” (2 Corinthians 3:7). Thus, as a scourge, it troubles
and torments the consciences of impenitent sinners, and renders
them uneasy in a course of sin.
The law is of use, likewise, to urge or drive them to Jesus Christ, the
only Savior of lost sinners. Seeing it is the means of convincing
sinners of their sinfulness, misery, and utter inability to recover
themselves, it drives them from confidence in themselves to the Lord
Jesus for righteousness and strength. And thus it is their
“schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ, that they may be justified
by faith” (Galatians 3:24). By demanding perfect holiness of nature,
perfect obedience of life, and complete satisfaction for sin, which
none of the children of Adam is able to afford, the law shuts them up
to see their need of Christ, who has fully answered all these demands
for those who believe in Him (Romans 10:4). It serves as a looking
glass in which they may contemplate the exceeding sinfulness, and
demerit of their sins in order that, despairing of life by their own
works, they may be necessitated to flee speedily to Jesus Christ, who
has fulfilled a perfect righteousness for their justification.
It serves, at the same time, to convince them that they have those
characters of sinfulness and misery under which the offers and
invitations of the gospel are addressed to men. The offers and calls of
the gospel are addressed to men as unjust, ungodly, as sinners,
enemies, and persons without strength; as lost, dead in trespasses
and sins, simple ones, scorners, fools, stout-hearted and far from
righteousness; as backsliders and prisoners, as laboring and heavy
laden, thirsting for happiness of any kind, spending their money for
that which is not bread, and their labor for that which satisfies not,
disobedient, gainsaying, and rebellious. Now the law, under the
illuminating influences of the Holy Spirit, is of use to show sinners
that these are their very characters, and therefore that they are the
very persons to whom the Savior is offered, and whom are invited
and commanded to receive Him with His righteousness and
salvation. In this view, it is eminently subservient to the gospel.
Last, the law serves to render those of them inexcusable who, turning
a deaf ear to its dictates respecting their sinfulness and misery,
refuse to accept the offer of a Savior, and of salvation by Him
(Romans 1:20 with 2:15). And it not only leaves all who reject the
divine Redeemer without excuse and under its dreadful curse, but it
dooms them to greater, to redoubled condemnation. “He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”
(John 3:36). “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was
sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of
grace? For we know Him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto
Me. I will recompense,’ saith the Lord” (Hebrews 10:28-30).
8. The law is of special use, likewise, to regenerate persons or true
believers, and that both as a covenant of works and as a rule of duty.
In its covenant form, it serves to show them what Christ, the second
Adam, did and suffered in their stead. By requiring from all who are
under it perfect holiness of nature and perfect obedience of life, with
complete satisfaction for sin, as the conditions of eternal life, it
teaches believers what the Lord Jesus, in the greatness of His
astonishing love, condescended to become, to do, and to suffer for
them. They may see in it as in a glass that He did infinitely more for
them than any mere man or angel could ever have done (Romans
8:3-4; Philippians 2:8; Galatians 3:13-14). Thus the law, in
subservience to the gospel, teaches believers indirectly what the
gospel teaches them in direct terms. It is of use also to show them
under what infinite obligations they lie to the Lord Jesus for having
fulfilled all the righteousness of it in their stead, Though they are not
under the law in its covenant form to be either justified or
condemned by it, yet it is of special use to them how much they are
bound to love and serve Christ who, by obeying the precepts, and
enduring the penalties of it in their stead, has brought in everlasting
righteousness for their justification. And so it is a means of exciting
their gratitude to Christ, and also to God, who so loved them as to
send Him to answer all its demands for them (2 Corinthians 9:15; Colossians 1:12-14).
The law as a rule of life is also of great use to believers. For although,
as I already observed, they are not under it as a covenant of works,
either to be justified by it for their obedience or to be condemned by
it for their disobedience, yet they are under it as the rule of their new
obedience, and they count it their exalted privilege and pleasure to
be so (1 Corinthians 9:21). Now in this point of view, it serves, under
the illuminating influences of the Holy Spirit:
(1) To show them how far they are from perfection of holiness. In
order to render them more humble and contrite, to cause them to
renounce, in a higher degree, all confidence in their own wisdom,
righteousness, and strength, and to trust constantly and only in the
Lord Jesus for all their salvation, the law discovers to them the sin
that dwells in them, and that cleaves to all their thoughts, words, and
actions. It is of great use lo teach them the need that they have to be
more humble, penitent, and holy. And so it serves, in a high degree,
to promote their sanctification, and their desire to attain perfection
of holiness (Philippians 3:10-14; Romans 7:22-24). As it requires
diem to be holy in a perfect degree (Matthew 5:48), it shows them
that their want of perfect conformity to it is, every moment, their sin,
and that they ought continually to press on toward perfection, and
long for heaven, where their holiness and happiness will be perfect (2
Corinthians 5:2-4; Philippians 1:23).
(2) It serves, under the witnessing of the Spirit, to evidence to their
consciences the reality of their sanctification. The holy law serves as
a touchstone by which believers may try, and so discover, their begun
conformity to the image of the Son of God, the firstborn among many
brethren. Comparing their hearts and lives with that standard, they
sometimes perceive that, though they are far from having a
perfection of the degrees, yet they have a perfection of the parts of
sanctification; and so the law as a rule conduces, in the hand of the
Holy Spirit, to promote their comfort as well as their holiness. “Our
rejoicing is this,” says an apostle, “the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by
the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world” (2
Corinthians 1:12). As a covenant of works, the law is the instrument
of the Spirit, as a spirit of bondage, for convincing and alarming
secure sinners; but as a rule of life in the hand of the blessed
Mediator, it is a means employed by the Spirit, as a Spirit of
adoption, for comforting and encouraging true saints. Their habitual
desire and endeavor from faith and love, and for the glory of God, to
keep all the commandments of it are a good evidence to them that
they are the children of God, and are conformed to the image of His Son.
(3) It is of great use to show believers what duty they owe to their
God and Redeemer, and to direct them how to perform it. Christ,
whom the Father has given for a leader and commander to the
people, gives to believers that law to be the rule of their obedience, to
inform them what grateful service, what holy obedience, they owe to
Him, and to God in Him, and to direct them in the course of their
obedience. Accordingly, the holy Psalmist says, “Through Thy
precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Thy
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm
119:104-105). The law as a rule directs them how to express their
gratitude to the Lord Jesus for fulfilling it for them in its covenant
form (Romans 8:3-5). It enjoins them to show their love and
thankfulness to Him by a growing conformity of heart and life to it as
the rule of their obedience (John 14:15; 1 Timothy 1:5; Romans 12:1-
2). While it shows them what is good and what is evil, what they
ought to do and what they ought to forbear, it guides them in the
exercise of their graces and in the performance of their duties. No
sooner does the law as a covenant urge men to Christ for deliverance
from the dominion of it in that form than Christ leads them back to
the law as a rule for the regulation of their heart and conduct, in
order that they may express their gratitude to Him for His perfect
obedience to it as a covenant in their stead, by their stead, by their
sincere obedience to it as a rule (John 14:15).
