So, why do people get so tripped up on how to think about grace and obedience to the law in the Christian life? Why do people always seem to edge either toward antinomianism or legalism? I think more often than not they have an inadequate view of God as Father. Think about this simple exchange between a father and son we’ll call Johnny. Prior to leaving for work the Father tells Johnny to clean his room in the afternoon. Think about three possible scenarios.

Luther once said, “Whoever knows well this art of distinguishing between the Law and the gospel, him place at the head and call him a doctor of Holy Scripture.” John Newton wrote something similar, “The correct understanding of the harmony between law and grace is to preserve oneself from being entangled by errors on the right hand and on the left.” When the leading soldier of the reformation and one of the wisest pastors of the 19^th century speak on the difficulty of understanding the relationship between law and gospel we know that we have a real task ahead. How do we understand the relationship between them? How do we walk the narrow way without falling into antinomianism on the one side and legalism on the other?

For the pastor the problem does not often manifest itself in theological text books, though it does if he is doing his reading. However, the problem often emerges in real time situations. Let me give you two scenarios. Early in my ministry a woman in the church where I was pastor asked if she could talk with me. She seemed very earnest about her faith but she was troubled and I soon discovered why. She did not believe that God forgave sins after conversion; she believed that she would be judged for those sins. This woman had been living under an unbearable yoke that made me think of the Shepherd of Hermas! However, unlike the Shepherd, she didn’t believe that she could lose her salvation. The result? To her way of thinking God was perpetually angry for her lack of obedience and he was just waiting for her to come into the judgment. The solution? Offer perfect obedience. Only her perfect obedience would please her perpetually angry heavenly Father. What a burden!

Now the other scenario.

In my first year as a church planter I went to an apartment complex just outside the city to hopefully discuss the gospel with those whom I crossed paths. On arrival I encountered a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties and we struck up a conversation. It felt disjointed.

Upon discovering that I was a minister she told me that she was saved. The tone had a “don’t press me” ring to it. In fact, almost mantra-like she kept affirming her salvation. So, I finally asked a simple question to move the conversation forward. “Saved from what?”

Silence.

I gently pressed a bit more only to discover that she did not attend a church, read her Bible, or participate in the simplest of Christian disciplines. So, I asked the inevitable, “If it doesn’t look like a duck, walk like a duck, or quack like a duck then why call it a duck?” type question. She was frank. Some Christian people had come through her apartment complex not long ago and they asked her to pray “the salvation prayer” and voila, she was saved! They assured her of it. So, of course she said, “I’m saved.” They had even given her a card with her spiritual birth date on it.

How nice.

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