Recovering the Message of Scripture
In this special section of our "Rightly Dividing the Word" issue, are four sidebar selections from The Word of God and Preaching by Cornelis Veenhof (1902-83), a professor and pastor in the Dutch Separated Reformed Church. This text is translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman, associate pastor of Community United Reformed Church in Schererville, Indiana, and professor of New Testament and ethics at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. This material is reprinted with Dr. Kloosterman's kind permission.
Law and Gospel
We have just seen that the Word of God is the gospel. It is that above all else. It is that from start to finish. But there is still another aspect belonging to that Word. It is what in Scripture is called "law." Gospel and law are two aspects of the one, indivisible Word of God. It is therefore a matter of the highest importance to see clearly the distinguishing features of these two aspects of God's Word–both the difference and the mutual relation between them.
Time and again the church has taken a wrong turn in this regard, to the serious detriment of the life of faith.
We could characterize gospel and law as follows: the gospel is the Word of God wherein he says who and what he is for man. The law is the Word wherein God makes known how man must–and may!–live before his face. The gospel is the Word of God wherein he gives himself to humanity in Christ through the Spirit, along with the whole of salvation. The law is the Word, in that by it God indicates how and wherein people may give themselves to him. The gospel is the "bestowing" Word. The law is the "requisitioning" Word–the demanding, commanding Word.
Now, in the Word of God it is the gospel, the evangelical aspect of that Word, that is predominant. The Word of God is before all else redemptive Word, gospel.
When God comes to man he does so especially as the gracious, all-loving God, the God who alone accomplishes everything and bestows whatever goodness mankind receives. That was already the case in paradise. For even in the state of righteousness, without God's coming and giving himself in favor and love there could have been no fellowship between God and man. Even then God's coming in love and goodness was the starting point and the basis of human living with God in the covenant.
The same thing is true now, in a very unique sense. For fallen man the reception of salvation and life is absolutely and solely dependant on God's coming to him in guilt-forgiving favor or grace. There simply cannot be fellowship with God–no forgiveness of sins and deliverance–unless God is the Initiator, unless as Initiator God turns himself in grace to sinful, godless man. Neither can there be any religion, any covenant, unless in them God is and remains the Initiator, unless with inscrutable grace he absolutely and solely gives that which man receives in religion and covenant.
Now then, it is about God's being and remaining the Initiator in his relationship to men whom God adopts as his children that the gospel speaks. In its being spoken by God as such, in its coming to man, the gospel is the most convincing proof of that.
At the same time the gospel is also the "means" through which God in a concrete way is and remains the God of all grace, the Initiator in the life of man. For the gospel is the "means" by which he dispenses to men his grace and the gifts of his grace–of which forgiveness of sins and eternal life are foremost! Throughout the gospel God bears witness with the greatest possible emphasis that out of pure grace he bestows forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Christ to the godless, and thus incorporates them into his fellowship. But at the same time it is the case that by and in the gospel God bestows grace and the gifts of grace, and thereby brings to full realization the fellowship of grace, the covenant within which he desires to live with his own.
On the basis of this gospel and in unbreakable unity with it God now speaks and gives his law which makes plain his will or precept according to which man must and may live. Or, in other words: by the gospel God gives himself to men and places himself in a relationship of grace with them, a relationship within which they as his children must and may live according to his will and law.
Scriptural Testimony on Gospel and Law
Everywhere the Scripture speaks very clearly about this.
In God's call of Abraham what resounds in that summons is primarily the evangelistic assurance that God chose him in grace to be his friend, and would bless him and make him a blessing. Immediately after that summons and in connection with it God called the first patriarch to walk before his face and to be blameless (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:1).
When the Lord established his covenant with Israel his first words were, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house of bondage," an expression of his gracious love. Immediately after those words God gives his holy law as something flowing directly from them (Ex. 20:1f; Deut. [5:6f.]).
And when Jesus Christ came in the flesh, the cry that the kingdom of God had come echoed more loudly than any other. And on that basis the summons to repent went out to all who heard it, the call to start living according to the will of God (Matt. 3:2, and parallels).
The gospel materially precedes the law; it has a material priority in relation to the law. But this does not mean that gospel and law, the evangelical aspect and the legal aspect of the Word should exist apart from each other. On the contrary, they constitute a wonderful, inseverable unity of life. They are so closely tied to each other and depend so entirely upon each other that to separate them would be to lose them both. Without the law the gospel is a vain dream, a fiction, intoxicating people but afterward leaving them in greater misery than before. Without the gospel the law becomes a power hostile to the gospel, becoming the preeminent means for arousing human pride to the extreme. Pharisaism, the religion of the law-without-the-gospel, is perhaps the most universal, dangerous and repugnant manifestation of this arrogance. The despair of the man who tries in vain to keep the law in his own power is another manifestation of that same evil.