(4) Finally, it serves the highly important purpose of binding or
obliging the saints to all their various duties. The law as a rule of life
to believers comes invested with infinite authority, and therefore lays
them under infinite obligations, even to perfect obedience. Seeing
they do not cease to be creatures by becoming new creatures, they
are, and ever will be, obliged to yield personal obedience to the moral
law as a rule of life, and that by the sovereign authority of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, their Creator. But this divine authority,
as was hinted above, issues to them from the Lord Jesus, the great
Mediator, who has created as well as redeemed them, and who has
“all the fullness of the Godhead, dwelling in Him bodily.' They
therefore receive the law at His mouth. And surely the law can lose
nothing of its original authority by being conveyed to them in such a
glorious channel as the hand of Christ: for not only is He Himself
God over all, but all the sovereignty and authority of the infinitely
glorious Godhead are in Him as Mediator (Exodus 23:21). The Lord
Jesus, therefore, instead of dissolving or in the smallest degree
weakening the moral law, greatly strengthens the original obligation
of it (Confession of Faith XIX:V). Indeed, it is only to God as in
Christ, only according to the law as in the hand of Christ, and only by
a real believer in Christ that the smallest acceptable obedience can be
performed. The law as a rule in the hand of Christ, then, is of special
utility to believers inasmuch as it shows them how high their
obligations are to the love and practice of holiness. And thus it
eminently subserves the gospel, that “doctrine which is according to godliness.”
From the foregoing detail it will be obvious to the devout reader that
the law as a covenant is of standing use in the effectual vocation of
sinners to Christ. The Holy Spirit makes the offers and calls of the
gospel effectual to no sinner without setting home the law as a
covenant of works to their minds and consciences.
Sinners may be drawn to the Savior by a discovery of His redeeming
love (Hosea 11:4), and so may be effectually called without legal
terrors; but no man is persuaded and enabled to come to Him
without a true conviction of sin and of the want of righteousness. But
it is by the law in its covenant form that sinners are convinced of sin,
and of their need of a perfect righteousness to free them from eternal
death. Thus the law is of standing use to them to show them their
extreme need of the compassionate Savior, and of His perfect
righteousness, and so to “break up the fallow ground” of their hearts.
In this way, the fiery law continues, by the almighty agency of the
Spirit, to subserve the merciful design of the blessed gospel.
Hence we may also learn how much conviction of sin and of
righteousness by the law is requisite to true conversion. Such a
measure of it in adult persons is necessary as will suffice to make
them sensible that they are sinners in heart and in life; that they are
already undone, and that their misery under the curse of the law is
inexpressible; that they have no righteousness to answer the just
demands of the broken law; and that they are so dead in sin as to be
totally unable to save themselves, or so much as to prepare
themselves for salvation. Such a measure as this is requisite because,
without it, they would not see their absolute need of the Lord Jesus
to save them either from their sin or their misery, nor would they
desire above all things a personal interest in Him and His great
salvation. Not that it is requisite as a federal condition of their being
graciously received by Christ, but only as an excitement to urge them
to flee speedily for refuge to Him.
From what has been said, we may also infer that a minister of the
gospel may often preach the law to his hearers and yet not deserve to
be called a legal preacher. He cannot preach the gospel faithfully and
successfully unless he preaches the law in subservience to it. If he is a
faithful and able minister of the New Testament, he will preach the
law as a covenant of works, and will press it upon the consciences of
secure sinners and self-righteous formalists. He will denounce the
tremendous curse of it on those who continue under it, and who rely
securely on their own works for a title to eternal life in order to tear
away every pillow of carnal security on which they repose
themselves, and to show them the vanity of every lying refuge. In
proportion also as he is faithful, satisfaction for sin as well as perfect
obedience? Or does it demand from every unregenerate sinner
perfection of suffering as well as of doing? Then, though a
descendant of fallen Adam could say that he never had, in his own
person, transgressed the law, and that he would to the end of his life
“continue in all things which are written in it, to do them,' yet even
this perfect obedience of his would not suffice to fulfil the law, and so
to entitle him to eternal life according to the covenant of works. For
the law as a covenant would still demand from him full satisfaction
for the sin that he committed in the first Adam: and satisfaction for
sin cannot be given by obeying the precept, but by suffering the
penalty of the law in that form. Ever since the fall, the law and the
justice of God demand not only full payment of the original debt of
perfect obedience, but complete payment, likewise, of the debt of
infinite satisfaction for the offense given by sin to the infinite Majesty
of heaven (Genesis 2:17).
Nay, in the order of law and justice, the debt of full satisfaction ought
to be discharged previous to that of perfect obedience. The infinitely
righteous Jehovah will first be pacified by a complete satisfaction to
His justice for the infinite insult offered to His glorious Majesty by
transgression before He can consistently, with the honor of His
character and government, be pleased with any degree of obedience
from the sinner. If a sinner, then, hopes for eternal life on the ground
Of his own righteousness, he must first give infinite satisfaction for
all his innumerable crimes, and then begin and complete a course of
perfect obedience as the condition of life. He must first of all make
complete satisfaction to the penalty of the righteous law before his
obedience to the precept can be acceptable to God.
But is this possible? Is it possible for one who is to continue through
all eternity to be a sinner as well as a sufferer? Is it possible for a
sinner, first, to endure the Whole of infinite punishment or eternal
wrath, and after endless torments shall have been completely
endured to return, and, under the dominion of sin, to perform
perfect obedience as the condition of eternal life? Oh, that self righteous
and secure sinners would consider before it is too late how
impossible it will be lor them ever to obtain eternal life by their own
righteousness; and that they would, by faith, submit themselves to
the righteousness of Jesus Christ by which He has magnified the law
and made it honorable!
Moreover, it appears from what has been said that when our apostle
asserts, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, that no man can
be justified before God by the works of the law, he does not mean the
law merely as promulgated from Sinai, or the law of Moses as such;
for those churches consisted chiefly of Gentile converts who had no
concern with the law of Moses merely as such. Before their
conversion they were heathens; they were under the law not as
delivered from Sinai, but as the law of nature and as a covenant of
works made with Adam, and with them in him. As therefore no Jews
can be justified by the works of the moral law as a covenant displayed
on Mount Sinai, so no Gentiles can be justified by the works of the
moral law as a covenant made with Adam. They among the Gentiles
who have been redeemed are said to have been redeemed from the
curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), that is, of the moral law in its
covenant form as given to Adam.
Once more, is it by the law as a covenant that sinners are convinced
of misery as well as of sin? Then how great is the misery, and how
intolerable will the punishment be, especially of those under the
gospel who obstinately continue in their unbelief and impenitence!
While the violated law continues in all its binding force against them,
their condemnation will be inconceivably more dreadful than if they
had never heard the gracious offers of the gospel. “This is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
“Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Luke 20:18).
Impenitent sinners under the gospel shall be punished not only for
their innumerable transgressions of the law, but for hating and
stifling their convictions of sin and misery by it; and their
punishment for condemning and rejecting the great Redeemer
offered to them in the gospel will be far more tremendous and
intolerable than if they had never heard of His name.
No punishment of sinners will be as dreadful as that of those who
hear of an only Savior and yet refuse to believe in Him. Suppose that
He is offered, and that sinners reject the gracious offer a thousand
times; they are a thousand times greater sinners than they were
when He began to be offered to them—and according to the
greatness of their sin will their punishment be. Oh, that the secure
sinner under the gospel would now begin to consider the
heinousness of his sin, and the horrible depth of the misery which
awaits him in the place of torment! You are under the law as a
broken covenant, and obnoxious to its dreadful curse. You believe
not on the Son of God for His salvation, and therefore the wrath of
God abides on you.
