Our only hope in life and death.
Hans J. Iwand on the profound necessity of the law and the gospel in the life of a disciple.
I am currently making my way through 20th-century Lutheran professor and theologian Hans J. Iwand’s excellent treatise, The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther, which, as you might expect, endeavors to offer further precision and insight into the doctrinal assertion that changed the world. Although some might think that is over-selling the importance of justification by faith, I disagree. There is no more trenchant message that the church of any age needs to hear on repeat other than the announcement that they are justified because of what Christ alone has accomplished on their behalf without the least bit of involvement from them. It is this message that liberates men and women from a plethora of puny gods and flimsy projects of self-salvation.
This, to be sure, is just as relevant now as it was when Luther began to question the church’s sale of indulgences as a means of forgiveness from sins. Even though we might not be dealing with the same circumstances — although one could draw parallel lines between that era and the prosperity preachers of today who are still profiting off religion without too much resistance from me — what is the same is that mankind still believes that through the sheer force of his own initiative and integrity, he can somehow save himself.
Mankind’s ego has always been beholden to the idea that he has the capability to make himself right before the God of the universe. Despite how far-fetched such an enterprise is, that hasn’t hindered him from running headlong after any morsel of merit he thinks he can earn for himself. Accordingly, the need of the hour is much the same as in Luther’s day — namely, a healthy dose of the preaching of God’s law and God’s gospel. This homiletical paradigm is not only pertinent for vocational clergymen but also for every disciple of Jesus Christ. “Whoever does not make this distinction,” writes Iwand, referring to the distinction between law and gospel, “is denied the ability to attempt a correct interpretation of Scripture” (39).
The fine folks at 1517 just published an excellent introduction to this topic over on the “30 Minutes in the New Testament” podcast, in which Daniel Emery Price and Erick Sorensen overviewed what makes this theological distinction so necessary. (You’d do well to listen to it.) Rightly discerning God’s words of law versus God’s words of gospel is essential for any semblance of hope to take root in the soul. It is only as both of these words of God are upheld and understood that a sinner’s self-confidence is utterly ruined, priming him to hear the word of redemption. Hans J. Iwand puts it like this:
The self-assurance of a person must break in order to make room for the certainty of faith which rests not on its own justification, but upon a foreign one . . . The law should be able to teach a person to call upon the Holy Spirit who gives us a new heart. It should be able to take them out of themselves because this Pointing-Away-from-Myself is the task of the law, which is why it is called pedagogue and teacher! It should be able to show a person that next to and apart from the law there is something else, namely, Jesus Christ, to whom it points as an example set by God. But the person who is so smitten by his own deeds will not allow himself to be shown. He will answer the question of the law with his own accomplishments. He could be shown — but will not allow himself to be so instructed! And when it comes to the point of tragedy in the life of this person through the law, then it is understood correctly not as tragedy but as guilt. For the law is innocent. It is sin that is guilty of corrupting people in their deeds so that not even the law is able to convict them; their sinful deeds prevail.
The person who looks to his own good works is like an ignorant child who believes that one can put out a fire by blowing on it. And so it continues to be true: the more the law, the more the sin. Wherever the law exists, it gives rise to the transgression of it. Thus, a person’s help and salvation is found totally apart from the sin that binds him and he must find God somewhere else than in his revealed law. Not in the law, but in the Cross; not in deeds, but in the hearing of the gospel; not in morality, but in faith alone is the help that we need. (50–51)
This is the gospel; the good news that announces to every sinner that the all-consuming fire of the law has been extinguished on account of Christ alone. God’s word of grace reverberates in the rubble of mankind’s broken egos and self-despair, revealing that the one deed that can “fulfill all righteousness” has already been done (Matt. 3:15). God’s Son has been sufficiently baptized in our sin, death, and shame, subsuming every nasty ingredient of rebellion in his triumph on the cross. Now, we hear the joyful announcement: “Your salvation,” continues Iwand, “is not dependent upon anything more that you can do, but is dependent upon whether you believe that he has already done enough for you” (41). The only hope in life and death for every disciple of God, therefore, is found in the death-defeating death of the Son, which is God’s divine Word of Promise for every sinner.
Grace and peace to you.
Works cited:
Hans J. Iwand, The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther, edited by Virgil F. Thompson, translated by Randi H. Lundell (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008).