{"id":271,"date":"2012-07-25T09:33:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T13:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=271"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:25","slug":"preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, I posted a comment over at Brothers of John the Steadfast<\/a> on a thread regarding legalism and a high view of the law<\/a>.\u00a0 The gist of the original post (with which I completely agree), is that anyone with a genuinely high view of the Law is going to be desperate for the Gospel.\u00a0 If you actually take the Law fully & seriously, there’s no way you could be under the impression that you have upheld it or can uphold it in the future.\u00a0 Ironically, legalists don’t take the law seriously enough.<\/p>\n

However, I thought that one part of the original post needed further commentary:\u00a0 how does one analyze complaints from laity who think they’re getting too much Gospel and not enough law?\u00a0 I’ve noticed an unfortunate tendency for confessional pastors to dismiss such complaints as indicative of legalism, self-righteousness, and “itching ears” without really examining whether they might be in any way legitimate.\u00a0 My comments don’t usually occasion people tracking down my email and thanking me.\u00a0 Since this particular comment resulted in multiple such emails, I thought it might be worth re-posting here:<\/p>\n

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I completely agree with Machen & Tullian. If you have a high view of the law (relative to one\u2019s view of man), you want more Gospel because you realize how badly you need it.<\/p>\n

However, while I cannot speak to your specific situation, there is at least one more possibility that can lead to parishioners making the kind of confused complaints you recount: a pastor who has a high view of the law but does not preach it accordingly. I raise the possibility precisely because of Machen\u2019s argument. A high view of the law should lead to a greater desire for the Gospel, and yet\u2026 they were complaining not just about not enough law, but also about too much Gospel. So could there be a reason the high view was not passed on?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many pastors with precisely the high view of the law that you describe end up preaching about<\/em> the law rather than actually preaching the law. For example, they\u2019ll tell their congregation that nobody lives up to the Law but never tell them that God condemns fornication. They\u2019ll tell their congregation that we are all tainted by original sin but never inform wives that God wants them to submit to their husbands. They\u2019ll tell their congregation that none of us love God with our whole hearts or our neighbors as ourselves, but never address the man who doesn\u2019t bother bringing his children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. When they do mention specifics, they do so in a shotgun approach intended to cover everyone in the congregation\u2013a mere rhetorical restatement of \u201ceveryone\u2019s guilty.\u201d In short: they proclaim their high view of the law without really proclaiming the law itself.<\/p>\n

Pastors really need to do both. The law without the proper interpretation just leads to legalism or despair. But the proper interpretation without the law leads to original sin being seen as nothing more than an abstract check mark on some divine spreadsheet. I only recognize the gravity of original sin because I recognize how pervasive is my desire to commit sins. I only recognize the pervasiveness of my sinful nature when I begin to wonder what kind of person would so frequently want to punch someone who is being irritating, or stare at scantily clad women, or play video games instead of fulfilling my vocations, etc. I only wonder such a thing when I am consistently told that such things are sinful\u2013after all, my culture spends a lot of time and effort telling me exactly the opposite. Without specifics from the pulpit, sin just becomes an abstract concept. It\u2019s hard to have a high view of the law and therefore thirst for the Gospel until one recognizes the sin enfleshed in their own lives.<\/p>\n

If we simply preached the whole counsel of God instead of trying to game the system by trying to artificially bring about results (e.g. \u201cevery sermon\u2019s got to be 49% law & 51% gospel\u201d or \u201cI have 15 mintues to use today\u2019s Bible reading to make everyone feel equally guilty for a second and then make them all stop feeling guilty before I finish\u201d, etc), this wouldn\u2019t be an issue.<\/p>\n

Later in the thread, in response to a question about what we then make of the sanctified man and examples of Scripture’s loving exhortation, I also commented:<\/p>\n

In my opinion, verses like that have both law and gospel in them. I can still see my sinfulness in falling short of what a sanctified man is supposed to be. They\u2019re also promises of what God will one day make me and is now making me. They remind me that my salvation will one day be enfleshed in a full and abundant life of faithful obedience (which is even now at work) and graciously instruct me on what that looks like. Whether or not they\u2019re \u201cfull\u201d of either, they are part of the whole and should be part of the whole that\u2019s preached.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s not the preacher who decides whether we\u2019re restrained, crushed, or graciously instructed by the law\u2013the Holy Spirit does. The preacher\u2019s responsibility is simply to preach the whole counsel of God, including the verses you list. They\u2019re not authorized to restrict their preaching to verses with loving exhortation because they\u2019re more concerned about their flock doing good works (as some missional Lutherans and Evangelicals do). Neither are they authorized to skip or minimize those verses because they\u2019re afraid their flock might become self-righteous after trying and succeeding in doing some good works (as some confessional Lutherans do).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a month ago, I posted a comment over at Brothers of John the Steadfast on a thread regarding legalism and a high view of the law.\u00a0 The gist of the original post (with which I completely agree), is that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,9,32],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPreaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law - The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About a month ago, I posted a comment over at Brothers of John the Steadfast on a thread regarding legalism and a high view of the law.\u00a0 The gist of the original post (with which I completely agree), is that … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-25T13:33:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"headline\":\"Preaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-25T13:33:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\"},\"wordCount\":980,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Law\",\"Lutheranism\",\"Theological Pietism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\",\"name\":\"Preaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law - The 96th Thesis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-25T13:33:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preaching-the-law-vs-preaching-about-the-law\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Preaching the Law vs. Preaching About the Law\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The 96th Thesis\",\"description\":\"The Devil Never Sleeps; 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