Can you imagine that the omniscient and righteous Judge of all the
earth will take no notice of you; or that He who is of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and who cannot look on iniquity but with infinite
abhorrence will suffer you to sin against Him with impunity? Oh,
how inexpressibly dreadful will your condition be if you remain
asleep in your sinfulness and misery till everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels, awakens you! Alarmed by the terrors of the
fiery law, let your heart be won to the compassionate Savior by the
mild accents of the blessed gospel. In the glorious gospel, Jesus, with
His meritorious righteousness and His great salvation, is freely,
wholly, and particularly offered to you as a lost sinner of mankind;
and the unlimited and authentic offer affords you a right to receive
and trust in Him for complete salvation. Oh, do not any longer
despise this unspeakable, this inestimably precious gift! Come to the
Lord Jesus, and He will in no wise cast you out. Believe in the dear
Redeemer and you shall never perish, but have eternal life.
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 13:20:57 GMT -5
Of the Difference Between the Law and
the Gospel
By “the law” here is meant the moral law as a covenant of works, and
by “the gospel” is meant the gospel in its strict and proper sense. To
know the difference so as to be able to distinguish aright between the
law and the gospel is of the utmost importance to the faith, holiness,
and comfort of every true Christian. It will be impossible otherwise
for a man so to believe as to “be filled with joy and peace in
believing.” If he does not know the difference between the law and
the gospel he will be apt, especially in the affair of justification, to
confound the one with the other. The consequence will be that in his
painful experience, bondage will be mixed with liberty of spirit, fear
with hope, sorrow with joy, and death with life. If he cannot so
distinguish the gospel from the law as to expect all his salvation from
the grace of the gospel, and nothing of it from the works of the law;
he will easily be induced to connect his own works with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ in the affair of his justification. This
was the great error of the Judaizing teachers in the churches of
Galatia. They mingled the law with the gospel in the business of
justification, and thereby they so corrupted the gospel as to alter the
very nature of it and make It another gospel. They taught that unless
men were circumcised and kept the law of Moses, they could
not be justified or saved (Acts 15:1-5). They informed the people that
while the righteousness of Christ received by faith was necessary,
their own works of obedience were also requisite in connection with
it to entitle them to justification before God. This is a fundamental
error, and such a one that if even an angel from heaven would
publish it he should be accursed. Accordingly, the apostle boldly
affirmed to the Galatians, and he deliberately and earnestly repeated
his declaration, that though he himself, or even an angel from
heaven, were to preach any other gospel to them than that which he
had preached unto them, he should be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9). To
mingle, then, the law with the gospel, or to teach men to join the
works of the law to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ as the
ground of a sinner’s title to justification in the sight of God, is,
according to our apostle, to preach another gospel.
As this is a great error, so it is a very dangerous error. If a man
attempts to add any works of his own to the consummate
righteousness of Jesus Christ as the ground of his justification before
God, Christ profits him nothing. The Of the Difference Between the
Law and the Gospel
By “the law” here is meant the moral law as a covenant of works, and
by “the gospel” is meant the gospel in its strict and proper sense. To
know the difference so as to be able to distinguish aright between the
law and the gospel is of the utmost importance to the faith, holiness,
and comfort of every true Christian. It will be impossible otherwise
for a man so to believe as to “be filled with joy and peace in
believing.” If he does not know the difference between the law and
the gospel he will be apt, especially in the affair of justification, to
confound the one with the other. The consequence will be that in his
painful experience, bondage will be mixed with liberty of spirit, fear
with hope, sorrow with joy, and death with life. If he cannot so
distinguish the gospel from the law as to expect all his salvation from
the grace of the gospel, and nothing of it from the works of the law;
he will easily be induced to connect his own works with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ in the affair of his justification. This
was the great error of the Judaizing teachers in the churches of
Galatia. They mingled the law with the gospel in the business of
justification, and thereby they so corrupted the gospel as to alter the
very nature of it and make It another gospel. They taught that unless
men were circumcised and kept the law of Moses, they could
not be justified or saved (Acts 15:1-5). They informed the people that
while the righteousness of Christ received by faith was necessary,
their own works of obedience were also requisite in connection with
it to entitle them to justification before God. This is a fundamental
error, and such a one that if even an angel from heaven would
publish it he should be accursed. Accordingly, the apostle boldly
affirmed to the Galatians, and he deliberately and earnestly repeated
his declaration, that though he himself, or even an angel from
heaven, were to preach any other gospel to them than that which he
had preached unto them, he should be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9). To
mingle, then, the law with the gospel, or to teach men to join the
works of the law to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ as the
ground of a sinner’s title to justification in the sight of God, is,
according to our apostle, to preach another gospel.
As this is a great error, so it is a very dangerous error. If a man
attempts to add any works of his own to the consummate
righteousness of Jesus Christ as the ground of his justification before
God, Christ profits him nothing. The duties which are performed by
him, he is evidently under the power of a self-righteous temper. He
shows that he is under the influence of this hateful temper by
grounding his hope and his comfort upon conditions performed by
himself and not upon the gracious and absolute promises of the
gospel. In a word, when his hope of divine mercy is raised by the
liveliness of his frame in duties, and not by discoveries of the
freeness and riches of redeeming grace offered to him in the gospel;
or when he expects eternal life not as the gift of God through Jesus
Christ, but as a recompense from God for his own obedience and
suffering, he plainly shows, that he is under the power of a legal
spirit. Now, if he is ignorant of the leading distinctions between the
law and the gospel, this ignorance will strengthen his legal
propensity and confirm him in his resolution to seek justification
partly, if not wholly, by the works of the law.
If awakened sinners are ignorant of the leading points of difference
between the law and the gospel, this will discourage them much from
attempting to come to Christ for salvation. If they cannot distinguish
aright between the law and the gospel, they will mingle
I he works of the one with the grace of the other; and I he
consequence will be that they will form confused, false, and
discouraging notions of the compassionate Savior. And so, instead of
being drawn to Him, they will be deterred from trusting in Him for
salvation. They will allow themselves to apprehend that they must
have something to bring with them to the Savior in order to
recommend them to Him; some good qualifications to entitle them
to His favor. Although it is declared in the gospel that all things are
already given to Christ by the Father, yet when the thoughts of
convinced sinners about the law and the gospel are indistinct, they
imagine that they must still have something of their own to bring and
present to Him. They conceive that they must, in some measure,
have that which is commanded in the law before they can have a
right to receive that which is offered in the gospel; or that they must
have those holy dispositions to bring to Christ which He only can
bestow, and for which they ought as sinners to come to Him. Thus,
having the righteousness required of them in the law, and not the
infinitely perfect righteousness freely offered to them in the gospel,
before their eyes, their consciences are brought into trouble and
perplexity; and instead of coming as sinners to Christ for
righteousness and strength, they are ready to harden themselves in
despair of His mercy, and in aversion from Him.
As a man’s ignorance of the difference between the law and the
gospel is inexpressibly hurtful to him, so his being able to distinguish
aright between them must be of unspeakable advantage to him. It is
an attainment in which the present and future welfare of his soul is
deeply concerned. If a good man understands well the leading points
of distinction between them, it will, under the illuminating influence
of the Holy Spirit, enable him to understand the Scriptures clearly,
and to reconcile all such passages as seem to contradict one another.
It will also help him to determine rightly in difficult cases of
conscience, and so to try all doctrines by the touchstone of the Word
as easily to distinguish truth from error. And if he is at any time in
distress of mind, it will, in the hand of the Holy Comforter, be a
special mean of recovering for him that peace of conscience and joy
of faith which will enable him to serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm
100:2). In few words, it will enable him to show such regard to the
gospel as to receive, by the daily exercise of faith, the person,
righteousness, and fullness of Christ therein offered to him; and such
respect to the law in its covenant form as to present in the hand of
faith to it the consummate righteousness of Jesus Christ as the only
ground of his right to justification and eternal life. It will also qualify
him for honoring the law as a rule of duty by advancing in the love
and practice of that universal holiness which it requires.
