Catholics point to Mary.
Pentecostals point to tongues.
Baptists point to decision theology, exclusive to adults.
Luther’s most distinctive teaching was the distinction between Law and Gospel. All are justified in Christ. This is received through faith alone. And so the Bible is only rightly understood when we recognise the distinction everywhere between God’s commands and God’s promises.
Luther is often accused of being haunted by Medieval Catholic guilt. And that he read these struggles into the Bible, rather than hearing the Bible on its own terms.
But that caricature collapses when you listen to what the Bible actually says. Luther’s insight sprang from the Bible.
But his insight is also reflected in the church’s most ancient prayers. In the pre-Medieval liturgy of the Western Church. At the moment, our church is using a modern English translation of the ancient Western One Year Lectionary. The parts of it we use are the most ancient parts, before various accretions developed during the Medieval period. (For language geeks, the ancient Latin is available online for free here.)
Every Sunday of the ancient Christian year is organised around a theme, centred on the person and work of Jesus and the Christian life that flows from him. The theme is set by two readings. Yesterday was Easter 5, and the readings—John 16:5-15 and James 1:16-21—establish the theme of God creating life through his Word as it is received and rightly understood.
Every Sunday also has a “Collect”—a short prayer, modelled on the Our Father that reflects the theme of the day. And the Collect for Easter 5 is this:
O God, from whom it comes that the minds of your faithful people are of one will, grant to your people that they may love what you command and desire what you promise, so that amid the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The Christian life is summed up in two things: what God commands—and what God promises.
That’s no accident.
On the Sunday of the year focused on hearing God’s Word correctly, the most ancient prayer of the church explicitly speaks of Law and Gospel.
But don’t get me wrong. This isn’t right because it’s ancient—it’s ancient because it’s right. John himself explicitly introduces the distinction between Law and Gospel in the introduction to his Gospel:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)
It permeates the book of James, even in the passage being read for Easter 5. James does both at once. First, he gives God’s promise:
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights… Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, (James 1:17, 18)
Then immediately presses God’s command:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, (James 1:22)
He frames these passages with the idea of right understanding and so not being deceived:
Do not be deceived… …not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:16, 22)
It’s ironic. The one book that seems on the surface most un-Lutheran (James) is used in the ancient lectionary only twice (this week and next). The passages read are those where the Law-Gospel distinction is clearest within it. And both weeks, the ancient liturgy has its most clearly Lutheran prayer of the whole year. (Next week’s collect starts “O God, from whom all good things come”—just to drive home that message of unconditional grace.)
In fact, the ancient choice of passages across the year reveals this respect for Law and Gospel. While James is only read twice, Galatians is read on no less than six separate Sundays. Why? Because Galatians is the one book where Paul most explicitly distinguishes Law and Gospel. Placement matters too. Paul’s famous “two Jerusalems” allegory in 4:21-31 is traditionally read on Lent 4 in the middle of the season about Christian discipline—driving home that sin is not overcome by hearing commands.
The Law-Gospel distinction is simple: God has given you commands. And he has given you promises. But while they always come together, they are always distinct. Only as this distinction is consistently observed do we rightly divide the Word of truth, and preserve the heart of the Bible’s message: that in Christ all are justified, and this is received through faith alone.
And this isn’t abstract. God is doing it all the time: giving people forgiveness and faith through the Word of the Gospel. God wants to give you that faith today. And so he gave you his church, as the place you know for sure you will receive forgiveness, where God’s commands and promises are given to you together—without confusion. Come along any Sunday in person in Manchester, or online from anywhere on Wednesday:
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