Law and Gospel - Part 2

Continuing our discussion on law and gospel from Jonty Rhodes, we'll see how this applies to sanctification and justification:

Now, grace and works are enemies. But sanctification and justification are not; both are blessings of union with Christ. Think back to Noah. What saved him? God's gracious "gospel," of course. But what path did that grace send Noah down in order to reach the end goal of salvation? He had to obey God's commands - very specifically, to build an ark. Would he have been saved if he had ignored the command and just sat back reveling in the fact that God loved him and had chosen him? No, he'd have drowned. In that sense, "law" and gospel worked together to save Noah - but as one who was in union with Christ, he was saved by grace alone, through faith alone. This grace moved Noah to believe, and then to obey.

Similarly, with us. We are commanded to repent and believe - itself a sort of "law," we might even say. Is that legalistic? No, it's no different from saying the covenant of grace (or the gospel) has conditions. The gospel contains "law" in this very narrow sense. And yet, it remains a gospel of salvation by grace alone. Why? Because, as we saw in the covenant of redemption, Christ alone supplies the power to repent and believe.

Even the "condition" of the gospel is met by Christ! Our capacity to repent and believe - conditions or rules of the covenant of grace - comes from Christ.

I hope this is helpful, so far. Tomorrow we'll wrap this up.