As it is, then, of unspeakable importance both to sinners and to
saints to distinguish aright between the law and the gospel, especially
in the affair of justification, I shall, in dependence on the Spirit of
truth, endeavor to point out the difference between them.
The law, especially in its covenant form, and the gospel, in its strict
and proper sense, may be distinguished from each other in the
following respects:
1. The law, in all that is essential to it, proceeds necessarily from the
very nature of God; but the gospel, in all its doctrines, offers, and
promises, flows from His love, grace, and mercy, or from His good
will to men. The manifestation of God’s love, grace, and mercy in
redeeming sinners to Himself was no more necessary than the
display of His wisdom, power, and goodness in creating them
(Leviticus 19:2; Ephesians 1:4-7 and 2:4-8).
2. The law is known partly by the light of nature (Romans 2:14—
15), but the gospel is known only by a revelation from heaven
(Matthew 11:27). Man, though he is a fallen creature, has in some
degree a natural knowledge of the law; but he has no natural
knowledge of the gospel. The gospel was wrapped up in profound
secrecy till it was revealed from heaven by the Son of God
immediately after the Fall; and therefore it is called “a mystery,” and
“the mystery of Christ” (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:4). Hence,
unregenerate sinners are commonly not so averse from hearing the
doctrine of the law as they are from hearing that of the gospel. Legal
doctrine they can naturally understand, for it has a testimony in their
consciences; but evangelical doctrine is a strange, unaccountable,
and incredible doctrine to them (1 Corinthians 1:23).
3. The law regards us as creatures originally formed with sufficient
ability to yield perfect obedience to it; and accordingly it requires us
to retain and exert that ability in performing perfectly all the duties
which we owe to God, ourselves, and our neighbors. The gospel
considers us as sinners, condemned to death in all its extent, and
totally destitute of strength to perform the smallest degree even of
sincere obedience; and it declares to us what God, as a God of infinite
grace and mercy, has done, and what He offers and promises still to
be and do for us (Isaiah 42:6-7; Matthew 18:11;
Romans 5:6-10). It declares that in the Lord Jesus believing sinners
have righteousness and strength, and that in Him they are justified
and have life eternal. Accordingly, the doctrines, offers, and promises
of it continue to be dispensed to them so long as sin remains in them,
but no longer.
4. The law shows us what manner of persons we ought to be in all
holy conversation and godliness, but it does not inform us by what
means we may become such (Luke 10:27-28). The gospel teaches us
how we may be made such, namely by union and communion with
Christ in His righteousness and fullness, or by the imputation of His
righteousness to us and the sanctification of His Spirit in us (Acts
16:31; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:16).
5. The law in its commanding power differs much from the gospel.
The law says, “Do and you shall live; you shall, by performing
personal and perfect obedience, entitle yourselves to eternal life”
(Matthew 19:17). The gospel says, “Live, for all is already done; all
the righteousness, meritoriousness of eternal life for believers, is
already fulfilled by the second Adam, their adorable Surety. First,
live in union and communion with Him, and then do—not for,
but from life already received.” The law proceeds upon the
supposition that we still have all that we originally had, and requires
perfect obedience; the gospel supposes that we have nothing, and
furnishes us with all that the law demands. The former
requires perfection from us, but offers us no supply of strength to
attain to it; whereas the latter teaches us that we have it in Christ,
and offers it to us as an inestimable gift of grace (Romans 5:17).
When, therefore, the law as a covenant of works comes to us with its
requirements of perfect obedience as the condition of life, and of
complete satisfaction for sin, we ought to refer it to our divine Surety
for an answer to both its demands. The law requires obedience on
pain of death; the gospel attracts and encourages to obedience by the
promise of life, as “the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The former exhibits the charge of paying what we owe for a title to
life; the latter, the discharge in consequence of its having been
already paid by the Surety in our stead. The law commands faith and
repentance; the gospel strictly taken does not command them, but it
teaches them: it teaches every duty, but commands none. The former
accepts no obedience but that which is perfect and perpetual; the
grace of the latter accepts, though not in a justifying righteousness,
sincere obedience from persons already justified, though it is far
from being perfect.
In a word, the law says, “Do this and you shall live”; but the gospel,
in the dispensation of it, says, “Believe this, and you shall be saved."
The law is God in a command; but the gospel is God in Christ, God in
a promise. The law gives man more to do for eternal life than they
are able to do; the gospel gives them less to do than they are willing
to do. The law gives man all the work: the gospel gives grace all the
work and all the glory.
6. The law, as it has a promise of life, is very unlike the gospel. The
former promises eternal life to a man on condition of his own perfect
obedience, and of the obedience of no other; whereas the latter
promises it on condition of the perfect obedience of Christ received
by faith, and of that of no other. The promise of the law as a covenant
is the promise of God as an absolute God; but the promise of the
gospel is the promise of God as a God of grace in Christ. The promise
of the former was to have been performed after obedience, whereas
the promise of the latter begins to be performed to the true believer
before, and in order to, his obedience. In the law of works the
promise of privilege is grounded on the performance of duty; but in
the gospel the performance of duty is founded on the promise, and
even on the enjoyment, of privilege. The promise of the law is strictly
conditional, but the leading promises of the gospel are, to us, entirely
absolute.
7. In its condemning power, the law is very different from the gospel.
The law condemns, and cannot justify a sinner: the gospel justifies,
and cannot condemn the sinner who believes in Jesus. In the law,
God appears in terrible threatenings of eternal death; in the gospel,
He manifests Himself in gracious promises of life eternal. In the
former, He curses as on Mount Ebal; in the latter, He blesses as on
Mount Gerizzim. In the one, He speaks in thunder and with terrible
majesty; in the other, with soft whispers or a still small voice (1 Kings
19:12). 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” (Luke 2:14). The law is a sound of
terror to convinced sinners; 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 so that it may not consume such sinners as believe. That
presents to the view of the sinner a throne of judgment, this 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 offense, but the gospel offers him
the forgiveness of all his offenses.
8. The law, as it convinces sinners of sin and misery, is to be
distinguished from the gospel. While the law, in the hand of the Holy
Spirit, serves to convince the sinner of his sin, and of his want of
righteousness, the gospel presents him with a perfect righteousness
for his justification before God. The law wounds and terrifies the
guilty sinner; the gospel heals and comforts the guilty sinner who
believes in Jesus. The one shows him that his debt is infinitely great,
and that he has nothing to clear it; the other informs him that, by the
obedience and death of Jesus, his divine Surety, it is paid to the
utmost farthing. The spirit of the law is a spirit of bondage to fear,
but the spirit of the gospel is an ingenuous, free Spirit. The law is a
house of bondage; “it gendereth to bondage,” whereas the gospel
proclaims the opening of the prison to those who are bound. By the
law is the knowledge of sin; by the gospel is the knowledge of a
Savior and remission of sin, as well as of salvation from the love,
power, and practice of sin. The law says to every man, “You are a
sinner.” The gospel says, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all
sin.” The law shows the sinner his disease; the gospel presents him
with healing balm, the balm in Gilead, and the Physician there. The
former presents grounds of fear; the latter a foundation of hope. That
reveals God as displeased; this shows that His wrath has been
endured and appeased. In the law Christ is concealed; in the gospel
He, with His righteousness and salvation, is revealed and presented
to sinners. The law is a killing letter, a ministration of death; the
gospel is the ministration of the Spirit as a Spirit of life (2
Corinthians 3:8). The former is the law of sin and death, the law
which connects sin and death together; the latter is “the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2), the doctrine which is
according to godliness. The one is the ministration of condemnation;
the other is “the ministration of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 3:9).
