The doctrines of the Law and the Gospel may not be mixed and confused with each other. What belongs to the one may not be applied to the other. When that happens Christ's merit and benefits are easily hidden and the Gospel is again turned into a doctrine of the Law, as happened in the papacy. For then Christians are deprived of the true comfort they have in the Gospel against the Law's terrors, and the door is again opened in God's Church to the papacy. Therefore, the true and proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel must be taught and preserved with all diligence. Whatever causes confusion between the Law and Gospel should be diligently prevented (i.e., by which the two doctrines, Law and Gospel, may be confused and mixed into one doctrine). It is, therefore, dangerous and wrong to convert the Gospel (properly so called, as distinguished from the Law) into a preaching of repentance or rebuke. Otherwise, if understood in a general sense of the entire doctrine, the Apology says also several times that the Gospel is a preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Meanwhile, the Apology also shows that the Gospel is properly the promise of the forgiveness of sins and of justification through Christ, and the Law is a doctrine that reproves sins and condemns.
~BOC, FSD, V, 27
No comments:
Post a Comment