We need to hear both law and gospel, and we need to hear them at the right time. Yet, putting this distinction into practice always involves risks.
C. F. W. Walther observed that the proper distinction of Law and Gospel is learned only in the school of experience, only from the Holy Spirit’s putting us onto the practice field. The Holy Spirit teaches us through experiences that call for wise responses.
Wisdom is a word and a concept that have largely disappeared from our vocabulary. We want expertise, we demand competence, and we need knowledge. But what we do just beyond the level of knowledge, competence, and expertise lies outside the realm of our imagination, although we often face situations in which everything has been done according to the assembly instructions or rulebook and things are still not in order. David’s son, Solomon, had witnessed all sorts of situations where knowledge, experience, and the power to get things done had not quite been sufficient to guide his father and a couple of his brothers to the ends they sought. In 1 Kings 3:9, he asked God for an understanding mind, wisdom, which would enable him to distinguish what is good from what is evil. Solomon is credited with the proverbs collected in his book, a book that begins by defining wisdom as leading to righteousness, justice, and equity, that is, dealing fairly with others, taking God’s design for human life and His will for human welfare as that which governs our treatment of others in the sticky situations of life (Proverbs 1:2-3). Jesus said it simply, “As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Luke 6:31). We wish to be called back from perilous practices that soil and stain life. We wish to be freed from the enemies over which Christ claimed victory; Satan, sin, God’s wrath, the Law’s condemnation, and death. We need to hear both law and gospel, and we need to hear them at the right time. Yet, putting this distinction into practice always involves risks.
The proper, effective, faithful distinction of Law and Gospel takes place through the wisdom that God alone can grant.God took risks when He intervened in the sinful world with what seemed to be foolishness and impotence, but it turned out to be wisdom and power without compare (1 Corinthians 1 and 2). When the prodigal son returned, it was risky to take in someone so turned-in upon himself, a narcissist first class, and give him a new robe, a new ring, new footwear, and a magnificent banquet (Luke 15:11-24). The father did not know whether the kid might take the money and run... again. Jesus picked Simon, and he turned out to be a high-risk case, but in the end, he heard Jesus’s words, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-19). A risky commission, but Jesus knew best. On the other hand, the risk of calling Judas Iscariot to the twelve did not turn out well, but Jesus was willing to risk.
It often seems best to be secure in God’s Law, His design for human life. If we can just get people to obey His rules, things should go well. But the actor in the realm of the Law is the human creature, and human creatures born of Adam, inevitably, turn in upon themselves to seek the good life through their own performance. As helpful as the Law is in guiding us into God’s way of life, it always bites back. The Holy Spirit does not bring people to new life through the Law’s condemnation nor its good counsel, through our performance or our accomplishments. Life comes from hearing the promise. Paul reminded the Romans that salvation, the restoration of human wholeness and integrity, comes through trusting that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead (10:9). That is God’s promise, and promises are, by very definition, risky because they are so easily abused.
Thus, believers take risks in sharing God’s promise, just as we take risks in reprimanding and reproving others, who may take offense at what we say when we point out the path to destruction down which they are sliding. The exercise of wisdom guides our proper witness to what God wants said in specific situations. It comes through our commitment to seeking fairness in our words of repentance or forgiveness, of reproof or new birth. This sensitive application of God’s Word to others in the contexts of their sinning and suffering depends on the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We must concentrate on the application of His Word to the specific situation of the person we are addressing. That means we are always taking risks with that most precious gift, the Word of God. Avoiding risks often takes us out of the game and leaves us wrestling with more options while our conversation partner hurries down a path to destruction or drowns in despair. It takes wisdom to proceed with the application of Law and Gospel. This means we cannot truly serve as a spokesperson for the Lord unless we are ready to hear both the reproof of the Law and the life-giving consolation of the Gospel ourselves.
The proper, effective, faithful distinction of Law and Gospel takes place through the wisdom that God alone can grant. The Holy Spirit does this in the school of experience. Which means we cannot hope to serve God by distinguishing Law and Gospel without trusting the Gospel for ourselves.
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