9. When the law is viewed in its irritating power, it differs much
from the gospel. The law as a covenant, by forbidding all manner of
sin, and that under the most dreadful penalty, irritates the reigning
depravity of the sinner; and so it is the innocent occasion of his
hardening his heart the more in committing sin (Romans 4:15),
whereas the gospel and the grace revealed in it renew and melt the
obdurate heart. The law, by affording sin in the depraved heart an
occasion of exerting itself the more, “is the strength of sin” (1
Corinthians 15:56); the grace of the gospel, on the contrary, subdues
the iniquity, slays the enmity, and, in the hand of the Holy Spirit,
sanctifies the heart of the believing sinner. When the love of God
revealed in the gospel is known and believed with application, it
melts down the obdurate heart into penitential sorrow for sin;
whereas the terrors of the law increase the power of indwelling sin
and harden the heart against godly sorrow.
10. Last, the law, as it admits of boasting, is very different from the
gospel. “Where is boasting then?” asks the Apostle Paul. “It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith”
(Romans 3:27). By the law of faith here is meant the doctrine of
faith: the doctrine of a sinner’s justification only on the ground of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith alone. This doctrine of
faith leaves the sinner no room to boast, as if he had, by his own good
qualities or works, entitled himself, either in whole or in part, to
justification before God. But the law or covenant of works does not
exclude, but when obedience is performed, admits of boasting in the
creature. The gospel or doctrine of faith, on the other hand, admits of
no boasting of one’s own obedience. “He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). “My soul,” says the Psalmist, “shall
make her boast in the Lord” (Psalm 34:2). The Apostle Paul says to
the saints at Ephesus, “By grace ye are saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The man who is under the
dominion of the law of works hopes that they will, in a greater or
lesser degree, procure justification and eternal life for him; whereas
he who is under the sanctifying influence of the grace of the gospel
boasts only of the righteousness of his incarnate Redeemer (Isaiah
45:25; Galatians 6:14). According to the law of works, justification
can only be by works of perfect and personal obedience, which admit
of boasting; whereas, according to the gospel, justification can only
be by faith, the only instrument of receiving Christ and His
righteousness, which excludes boasting.
It may be proper here to remark that, although the law and the
gospel comprehend the whole doctrine of Scripture, yet they are not
to be distinguished by the books of Scripture, or by the Old
Testament and the New. All that is contained in the books of the Old
Testament is not to be considered as the doctrine of the law; neither
is all that is found in the books of the New Testament to be viewed as
the doctrine of the gospel. The law and the gospel are declared in
each of them. In the Old Testament we find much of the gospel, and
in the New we find much of the law. In many places, Moses and the
Prophets publish the gospel; so that Jerome questioned whether he
should call Isaiah a prophet or an evangelist. In many passages
Christ and His apostles promulgate the law. For instance, Christ
says, “He that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “He that denieth
Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9).
“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him” (John 3:36). His apostles also say, “The law is not of
faith, but the man who doeth them shall live in them” (Galatians
3:12).
“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he
is guilty of all” (James 2:18). “The wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”
(Romans 1:18). These, and many other passages in the New
Testament similar to them, contain the doctrine of the law. When a
man is commanded, either in the Old Testament or in the New, to
perform any work in order to secure him from temporal or eternal
punishment, or to entitle him to a temporal or eternal reward, it is to
be accounted the doctrine of the law. On the other hand, where the
blessings of salvation are declared, offered, and promised freely,
without any
work to be performed by sinners as the proper condition of them, all
such passages, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, contain
the doctrine of the gospel.
While we thus distinguish aright between the law as a covenant and
the gospel strictly taken, we should always take heed that we do not
apply to ourselves the gospel where the law should be applied, nor
the law where the gospel ought to be applied. If we are impenitent
and secure and need to be convinced of our guiltiness and misery, we
ought, for this purpose, to apply the law immediately to our
consciences, and not the gospel. If, on the contrary, we are truly
convinced of our sinfulness and misery, and are deeply sensible that
we have no righteousness nor strength of our own, we should, for our
relief and comfort, apply the offers and promises of the gospel to our
consciences, and not the curses of the law. In the former case, we
ought to apply the law as a covenant to our consciences in order to
apply the gospel; in the latter, we should apply the gospel in order to
be enabled to keep the law as a rule. When any question or doubt
arises respecting our justification before God, the law (and works of
the law) must be excluded and stand at a distance in order that grace,
reigning through the righteousness of Jesus Christ to eternal life,
may appear sovereign and free, and that the offer and promise of the
gospel, as well as the faith of the believer, may, in that momentous
affair, stand alone. For although the believing sinner is not justified
by a faith which is alone, yet he is justified by the instrumentality of
faith alone, and that “without the works of the law” (Romans 3:28;
Galatians 2:16). Faith justifies not as it is an act or work, for as such
it is a work of the law, an act or work commanded in the law; but it
justifies as it is the instrument or means of justification. In this
instrumentality, no other grace of the Spirit, and no work of the law,
are to be associated with it. Nor is it for its own intrinsic worth that a
man is justified by the instrumentality of it; for he is nowhere said in
Scripture to be justified for faith, but only to be justified by it.
From the preceding particulars, the following reflections will be
obvious to the devout and intelligent reader:
Although the covenant of works revealed in the law and the covenant
of grace exhibited in the gospel are different from one another, yet
they are not contrary to each other. The one is not, strictly speaking,
contrary to the other, but is only dissimilar to it or different from it.
Whatever is required in the covenant of works as the condition of
eternal life is, according to the covenant of grace, provided and given
gratuitously to believing sinners. They who believe “receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, and so reign in
life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). If by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners according to the first
covenant, “by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous,”
according to the second (Romans 5:19). In the former, eternal life is
promised to a man on condition of a perfect righteousness to be
fulfilled by himself; in the latter, it is promised to a believer on
condition of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ,
received by faith and imputed by God (Romans 8:3).
In the affair of justification, the law as a covenant of works is not
only to be distinguished, but to be separated from the gospel. When a
true believer is at any time in doubt of his justification and title to
eternal life, he ought to set the law as a covenant, and the works of
that law, entirely aside, and to rely anew, for all his title to life
eternal, on the spotless righteousness of the second Adam offered to
him in the gospel. He ought in that case to contemplate only the free
and super-abounding grace of the gospel, and to embrace, by the
renewed exercise of an appropriating faith, the gracious offers and
promises of it. He should exclude from his view the law and all legal
righteousness, and, relying only on the righteousness of Christ
revealed in the gospel, he should trust that this glorious, this
consummate righteousness alone gives him a complete title to
justification and eternal life. As it is not by the law, nor the works of
the law, but by means of faith only, applying the righteousness
brought near in the gospel, that a man is justified before God; so in
the business of his justification he must set aside all works of the law
and depend wholly on the righteousness and grace of the great
Redeemer. While in the business of sanctification the law as a rule is
to be connected with the gospel, in that of justification the law as a
covenant is always to be separated from it.
