Often identified as a Lutheran distinctive, the law-gospel distinction is recognized by the Reformed tradition as well. Reformed theologians such as Zacharius Ursinus (the principle author of the Heidelberg Catechism) and Louis Berkhof (a distinguished Reformed theologian) have spoken of the Bible as containing two parts–the law and the gospel. Although people often assume that this means the Bible has two testaments (the Old Testament being identified with “law” while the New Testament is identified with “gospel”), this is mistaken. In making the law-gospel distinction, we mean that law and gospel are two distinct but intimately connected “words” from God found throughout both testaments.

A definition or two is helpful at this point. The law is that which God demands of us (Genesis 2:17; Exodus 20:1-18), while the gospel is the good news that in Jesus Christ, God freely and graciously gives to us everything which he demands of us under the law (Romans 5:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). The content of the law is that which God revealed first to Adam in Eden, and then published in the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were written down on two tablets of stone and given to the people of God (Exodus 24).

The gospel is the message of what God has done in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. It is good news which is declared to us from the Word of God. The revelation of this gospel begins in Genesis 3:15 when God promises to rescue Adam from the curse pronounced upon him after he rebelled against his creator and brought our race under condemnation. God promised to crush Satan under the heel of a redeemer, and ensures Adam that one day no longer will there be any curse (Revelation 22:3). The law is what God commands of us. The gospel is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The law says “do.” The gospel announces to us what has been “done.”

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