V. De Lege et Evangelio
The Question Raised
The article poses the central question of whether the Gospel is solely a proclamation of grace or also a call to repentance exposing the sin of unbelief.
The point at issue. The question was raised whether the Gospel, strictly speaking, is simply a proclamation of God's grace that announces to us the forgiveness of sins, or whether it is also a call to repentance that exposes the sin of unbelief — since that sin is exposed not through the law but only through the Gospel.
The Affirmative Theses
A series of numbered theses (I–VI) establishing the proper distinction between Law and Gospel, defining each and showing how the Gospel in the proper sense is a message of consolation, not accusation.
The Affirmative. Sincere teaching, when it aligns with the standard of God's word. I. We believe, we teach, and we confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be preserved as a kind of most brilliant light, with singular diligence, in the Church of God: so that the word of God may, according to the admonition of Paul, rightly be cut apart. of Paul, it can rightly be cut apart. II. We believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a doctrine divinely revealed, which teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and which also refutes whatever is sin and opposed to the divine will. III. So whatever shows up in the sacred writings that accuses of sin truly belongs to the preaching of the Law. IV. Properly speaking, we consider the Gospel to be the teaching that instructs a person what they ought to believe — someone who has not satisfied the Law of God, and on that account is condemned by it: namely, that they must believe Jesus Christ has atoned for all sins, made satisfaction for them, and obtained — with no merit of that sinner intervening — the forgiveness of sins, a righteousness that stands before God, and eternal life. V. Since the word "Gospel" isn't always used in the same sense in sacred Scripture—and that's where this disagreement first arose—we believe, teach, and confess that if the word "Gospel" is understood as referring to the whole teaching of Christ, which he himself proclaimed in his ministry (just as his apostles did too)—in the sense found in Mark 1. and Acts 20. 20, where that word is used)—it is rightly said and taught that the Gospel is the proclamation about repentance and the forgiveness of sins.✦ VI. But when the Law and the Gospel are set side by side — with Moses himself presented as the teacher of the law, and Christ as the teacher of the Gospel — we believe, we teach, and we confess that the Gospel is not a call to repentance accusing us of our sins, but that properly speaking it is nothing other than the most joyful message and a proclamation full of consolation, neither accusing nor terrifying, since it comforts consciences against the terrors of the law and bids them look to the merit of Christ alone, and with the sweetest preaching about the grace and favor of God, obtained through the merit of Christ, it lifts them up again.
How Sin Is Truly Revealed
The veil of Moses blinds sinners under the Law alone, producing either hypocrisy or despair, but Christ's spiritual interpretation of the Law and His passion remove the veil so that sinners recognize their true condition and seek righteousness in Christ alone.
VII. As far as the revelation of sin is concerned, the situation is this. That veil of Moses lies over the eyes of all people for as long as they hear only the preaching of the Law and nothing about Christ.1 And so they don't truly recognize their sins from the Law: instead they either become hypocrites, puffed up with an opinion of their own righteousness, as the Pharisees once were, or they despair of their sins, as that traitor Judas did.2 For this reason Christ took it on himself to interpret the Law spiritually: and in this way God's wrath is revealed from heaven over all sinners, so that once the true meaning of the Law is understood, it may be perceived just how great that wrath is.3 And in this way, once sinners are sent back to the Law, they recognize their sins truly and rightly. Moses alone could never have wrung this kind of recognition of sins out of them by himself.4 So even though that sermon on the passion and death of Christ, the Son of God, is full of severity and terror—since it reveals God's wrath against sin—from there people are ultimately drawn closer to God's law, once that veil of Moses has been removed, so that they may finally recognize clearly just how much the Lord demands from us in his law—things none of us can deliver—with the result that we must seek our entire righteousness in Christ alone.✦
The Marks of True Gospel Preaching
Even when Christ's suffering terrifies consciences, that terror belongs to the Law's office; the Gospel's distinctive marks are the proclamation of God's grace, comfort, and life.
VIII. Yet however long Christ's suffering and death hold God's wrath before our eyes and thoroughly terrify us, for that long it is not truly a sermon of the Gospel, but of the Law and Moses's teaching: and it is foreign to Christ's work, through which it approaches its own proper office, which is to preach about God's grace, to comfort, and to give life.✦ These are the distinctive marks of evangelical preaching.
Rejection of False Teaching
The chapter rejects as false and pernicious the claim that the Gospel is properly an accusing sermon of repentance, since this collapses the Gospel back into Law, obscures Christ's merit, and opens the door to papal errors.
THE NEGATIVE SIDE. The contrary and false teaching, which is rejected. We therefore reject, as a false and pernicious dogma, the claim that the Gospel is properly a sermon of repentance, arguing, accusing, and condemning sins, and that it is not also a sermon about the grace of God. For by this reasoning the Gospel is again transformed into law: the merit of Christ and the sacred writings are obscured, true and solid consolation is snatched away from pious minds, and doors are opened to papal errors and superstitions.
Read the original Latin
Status controversiae. Quaesitum fuit: an Evangelium proprie sit tantummodo concio de gratia Dei, quae remissionem peccatorum nobis annuntiet: an vero etiam sit concio poenitentiae, arguens peccatum incredulitatis, quippe quae non per legem, sed per Evangelion duntaxat arguatur.
AFFIRMATIVA. Sincera doctrina, cum norma verbi Dei congruens.
I. Credimus, docemus, et confitemur, discrimen Legis et Evangelii, ut clarissimum quoddam lumen, singulari diligentia in Ecclesia Dei retinendum esse: ut verbum Dei iuxta admonitionem D. Pauli, recte secari queat.