How closely gospel and law are related is shown to us clearly through all of Scripture. The passages already mentioned speak of it.
In a particularly clear way this is displayed in the ark of the covenant, as Dr. Woelderink has repeatedly suggested. The ark of the covenant is the sign of the fellowship, of the covenant fellowship, between God and his people. The covering of the ark is the covering of atonement. Upon it atonement comes into being, in the symbol of sprinkling with the sacrificial blood. In this way it is a sign, a proclamation and the visible gospel of atonement. But the two stone tablets of the law are kept in this ark. In quite a telling manner we are hereby shown that in the covenant of the Word of God's grace and atonement–the gospel–is tied inseparably to the Word of the law (Ex. 20:1f; Deut. [5:6f.]). The covenant even obtains concrete shape in the twofold unity of gospel and law, or said another way: in the twofold unity of promise and summon. Therefore these may not be separated from one another for a moment. To do that would be to tear God's covenant asunder in a fundamental sense.
Moreover, gospel and law are intimately united. One could say that from start to finish every gospel-word is also law-word. For the gospel as such is always a passionate summons to faith. For God proclaims the gospel so that it may be believed. The preaching of the gospel to the Philippian jailor sounded like this: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). Here is full gospel preaching. In these words of Paul Jesus Christ draws near to the jailor and offers himself as his Savior. But at the same time these words are a penetrating summons to believe, a powerful proclamation of the summons, the law of faith.
Preaching Gospel and Law
From this example it is also clear that genuine preaching of the law is at the same time full preaching of the gospel. For as Paul sounds forth this preaching off the law and holds this summons before the jailor, God in Christ stands before the jailor. In and with these words Christ stands before him as Redeemer. In fact, he is basically saying: "I am the Lord your God."
Moreover, that proclamation of the law is the guarantee that God will give what he asks. For God asks only for what he gives. And we can give only what he has first given us and what we've received from him. But if God actually, earnestly asks of us what he alone can give to us, then does not the guarantee of God's really giving it lie already in his asking? God doesn't play frivolous games with men, certainly! (In this connection one thinks of Augustine's well-known words: da quod jubes et jube quod vis [Give what you command–and command what you wish].) A commandment like the well-known "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ" is therefore fully gospel (I Jn. 3:23). In the giving of this "law" lies the absolute certainty that Jesus Christ desires to give himself, along with all the treasures and gifts that he embodies, to whomever this demand of faith comes.
Therefore, we could and should put it this way: just as the gospel is totally permeated with the law, so too the law–truly!–is fully evangelical. In view of this state of affairs we would therefore rather speak of an evangelical aspect and a legal aspect of the Word of God, rather than simply of gospel and law.
When one has learned to understand the Word of God as the indivisible unity of gospel and law, it is impossible to posit that the preaching of the law must precede the preaching of the gospel in order to lead men to discover their sin and guilt. Law and gospel proceed simultaneously from God's mouth, so that as a result the law can be heard, understood and believed in no other way than in its unbreakable unity with the gospel. Especially the demand of faith presupposes the gospel and its proclamation. To be sure, this demand is embodied in and flows out of the gospel and as a consequence can be heard and obeyed in no other way than in and with the gospel.
When we learn to understand God's Word as the intimate unity of gospel and law, then it also becomes clear what the heart of this law is. It is nothing else than the law of summons to faith, the call to believe. Whenever the speaking God directs himself to men he addresses them with the gospel, and then the immediate priority reaching men is the summons to accept the gospel in faith.
The Catechism quite accurately defines the first commandment of the law of the Lord as the commandments of faith. The exposure of sin which God so obviously desires to effect before everything else is the exposure of the sin of unbelief.
The Jews on Pentecost and Saul on the Damascus road were not exposed on this or that transgression of this or that commandment. Rather, the realization began to live in them that they had rejected him whom God had given them as a Savior. That is to say: they were exposed in their unbelief. But at the same time, intimately involved with that was the opening of their eyes to see Jesus Christ as the Messiah who had come, as the living Savior. Yes, from the law comes the knowledge of sin. But this law is so interwoven with the gospel that we must simultaneously assert that their eyes were opened through the gospel, that through it they came to believe in Christ and were made alive. The gospel embodies and maintains the law this way so that we who know our sins should accept God's grace in order to start living out of it.
