We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the ‘Law,’ the other the ‘Gospel.’ For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings…Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.
Theodore Beza | The Christian Faith, trans. James Clark (East Sussex, UK: Focus Christian Ministries Trust), 40.
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- Resources on the Law/Gospel Distinction
- The Three Uses of the Law
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- Heidelminicast: Heidelberg Catechism 9—Does God Unjustly Demand Obedience To His Law?
- Resources On the Doctrine of Sanctification And The Third Use Of The Law
- Resources On The Threefold Division Of The Law
Legendary. I got a copy of the book and it’s been an awesome read.
If we could just remember that law is a statement of what we ought to do, and gospel is a statement of how Christ has perfectly obeyed the law for us and suffered the penalty for our failures to obey the law.
Angela-
Thank you. Your comments are very clarifying and pertinent, as usual.
I’m just coming around to seeing this distinction at sixty ( a mis-spent youth), and it has made a real life-giving change to how I read the word. I’ll have to get this book too after finishing John Colquhoun’s Treatise on Law and Gospel. Also very good.