None can successfully minister true consolation to a discouraged and
disconsolate believer without teaching him to distinguish, in his own
case, between the law and the gospel. If the exercised Christian
cannot distinguish aright between them, the consequence will be that
he will often hang in anxious suspense between hope and fear. The
legal temper that remains in him, availing itself of his indistinct
views, will frequently prompt him to ground his hope and comfort
not on the righteousness of Christ and the promises of God only, but
partly on these, and partly on his own endeavors to keep the law.
Hence it cannot but follow that the sins of his nature and life will
often afford him greater cause to fear than his attainments and
duties will to hope. Every fresh discovery of the evils of his heart, and
of the sin which cleaves to that obedience on which his hope and
comfort, in a great measure, are founded will disquiet and perplex
his soul. Thus, he will remain a stranger to settled comfort, and to
habitual cheerfulness of spirit, in the performance of his duty. But if
he is taught to distinguish aright between the law and the gospel, he
will, on almost every occasion, flee from the law of works to the
righteousness of Christ granted to him in the gospel, and make this
the sole ground of all his hope. He will rely, with settled and strong
confidence, on the Lord Jesus, for righteousness to justify and for
grace to sanctify him.
Hence we may also be enabled to discern when we are self-righteous
and servile in the performance of our duties. We evidently are so
when, instead of being constrained to obedience by the astonishing
love of Christ manifested in the gospel, we are either driven to it by
the slavish fear of hell or dragged to it by the mercenary hope of
heaven; when we obey God not with filial affection and fear of
dishonoring Him, but with slavish dread of His vindictive justice and
wrath; when we labor to obey in order that our obedience may afford
us a right either to salvation itself or to the Savior, either to the favor
of God or to the promises of the gospel. Our manner of performing
our duties is legal when we ground our comfort on any thing wrought
in us or done by us, and when our hope of salvation rises by the
liveliness of our frame in performing duties, and not by the
righteousness of Christ in the offers, or by the grace and faithfulness
of God in the promises of the gospel.
What has been advanced may serve likewise to show us the
exceeding sinfulness, the horrible malignity, of a self-righteous
temper. It strives to thwart the infinitely great and gracious design of
God in giving His only begotten Son for us. The grand design of God
in the inestimable gift of His dear Son to obey and suffer for us is to
display in our redemption the transcendent glory of all His
perfections, and especially of the exceeding riches of His grace
(Ephesians 2:4-9). Hence the glorious gospel is called “the word of
His grace” (Acts 20:32). Now the legalist presumes to cross or
counteract that glorious design of God as a God of grace. He would
have the glory of self displayed, and not the glory of God, in the
person and work of Jesus Christ; the honor of his own righteousness
manifested instead of the glory of the divine Redeemer’s
righteousness; the luster of his own good qualities discovered in
opposition to the glory of redeeming grace. The gracious intention of
the Son of God in assuming the human nature was that He might
fulfill all righteousness for the elect of God, in order that grace— free,
sovereign, distinguishing grace—might reign through His
righteousness unto eternal life for them (Romans 5:21). On the
contrary, the intention of the legalist is to establish his own
righteousness in the affair of justification, and so to frustrate the
design of Christ; for “if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21). Thus the self-righteous formalist
resolutely sets himself in hostile opposition to the glory of redeeming
grace; and so he attempts to rob the Most High of His transcendent
glory as a God of grace. No man exercises evangelical repentance
even in the smallest degree but he who repents of this diabolical
enmity and opposition of his heart to “the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.” And none has ever begun to mortify the members of
the body of sin in his heart except he who is mortifying this selfrighteous temper. Unbelief and a legal spirit, are the very soul or life
of the body of sin. From 1 Corinthians 15:56, Mr. Ralph Erskine
infers, “The dangerous influences of legal doctrine tends to keep
sinners under the law; for thus they are under the power of sin. The
text says, ‘The strength of sin is the law.’ The legal strain, under
covert of zeal for the law, has a native tendency to mar true holiness
and all acceptable obedience to the law; insomuch that the greatest
legalist is the greatest antinomian, or enemy to the law.” Unless the
mortification of sin, therefore, begins in them, it cannot penetrate
the whole body of sin
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 13:21:44 GMT -5
Of the Agreement or Harmony Between
the Law and the Gospel
As the law in its covenant form and the gospel in its proper and strict
sense are not contrary to one another, but only different from each
other, so while they differ in some respects they agree in others. As
the infinitely glorious attributes of Jehovah harmonize and mingle
their refulgent beams in the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ,
so His holy law and His glorious gospel agree and subserve the honor
of each other in the accomplishment of that redemption.
By the harmony of the law and the gospel is meant their mutual
subservience to one another, or their admirable fitness for securing
and advancing the honor of each other in subordination to the glory
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as displayed in the person and
work of the great Redeemer. They are admirably adapted to reflect
mutual honor on one another, and so to afford the most illustrious
displays of the glory of their divine Author. The law, as a covenant of
works and a rule of life, demands nothing of sinners but what is
offered and promised in the gospel; and in the gospel everything is
freely promised and offered to them which the law, in any of its
forms, requires of them. The gospel presents to them for their
acceptance the consummate righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Surety
of such sinners as believe, which fully answers every demand of the
law in its covenant form, and so magnifies it in that form and makes
it honorable. It also exhibits to them, in its offers and promises, the
infinite fullness of Christ from which they may be regenerated and
sanctified, and so be enabled to yield such obedience to the law as a
rule of life as will in due time become perfect. While it reveals and
offers righteousness to satisfy the law as a covenant, it promises and
offers strength to obey the law as a rule. It promises all the supplies
of grace and strength which are necessary for the acceptable
performance of every duty that the law as a rule of life, requires of
believers. The righteousness, too, which the law as a covenant
demands, and which the gospel affords, being imputed to believers,
merits for them that holiness of heart and life which the law as a rule
requires, which the gospel promises, and which is perfect in parts
here and will be perfect in degrees hereafter. Thus, in general, the
law and the gospel agree together or mutually subserve each other.
But more particularly, the law as a covenant of works agrees with the
gospel;
1. In its commanding power. Though it is altogether distinct from the
gospel strictly taken, yet it is in concord with it. When a man
cordially believes the gospel, he, in effect, presents perfect obedience
to the commands of the law as a covenant. When he so believes as to
receive the gift of righteousness, that perfect, that divinely excellent,
righteousness of the last Adam, he presents it in the hand of faith as
his only righteousness for justification to the law and the justice of
God; and so he cannot believe with the heart without believing unto
righteousness. He cannot cordially believe the gospel without
presenting, at the same time, perfect obedience to the law. Neither is
it possible for him to yield perfect obedience to the law otherwise
than by believing the gospel. Thus the law and the gospel unite in
serving the interests of each other, although they are entirely distinct
from each other. Although they are entirely distinct from each other,
yet they have no separate, no interfering interest to serve. “Do we
then make void the law through faith?” asks the Apostle Paul. “God
forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). The precepts of the
law and the promises of the gospel harmoniously accord to reflect
the highest honor on each other. “Is the law,” asks our apostle,
“against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had been a law
given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law” (Galatians 3:21). Does the law require from the
sinner a perfect human righteousness (Romans 10:5)? The gospel
affords this to it, yea, much more than this—a righteousness which is
not only perfect, but divine (Romans 3:21). Are the commandments
of the law “exceeding broad?” So is the righteousness of God our
Savior revealed in the gospel. Whatever the law requires, the gospel,
in the most abundant measure, supplies. Moreover, does the law
command the sinner to believe in the great Redeemer (Exodus
20:3)? From the promise of the gospel he may be amply supplied
with faith (Matthew 12:21). Does it enjoin him to repent of all his
sins? The grace revealed and offered in the gospel can afford him not
only an occasion and a powerful motive, but a disposition to
“remember and turn to the Lord” (Psalm 22:27). While the law
commands the tears of penitential sorrow to flow; the gospel, and the
astonishing grace promised and offered in it, cause them to flow
(Zechariah 12:10). The authority of the law reaches to every article of
the glad tidings of the gospel, and obliges the sinner to believe these
joyful tidings cordially and with application to himself (1 John 3:23).
