Law and Gospel Distinguished
Letter vs Spirit
Law and Gospel · 6 verses
The letter of the law, written on stone, kills by exposing sin and pronouncing condemnation; the Spirit accompanying the gospel gives life by regenerating hearts and enabling obedience. The old covenant's letter demanded without empowering; the new covenant's Spirit enables what it commands. This is not a contrast between written and spiritual interpretation but between law without grace and law with grace, between command without enablement and command with power. The Spirit writes the law on hearts, accomplishing what the external letter never could.
Scripture References
“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”