Now Scripture sets forth two kinds of teaching—Law and Gospel. The Law, in condemning sins and setting forth the gravest threats of God, is that hammer (Jer. 23:29) through which God breaks rocks, that is crushes the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humbles it, so that truly and earnestly acknowledging the multitude and magnitude [...]

  Be Sure You Don’t Make Christ Into a Moses         Be sure, moreover, that you do not make Christ into a Moses, as if Christ did nothing more than teach and provide examples as the other saints do, as if the Gospel were simply a textbook of teachings or laws. Therefore you should grasp Christ, his [...]

“‘Or do you not know, brothers – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives’ (Rm 7:1)? Since Paul said, we are ‘dead to sin,’ he here shows that not only sin, but also the law, has no [...]

The Law commands and makes us know
What duties to our God we owe
But ’tis the Gospel must reveal
Where lies our strength to do His will

The Law discovers guilt and sin
And shows how vile our hearts have been
The Gospel only can express
Forgiving love [...]

“To say, however, that the law has no power to change us in no way reduces its ongoing role in the life of the Christian. We just have to understand the precise role that it plays for us today: the law serves us by making us thankful for Jesus when we break it and serves [...]

“Now, hear me: The law of God has its rightful place in the life of a Christian. It’s a gift from God. It’s good. It graciously shows Christians what God commands and instructs us in the way of holiness. But nowhere does the Bible say that the law possesses the power to enable us to [...]

“When John (or Jesus) talks about keeping God’s commands as a way to know whether you love Jesus or not, he’s not using the law as a way to motivate. He’s simply stating a fact. Those who love God will keep on keeping his commands. As every parent and teacher knows, behavioral compliance to rules [...]

(Context: About some people’s concern about the lack of emphasis on personal holiness and radical obedience in this generation of Christians, Dane Ortlund shows how there are two ways to address this.)

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism [...]