The law seals all the grace offered in the gospel, and the gospel, in its
turn, seals, with the infinitely precious blood of Christ, all the
requirements of the law. In a word, if the law requires perfect and
perpetual obedience as the condition of eternal life, the gospel
admits and asserts the necessity of such obedience by affording it to
the believing sinner (Daniel 9:24).
2. The law in its condemning power is also in concord with the
gospel. The terrors of the violated law serve, under the illuminating
grace of the Holy Spirit, to show a convinced sinner his extreme need
of the salvation which is presented to him in the gospel (Galatians
3:10). The tremendous curses of the righteous law pursue him
closely, whatever path he chooses to take, until he begins to run upon
gospel-ground, and then they drop the pursuit. If the law as a
covenant is a fiery law, the blood of Jesus Christ presented in the
gospel, in one view, is fuel for that flame, and in another, it serves to
extinguish it. The payment of the sinner’s debt of punishment by his
divine Surety, offered to him in the gospel, is so complete as
abundant to answer the high demand made by the broken law
(Galatians 3:13). The law’s demand of satisfaction for sin is such that
none but God Himself could, in a limited time, answer it; and the
infinite grace of the gospel has provided that God Himself in human
nature should satisfy it. “ ‘Awake, O sword, against my
Shepherd, and against the man that is my Fellow,’ saith the Lord of
hosts. Smite the Shepherd” (Zechariah 13:7). The law, on the one
hand, condemns all who reject the gospel (John 3:18), and the
gospel, on the other, disfavors all who finally transgress the law. The
terrors of the law frighten and impel convinced sinners to Jesus
Christ; and the redeeming love manifested in the gospel constrains
and draws them to Him (Hosea 11:4). The former lay open the
wound, and the latter applies a sovereign cure. Those plow up the
fallow ground, and this sows the good seed in it.
3. The law, in its commanding and condemning power considered
jointly, is in harmony with the gospel. The law leads the sinner
indirectly to Christ, and the gospel conducts him directly to Him.
While “the law is our schoolmaster unto Christ” to teach us our
absolute need of Him, and if necessary to drive us as with a scourge
to Him (Galatians 3:24), the gospel presents Christ as “the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone who believeth” (Romans 10:4). The
law in the hand of the Holy Spirit serves to make the awakened
sinner long for and relish the grace of the gospel; and the gospel
dignifies the law, and renders it illustrious in his view. The law
magnifies the grace of the gospel by showing the sinner his need of
justification and salvation by that grace; and the grace of the gospel
establishes and magnifies the law (Isaiah 42:21). That the law is holy
in its precepts, just in its threatenings, and good in its promises
(Romans 7:12) the gospel not only declares, but seals with the blood
of the incarnate Redeemer. While the precepts and penalties of the
law serve as a guard to the gospel, the doctrines, promises, and offers
of the gospel serve to support the authority and honor of the law
(Matthew 5:17). In Christ Jesus, the precepts and threatenings of the
law have, to everyone who believes, their end; and the promises of
the gospel, their establishment, in order to be completely performed
(2 Corinthians 1:20). The truth or faithfulness pledged in the
threatenings of the law, and the mercy revealed in the promises of
the gospel, meet together in Him. The righteousness manifested in
the law and the peace proclaimed in the gospel in Him embrace each
other (Psalm 85:10). The law in the hand of the Spirit renders the
grace of the gospel precious and desirable in the eyes of convinced
sinners; and this grace, when it is received, makes the law salutary
and pleasing to them (Romans 7:22). The law is an awful
commentary on the doctrines of the gospel, especially on these: the
astonishing love of God manifested in our redemption, the infinite
value of the ransom paid for us, the inexpressible felicity of them
who are redeemed from the curse of the law, and their infinite
obligations to their God and Savior. And the gospel is a delightful
commentary on the high demands and sanctions of the law. While
the law is an infallible witness that sinners of mankind have those
disgraceful characters under which the offers and calls of the gospel
are addressed to them, the gospel exhibits in the wonderful person
and work of Christ the highest proofs of the infinite authority and
perpetual stability of the law. In few words, though the law does not
reveal a Savior and a justifying righteousness, yet these having been
revealed by the gospel, the law charges, and that on pain of the
greatest condemnation, every hearer of the gospel to receive them
(Mark 16:15-16). To such an infinite degree is the consummate
righteousness of Jesus Christ the fulfilment of the law and the glory
of the gospel; that sinners of mankind are peremptorily commanded
in the law, and earnestly invited in the gospel, to accept the gift of it,
and to present it in the hand of faith to the law in answer to its high
demand of infinite satisfaction for sin, and of perfect obedience as
the condition of eternal life. Thus the law, as it is the covenant of
works, is in harmony with the gospel.
The law, likewise, as a rule of life to believers agrees with the gospel.
When the law as a covenant presses a man forward, or shuts him up
to the faith of the gospel; the gospel urges and draws him back to the
law as a rule (Leviticus 11:44). The law is his schoolmaster to teach
him his need of the grace of the gospel; and this grace will have his
heart and his life regulated by no rule but the law (2 Peter 1:15-16).
Nothing is gospel-obedience but obedience to the law in the hand of
Christ as a rule of duty. The gospel is no sooner believed than
obedience is yielded, both to the law as a covenant and to the law as a
rule. The righteousness of Christ in the hand of faith is obedience to
it in the former view, and personal holiness of heart and life to it in
the latter. If the law commands believers, the grace of the gospel
teaches them to love, and to practice universal holiness (Titus 2:11-
12). What the law as a rule of life binds them to perform, the grace of
the gospel constrains and enables them to do (Leviticus 20:8; 2
Corinthians 5:14-15). That which the precept of the law requires as a
duty, the promise of the gospel affords and effects as a privilege
(Ezekiel 18:31 and 36:26-27). Whatever holds the place of duty in the
law occupies the place of privilege in the gospel. Duties required in
the law are graces or exercises of grace in the language of the gospel.
The commands of the law reprove believers for going wrong, and the
promises of the gospel, so far as they are embraced, secure their
walking in the right way (Jeremiah 32:40). The former show them
the extreme folly of backsliding; the latter are means of healing their
backslidings and restoring their souls (Psalm 23:3). The gospel, or
word of Christ, dwells richly in none but in such as have the law of
Christ put into their minds and written on their hearts. The law
cannot be inscribed on the heart without the gospel, nor the gospel
without the law. As they are found together in the same divine
revelation, so they dwell together harmoniously in the same believing
soul. So great is the harmony between them that they can reside
nowhere separate from each other. While the precepts of the law
show the redeemed how very grateful and thankful they should be for
redeeming grace, the grace of Christ in the gospel produces and
excites that adoring gratitude. The law enjoins and excites believers
to receive daily by faith more and more of the grace of the gospel to
qualify them for more spiritual and lively obedience to its precepts;
and the gospel supplies them with every motive, preparative,
assistance, and encouragement requisite for such obedience.