According to its origin and nature God's law is holy, righteous and good (Rom. 7:12). It is the expression of God's fatherly will with regard to people whom he has created. It is the guide for how people may live as his children. In the Old Testament it was called "instruction." The longest psalm is a sustained hymn of praise to the law of the Lord. According to its nature the law does not coerce. It summons people to love him who has first loved us and gave himself in love to people who are the image of God as well. To live completely according to the law is salvation. It is also to stand in perfect freedom. The law of God is the law of freedom (Jas. 2:12). For the godless alone is the law full of threat; for them alone the law demands fulfillment with the penalty for failure of eternal condemnation. Moreover, in those who despise the law it causes sin to break out more and more strongly.
Finally, we must mention that talking about "gospel and law" entails a serious danger. The unintentional consequence of this way of talking is that the evangelical and law aspects of God's Word are still viewed as two independent entities that must be brought together and held in balance. Often the expression mentioned above is evidence and proof of the fact that one views gospel and law in that kind of a relationship.
With this way of talking and this conception of gospel and law we are then risking the same misunderstanding and danger that threaten us when we talk about "Word and Spirit." Those too become, when designated in that way, two entities which can be separated from each other and which can operate independently of each other. What is forgotten is that in the Word we are dealing with an utterance of the Spirit, which simply cannot even exist without the active, speaking Spirit. The fact is overlooked that when the Spirit comes somewhere, he always comes speaking, which is to say: he comes in and through the Word.
The Gospel Word
In a pregnant way the characteristic redemptive nature of the inscripturated Word is brought to expression when it is qualified as gospel. Gospel is literally: good news, a joyful message, glad tidings. That is generally known. But when "gospel" is employed to describe God's inscripturated Word, its specific meaning and range was and often is obscured in Reformed circles.
In order to understand the characteristic and rich meaning of the biblical word "gospel," we must note that in the Bible's thought-world an intimate relationship exists between a thing and an event, and the words or account by which those are described.
The words by which things or events are often equated, even identified, with the things or events themselves. Events are sometimes simply called words, just as the reverse is true: words are also taken as events. The well-known expression "and it happened after these things" sometimes sounds, if translated literally, like "and it happened after these 'words'" (Gen. 15:1; 20:8; 24:66; passim on the O.T.). According to the biblical conception a past event continues, so to speak, in the words by which it is related; it gains new actuality; it becomes present again. And renewed in the "present" as a living thing, the past event exercises efficacy.
What is now special is a message, a word, an account in which the thing related becomes present and real. In a message the thing related inescapably enters into the life of those whom this message is directed, and in fact becomes therein a living power which decisively governs their lives. For a message "is" in reality that about which the message is a message. The message about a victory IS that victory. The message about a defeat IS that defeat. A joyful message imparts or realizes that which causes the joy, in those to whom the message comes. Therefore it "is" what that joy effectuates. And a sad message "is" the sorrow which pierces people's lives and pours out misery upon them. The connection between a particular event and that message about it–a connection that is a virtual identification–appears especially in the fact that in former times, the one who brought good news was often richly rewarded. For he was in fact the cause of great rejoicing. By contrast, the one who brought bad news was punished, sometimes even killed. For he was in reality the cause of the misery.
The Gospel as "News"
God's inscripturated Word, and then especially the Word that Christ spoke, is now the gospel, the joyful news, in a unique, exclusive, absolute sense. For it is the Word wherein Christ and the whole of salvation obtains concrete form, entering into the life of those who hear the Word; it is bestowed upon them and governs their lives.
The gospel involved in the Scriptures is the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mk. 1:1). In this expression Jesus Christ is described not only as the "subject" but also as the "object," the "content" of the gospel. Jesus Christ speaks, brings, and gives the gospel. But at the same time he "is" the gospel. The expressions "gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14) and "the gospel of God" (Mk. 1:14) have essentially the same meaning. For the kingdom "is" in Jesus Christ. He is the personification of it. In him it is "among" us, "in our midst" (Lk. 17:24). He is, to use Origen's pregnant expression, the autobasileia. And the gospel is, in the last analysis, the gospel of God, since both Jesus Christ and the kingdom are given by him.