II. Credimus, docemus, et confitemur, Legem esse proprie doctrinam divinitus revelatam, quae doceat, quid iustum, Deoque gratum sit: quae etiam quicquid peccatum est, et voluntati divinae adversatur, redarguat.
III. Quare, quicquid extat in sacris literis, quod peccata arguit, id revera ad Legis concionem pertinet.
IV. Evangelion vero proprie doctrinam esse censemus, quae doceat, quid homo credere debeat, qui Legi Dei non satisfecit, et idcirco per eandem damnatur: videlicet, quod illum credere oporteat, Iesum Christum omnia peccata expiasse, atque pro iis satisfecisse, et remissionem peccatorum, iustitiam coram Deo consistentem, et vitam aeternam, nullo interveniente peccatoris illius merito, impetrasse.
V. Cum autem vocabulum (Evangelii) non semper in una eademque significatione in sacra scriptura usurpetur: unde et dissensio illa primum orta est: credimus, docemus, et confitemur, si vocabulum (Evangelii) de tota Christi doctrina accipiatur, quam ipse in ministerio suo, (quemadmodum et eius Apostoli) professus est, (in qua significatione Marci 1. et Actor. 20. vox illa usurpatur) recte dici et doceri, Evangelium esse concionem de poenitentia et remissione peccatorum.
VI. Quando vero Lex et Evangelion, sicut et ipse Moses ut doctor legis, et Christus ut doctor Evangelii, inter se conferuntur: credimus, docemus, et confitemur, quod Evangelion non sit concio poenitentiae: arguens peccata: sed quod proprie nihil aliud sit, quam laetissimum quoddam nuntium, et concio plena consolationis, non arguens aut terrens: quandoquidem conscientias contra terrores Legis solatur, easque in meritum solius Christi respicere iubet, et dulcissima praedicatione, de gratia et favore Dei, per meritum Christi impetrato, rursus erigit.
VII. Quod vero ad revelationem peccati attinet, sic sese res habent. Velum illud Moisis omnium hominum oculis est obductum, quam diu solam Legis concionem, nihil autem de Christo, audiunt. Itaque peccata sua ex Lege non vere agnoscunt: sed aut hypocritae fiunt, qui iustitiae propriae opinione turgent, quales olim erant Pharisaei: aut in peccatis suis desperant: quod Iudas proditor ille fecit. Eam ob causam Christus sumsit sibi legem explicandam spiritualiter: et hoc modo ira Dei de coelo revelatur super omnes peccatores: ut vera legis sententia intellecta, animadvertatur, quanta sit illa ira. Et sic demum peccatores ad legem remissi, vere et recte peccata sua agnoscunt. Talem vero peccatorum agnitionem solus Moises nunquam ex ipsis extorquere potuisset.
Etsi igitur concio illa de passione et morte Christi, filii Dei, severitatis et terroris plena est, quae iram Dei adversus peccata ostendit: unde demum homines ad legem Dei propius adducuntur: postquam velum illud Moisis ablatum est: ut tandem exacte agnoscant, quanta videlicet Dominus in lege sua a nobis exigat, quorum nihil nos praestare possumus: ita, ut universam nostram iustitiam in solo Christo quaerere oporteat.
VIII. Tamen, quam diu nobis Christi passio et mors iram Dei ob oculos ponunt, et hominem perterrefaciunt, tam diu non sunt proprie concio Evangelii, sed Legis et Moisis doctrina: et sunt alienum opus Christi, per quod accedit ad proprium suum officium, quod est, praedicare de gratia Dei, consolari, et vivificare. Haec propria sunt praedicationis Evangelicae.
NEGATIVA. Contraria et falsa doctrina, quae reiicitur.
Reiicimus igitur, ut falsum et perniciosum dogma, cum asseritur: quod Evangelion proprie sit concio poenitentiae, arguens, accusans, et damnans peccata: quodque non sit tantummodo concio de gratia Dei. Hac enim ratione Evangelion rursum in legem transformatur: meritum Christi, et sacrae literae obscurantur: piis mentibus vera et solida consolatio eripitur: et Pontificiis erroribus et superstitionibus fores aperiuntur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Acts.20.20-Acts.20.21 — how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house Acts.20.21 — testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus
- ↩2Cor.3.14-2Cor.3.16 — But their minds were hardened. For to this day the same veil remains over the reading of the old covenant, not being lifted, because it is in Christ that it is set aside. 2Cor.3.15 — But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 2Cor.3.16 — But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
- ↩Rom.4.15;Gal.3.10 — For the law produces wrath; but where there is no law, there is no transgression either. Gal.3.10 — For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law, to do them."
Notes
- 1 ↩velum Moisis echoes the Moses veil tradition (cf. 2 Cor 3:13–16); rendered literally as 'veil of Moses' rather than 'veil of the law' to keep the source image.
- 2 ↩iustitiae propriae opinione turgent conveys both inflated self-assessment and active self-deception; 'puffed up with an opinion of their own righteousness' keeps the bodily metaphor while staying readable.
- 3 ↩ira Dei … quanta sit illa ira: the passage moves from the general revelation of divine wrath to a felt sense of its weight; 'just how great that wrath is' preserves the reflective, experiential force of animadvertatur.
- 4 ↩extorquere literally means 'to wrest or force out'; the metaphor is kept to preserve the sense that recognition of sin requires more than the Law's bare demand — it requires the spiritual work Christ accomplishes.
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