The law requires true holiness of heart and of life, and the gospel
promises and conveys this holiness. The former shows the nature
and the properties of it; the latter, the place of it in the covenant of
grace. It is by the almighty influence of the gospel in the hand of the
Holy Spirit that the law is inscribed on the hearts of believers; and it
is in consequence of having the law written on their hearts that they
desire, trust in Christ for, and relish, the blessings promised in the
gospel. The law reveals to believers their duty, and the gospel reveals
the object of duty. The law enjoins the habit and exercise of faith; the
gospel presents Christ, the glorious object of faith. The law requires
believers to love God with all their heart; but it is the gospel only that
presents God in such a view as to become an object of love to a
sinner, namely as He is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
The law enjoins mourning for sin; the gospel presents Christ as
wounded for our transgressions. When believers view Christ with the
eye of faith, they mourn for Him as for an only son, and are in
bitterness for Him as for a first born In a word, the law commands
them to worship God as their God; the gospel discloses to them both
the object and the way of acceptable worship.
Here it will be proper to remark that these words, “I am the Lord thy
God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage,” are the preface to the Ten Commandments as a
rule of life to the true Israel of God. According to these words, all the
obedience of the redeemed of the Lord to the precepts of His law is
founded upon His being Jehovah, their God and Redeemer. And it is
remarkable that in the giving of the law at Sinai this offer or grant of
Himself as Jehovah, our God and Redeemer, is five times repeated.
But in these words of our redeeming God, it is the doctrine and offer
of His gospel that are expressed and repeated, and that in order to
enforce our obedience to every commandment of His law. The
gospel, then, is that which enforces and also insures the sincere
obedience of believers to the law as a rule of life. It is because God is
the Lord and their God and Redeemer not only in offer, but in
possession, that they are enabled and constrained as well as bound to
keep all His commandments (Luke 1:74—75).
So much for the agreement between the law and the gospel, or the
mutual subservience of the one to the other.
From the foregoing particulars, it may be inferred that a man cannot
be an enemy to the gospel without being, at the same time, an enemy
to the law. Every enemy to the gospel is, in the same degree, an
enemy to the perfection, spirituality, and honor of the law. The law
and the gospel are in such harmony with each other as to have no
divided interests. The man, then, who is destitute of unfeigned love
to the doctrines, offers, and promises of the gospel, however strict his
profession of religion may be, is really an antinomian, an enemy to
the honor of the holy law. He is an adversary to the honor of the law
as a covenant of works: for by rejecting the spotless righteousness of
Jesus Christ tendered to him in the gospel he refuses to present to
the law in that form the only righteousness by which it can be
magnified and made honorable. He is an enemy likewise to the
authority and honor of the law as a rule of duty; for by his disbelief of
the offers and promises of the blessed gospel he refuses to receive
from the fullness of Christ that grace without which he cannot honor
the law with so much as a single act of acceptable obedience.
Hence also we may learn that, as the law is a transcript of all the
moral perfections of God, so likewise is the gospel. The law is the
image of the holiness, justice, and goodness of Jehovah, and
therefore it is holy and just and good; but so also is the gospel.
Accordingly, the gospel is called “the glorious gospel of the blessed
God” (1 Timothy 1:11). The glory of the holiness, justice, and
goodness of God, as well as of His wisdom and faithfulness, shines
brightly in the law; but it is displayed still more illustriously, in the
gospel. These glorious attributes are delineated in the law, but in the
gospel they are painted in the most glowing colors. Much of God is to
be seen in the law, but in the gospel His infinitely glorious image, is
exhibited more to the life, and is more eminently conspicuous (2
Corinthians 3:18). The honor of His holy law, therefore, and also of
His glorious gospel, is infinitely dear to Him. He takes infinite
complacency in beholding His righteous law magnified and made
honorable by the surety-righteousness of His dear Son, and in seeing
a multitude which no man can number justified and sanctified
according to His gospel. And all who are renewed after His image in
knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness evidence this renovation
of heart by delighting in His law and by loving and admiring His
gospel; by rejoicing greatly in imputed righteousness by which the
demands of His law as a covenant are all answered, and in salvation
by sovereign grace in which the promises of His gospel are all
performed.
If a man has attained a saving and experimental knowledge of the
gospel, he will undoubtedly evidence it by obedience of heart and life
to the law in the hand of Christ as a rule of duty. A man can never
perform holy obedience to the law as long as he remains ignorant of
the gospel; but when he begins spiritually to discern the truth,
suitableness, and glory of the doctrine of redeeming grace, he will
then begin to perform spiritual and sincere obedience to the law of
Christ as a rule. “Christ died for all” who were given Him by the
Father “that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2
Corinthians 5:15). When a man spiritually discerns and sincerely
loves the grace of the gospel, at the same time he sees and loves the
holiness of the law. The consequence will be that he will sincerely
and cheerfully obey the law. He will yield this obedience not only
because the authority of God obliges him and the love of Christ
constrains him, but because he discerns the beauty of the holiness
that is in the law itself, and loves it. While the law as a covenant is
the appointed means of convincing the secure sinner of his need of
that justifying righteousness which is offered to him in the gospel,
the gospel, bringing righteousness and salvation to him, is the
instituted means of conciliating his affection to the law as a rule of
duty. Everyone, then, who knows by experience the boundless grace
of the gospel will perform sincere, cheerful, and constant obedience
to the law as a rule.
Is everything that is required in the law provided and promised in
the gospel? Then every duty is, at the same time, a privilege or
advantage to a real Christian. “Godliness with contentment is great
gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Practical godliness is the most profitable,
pleasant, satisfying, and permanent gain, both for this world and that
which is to come. A true believer is, in proportion as he is sanctified,
rich in faith and in good works. Although the exercise of graces and
the performance of duties gain nothing at the hand of God for the
believer, yet they themselves are unspeakably great gain to him. He
accounts it a privilege and a pleasure to have duties to perform, and
to have a disposition given him to perform them to the glory of his
God and Savior. For as there can be no happiness without holiness,
so the believer is comfortable and happy in proportion as he is holy.
The more he believes the gospel with application, and trusts cordially
in the Lord Jesus for salvation to himself in particular, and the more
his faith works by love, so much the more communion with Christ
and enjoyment of God as his infinite portion he attains. The legalist
expects happiness for his duties, but the true believer enjoys it in
them; and the less he expects for them, the more he enjoys in them.
Finally, do the law and the gospel harmoniously agree and subserve
the honor of each other? Then let believers always take heed that
they do not set them in opposition to one another. Beware, O
believer, of ever setting the law in hostile opposition to the gospel, or
the gospel in opposition to the law. Never, in your exercise of graces
or performance of duties, set them at variance one against the other.
Study to understand clearly, on the one hand, the difference, and on
the other the agreement between them; that knowing distinctly in
what respects they differ, and in what they agree, you may, in your
exercise, make the one subservient to the honor of the other, and
both subservient to the glory of God in your sanctification and
consolation. Clear and just views, especially of the agreement
between the law and the gospel, tend exceedingly, under the
influences of the Spirit of truth, to promote an evangelical, holy, and
cheerful frame of spirit. Under such views, you will be able to guard
more effectually against setting the law in opposition to the gospel by
relying on your own graces and duties for a right to the favor and
enjoyment of God, and against setting the gospel at variance with the
law by taking the smallest encouragement from the gospel to neglect
the performance of any of the duties required in the law
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