Theological distinctions between Law & Gospel

22
Aug

Sermon B: 12 S Pent: Eph 4:31

Posted by Tom Baker

Law and Gospel distinctions are not simply to be used to correct false doctrine. They also are a tremendous comfort to the Christian. The three readings assigned for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost are 1 Kings 19:4-8 (Elijah under a broom tree); Ephesians 4:30-5:2 (Grieving the Holy Spirit) and John 6:41-51 (Jesus as the Bread of life). Ephesians 4:31 is the text to discuss as it reads, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”

It’s fairly obvious what this passage is saying, isn’t it? The Holy Spirit is grieved by bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice. Therefore, stop doing it! The Living Bible translates this as “Stop being mean, bad-tempered and angry.”

However, is such a statement Law or Gospel? We would all agree that it is Law. But if there is one thing that the Bible is very clear about, no man is able to perform the Law of God properly. That is, if this verse is saying that it is up to you to stop from doing these things or else you will always be grieving the Holy Spirit; guess what? You will never be comforted because you will always feel that you are grieving the Holy Spirit.

The problem is because most English translations do not make clear the text in the Greek. The King James has it fairly close by saying “be put away from you.” Do you sense the passive nature of that verb which is to say that this is something not that you do but is done to you. The best translation we found is from the International English version which reads, “May all bitterness…every kind of evil be taken away from you.”

Note clearly the difference between the vast majority of translations which put the burden on you to be rid of what grieves the Holy Spirit and a couple of translations which clarify that what needs to happen is something from outside of you to take away that which grieves the Holy Spirit. Under the Law you are responsible for no longer grieving the Holy Spirit; under the Gospel it is God Who takes care of the problem.

And how does God take away that which grieves the Holy Spirit? Not by getting rid of the sin in the sense that you stop from doing it but rather by forgiving it in the blood of Christ. Note how do you “let” these things be taken away? Through repentance you grieve over these sins realizing that there is nothing you can do to make up to God for your grievous sins. That delights the Holy Spirit who then delivers to you the Word of Absolution and Who also can effect change in the area of sanctification that moves you to desire to do God’s Will.

It’s a huge difference as to whether the burden is on you and you get the merit or whether the burden is on Jesus Who gets the credit. It’s the difference between actively working out your own salvation or passively receiving the work of God Who works out your salvation by grace through faith on account of Jesus Christ.

Category : Law & Gospel

6 Responses to “Sermon B: 12 S Pent: Eph 4:31”


Leistico August 23, 2006

In preaching this text, I would also reach back to last week’s Epistle’s passives:
“to be made new in the attitude of your minds” (v23) and the new self in v24 was “created to be like God…” I did not do the making or creating – He did it by His grace for me.

Anonymous September 14, 2006

Please help me understand the last sentence where you make the following statement, “It’s the difference between actively working out your own salvation or passively receiving the work of God Who works out your salvation by grace through faith on account of Jesus Christ.” in lite of Philippians 2:12 where it seems as if we are being asked to be active in our sanctification.
I am very new to this whole Law and Gospel distinctive in our sanctification.

cellist September 14, 2006

So is the phrase “put away from you” a reference to justification or sanctification? Both are passive on our part through the working of the Gospel.

Tom Baker September 16, 2006

To Leistico I would agree that those particularly texts would do well as you intend to use them.

To Anonymous of 9/14/06 who asks me to comment on Philippians 2:12 which reads, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, bu tnow much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” As is noted again and again, if you take the Bible out of context you can just about prove anything such as there is no god. Of course, the rest of the verse adds, “says the fool in his heart.”

So also, in this verse, all one has to do is go to the next verse to answer the question as to whether or not our working out our salvation is something we do or passively receive from God as He does it. Verse 13 reveals, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

It’s like a parent telling a child that she must go to school today even though she doesn’t want to. However, once she agrees to go, guess who drives her the ten miles since she can’t get their on her own. Her parent does.

While we can actively reject God’s work in us, we can only passively receive the work of God in us as He gets all the credit for working out our salvation.

And to “cellist” who asks whether the phrase “put away from you” is in reference to justification or sanctification, it has to be sanctification because no unbeliever has the Spirit within him to put anything away. Justification is the action of God in declaring us right with Him by planting faith in a newly created heart while sanctification is the response of the Holy Spirit within me as I cooperate in not frustrating the work of God in putting away from me that which needs to be put away.

Anonymous September 27, 2006

PTL!!!! I’ve been hearing just the opposite view from my pastor that sactification was my response to God’s grace,and was starting to wonder if I was off base for thinking that it was the response for the Holy Spirit within me “as I cooperate in not frustrating the work of God in putting away from me that which needs to be put away”. I’ve been feeling like I use to when I went to an “Evangelical” church. Every night I would lay my head down on my pillow feeling like I had grieved the Holy Spirit. How could I really be saved for doing that every day? I felt like I had to keep all his commands “out of love” mind you, if I was a Christian. Sad thing is I’m attending a Lutheran Church now and have been hearing the same “Evangelical” view of Sactification.

Tom Baker October 4, 2006

Not only on this Blog but particularly on my radio show and through emails I have been receiving more and more comments from members of Lutheran congregations that have pastors who apparently do not know the differnce between Reformation theology and evangelical superficiality. If you are attending an ELCA congregation that could explain the problem since the theology of the ELCA has wandered from from Biblical theology. However, if it is an LCMS congregation, I would advise you to speak personally with your pastor to see if the problem may not be one of misunderstanding. Go over together some of the best materials available such as the Book of Concord, Walther’s “Law and Gospel Distinctions”, Senkbeil’s book on sanctification, and so on. At times we pastors get so anxious to have our people love God’s law that sometimes we mispeak how that ought to happen by falling into evangelical ways of thinking rather than Biblical ways of teaching.