LAW SAYS, “DO.” GOSPEL SAYS, “DONE”

Excerpts From the American Gospel: Christ Alone

Euangelion, the Greek word for the Gospel, is taken from the good news that a runner would bring as a messenger coming to announce in the Capital that victory had been achieved on the battlefield. And everyone would cheer, it would transform the lives of everybody in the city to know that they hadn’t lost the war, they had won the war. But of course, they weren’t the ones out there in the trenches.

In the same way Jesus says, “I have accomplished salvation.” He didn’t say, “Come help me save the world,” but rather, “I have accomplished it.”

The Law, basically, is DO. While the Gospel, basically, is DONE. The Gospel isn’t what would Jesus DO, now go and DO that. The Gospel is what has Jesus DONE, now BELIEVE that.

This distinction between the Law and the Gospel really is the most important thing to remember, and it’s one of the things that we are forgetting.

The pattern of God is always making sure that we know that relationship comes before obedience. That we do not have a relationship with Him because we obey, we obey because He has made a relationship with us. That is made clear over and over again in the Bible.

God says, before He ever tells His people what the commands are, “I AM the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of bondage, now obey me.”

Exodus 20:2-3

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

Now it’s critical we understand that He didn’t say, “You obey me, and I’ll let you out of Egypt.” No, he said, “I have redeemed you, now here’s the safe path for you to walk on.”

This is the order not just of the Old Testament passages, I mean all the Epistles of the New Testament basically followed that same order.

In general, the first half of the Epistles of Paul, of John, of Peter, kind of say, “Here’s what God has done in Christ, here’s how He has saved you. The last half of the Epistles, “Now here’s what you should do in response.”

The moral commands that we should obey are like the railroad tracks for the train, i.e., this is the way that the trains are supposed to go, but the Gospel is the engine and the fuel that makes the train actually move. And so, it does a Christian no good and it does a non-Christian no good to just continue telling them, “Hey here’s the tracks, now go,” but if they have no fuel, if they have no engine, they’re just going to be a train stuck. And there’s a lot of Christians, I think today, that are like trains sitting on tracks being told, “Go forward,” but they’re not being given an engine or any fuel to move them forward.

Salvation by Grace through Faith without Works is a great bargain. I’ll take it any time.