In the letters of Paul the multi-colored riches of the gospel appear in their full light. According to Paul's testimony the "content" of the gospel is Jesus Christ, in his person and work. That is to say, Jesus Christ and his birth, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, session and work in the glory of his Father (Rom. 1:3-4; I Cor. 15:1f). Along with this Paul emphasizes that the gospel does not signify a break with the Old Testament (Rom. 16:26; I Cor. 15:3). On the contrary, already in the Old Testament the gospel was fully present. For the gospel in the New Testament does not introduce new "doctrine," it does not have a new "content." The "new" of the New Testament with respect to the gospel is simply this: in the gospel proclamation salvation becomes a reality. For Jesus Christ actually atones for sin, actually brings redemption, and actually breaks the power of Satan, sin and death. In him the gospel is "fulfilled." And in the New Testament dispensation that fulfilled gospel is now proclaimed.
Paul therefore characterizes the gospel above all else as the gospel of Jesus Christ or the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1; 15:9 passim). For the gospel is the "message" of the living God who in Christ bestows mercy on the world, and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ who has come in order to redeem sinners, to justify the godless and to save the world.
But Paul also speaks of the gospel as a gospel of salvation and a gospel of peace (Eph. 1:13; 6:15). What he wants to say by that is now clear. For the reality and the truth of both of these are present in the gospel and are bestowed upon us as they are contained and reach us in the gospel. Paul expresses this when he says that through the gospel Christ Jesus has brought life and immortality to light (II Tim. 1:10). Moreover, in the gospel believers have received a share in the hope, that is, in an eschatological redemption, reserved for them in heaven (Col. 1:15). In the gospel that eternal glory penetrates our world and our time, and believers share in it. Thus the gospel also has a totally eschatological meaning.
In addition, Paul emphasizes that God calls men through the gospel so that they "may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thess. 2:14). This calling takes place with great power. For the preaching of the gospel takes place not only "in word" but also "in the Holy Spirit" (I Thess. 1:5). The gospel is a word, a power, an operation of the Spirit.
Moreover, Paul characterizes the gospel also as a power of God. For in the gospel God's righteousness, his desire to justify the godless, comes to light and becomes real (Rom. 1:16). The kind of power and effect possessed by the gospel is expressed very clearly when Paul says almost uncouthly that he has begotten believers through the gospel (I Cor. 4:15). The gospel is the kind of power of God, the kind of word of the Spirit, which gives new birth. It is "the seed of regeneration" [I Pet. 1:23].
At the same time Paul insists with great emphasis that the gospel is preached in order to be obeyed (II Thess. 1:8). In this connection he speaks of the faith of the gospel (Phil. 1:27). By that he means that the gospel's purpose is faith, to push for a decision of faith, and conversely, that faith is totally and completely directed toward the gospel. Faith comes into being from and through the gospel and has the gospel as its "content." And the gospel proceeds to its redemptive effect through faith, in the way of faith. To believe is ultimately nothing else than to be conquered, governed and renewed by the gospel.
One can similarly disobey the gospel (Rom. 10:16). For those who are disobedient–they are those who are perishing–the gospel is veiled. That happens only because the god of this age has darkened the "packagings" with which the gospel must be received. As a result of this these people do not perceive the splendor, the radiance of the gospel wherein the glory of Christ is revealed–the glory and power which he received as the Resurrected One (II Cor. 4:3).
One more remarkable feature of Paul's speaking about the gospel is that he so often characterizes it as "his" gospel (Rom. 2:16; 16:25; II Tim. 2:8). Naturally, he doesn't intend to say by this that he preaches a "different kind" of gospel than his fellow apostles (Gal. 1:6-7). There is but one gospel. Rather, with the expression "his gospel," i.e., the gospel brought by him, Paul wishes to focus attention on two aspects of the gospel which came to the fore especially in his apostolic ministry. These two aspects are, first, that there is no room for people meriting anything with God, and thus salvation comes by grace, apart from the works of the law. And secondly, that the gospel, and thus also the redemption revealed in the gospel, is intended not only for Jews but also for Gentiles.
In summary, we can describe the gospel of Jesus Christ as a word–a spoken word– whose content is Jesus Christ and the full salvation merited by him. It is a word spoken by the Holy Spirit and as such is a living power of God unto Salvation. It is the kind of word that doesn't merely speak about a previously realized central moment of redemptive history, but the kind that, precisely as a word about that previously realized central moment of redemptive history, is itself a redemptive event. It is never an empty, ineffectual word. On the contrary, it creates fellowship with Christ, and in him with God, and in this way it is an instrument in the realization of the salvation and the formation of the church. It is and bestows God's grace or it effects, in the case of its rejection, everlasting judgment.>
