Many Christians speak about “getting in the Word,” but what word? Scripture is not a flat, undifferentiated message. In the Reformation tradition, God speaks in Scripture in two fundamentally different ways: law and gospel. The law exposes sin and reveals our need for Christ; the gospel announces what Christ has done for sinners and gives forgiveness, righteousness, pe...

John Calvin, drawing on Augustine of Hippo, explains that good works are gifts of God’s grace, not the basis of our salvation or assurance. Even our best works are mixed with sin and cannot stand on their own before God. Yet God graciously “crowns” these works—not as earned merit, but as His own work in us—so that all confidence rests in Christ alone while the fr...

No Reformed confession teaches that salvation is by or through good works. The confessions unanimously affirm that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Good works are necessary—not as the ground, cause, or instrument of salvation—but as its fruit and evidence, the Spirit-wrought outworking of those who are justified and made alive in Chris...

**Summary:** Psalm 1’s “blessed man” is not us but Christ—the only One who delighted perfectly in God’s law and obeyed it fully. Through His life and once-for-all sacrifice, all His righteousness and blessing become ours “in Him,” so our standing before God rests not on our obedience, but on His....

This article exposes a serious theological error in the MacArthur Study Bible’s commentary on 1 Peter 1:2, which mistakenly imports the works-principle of the Mosaic Covenant into the New Covenant. By requiring a believer’s “promise of obedience” for covenant entrance, the note confuses law and gospel, collapses justification into sanctification, and undermines the...

This article offers a pastoral response to a chart circulating on social media titled “Keeping Doctrine in Its Place,” which misclassifies Lordship Salvation as a secondary issue and, in doing so, risks confusing believers about the very heart of the gospel. Drawing on R. Scott Clark’s 25-part critique of John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus, it argues th...

The Nicene Creed confesses both the Son and the Holy Spirit as Lord. This article shows how Reformation Christianity upholds the one saving Lordship of the triune God, contrasting it with “Lordship Salvation,” which turns the confession “Jesus is Lord” from a declaration of Christ’s deity into a moral condition for salvation. True lordship is confessed in the gos...

In his article “Abraham Was Not Moses,” R. Scott Clark underscores Paul’s clear distinction in Galatians between the temporary, law-based Mosaic covenant and the enduring, grace-based Abrahamic covenant, which serves as the foundation for the gospel. Following Clark’s insight, the following paraphrase of Galatians rephrases key verses to highlight this contrast, re...

Richard Sibbes, a 17th Century Anglican theologian, commenting on 2 Corinthians 3 concerning the difference between the law and the gospel....

This writing of Martin Luther is from the introduction to his “Postils” (a group of model sermons which he wrote while at the Wartburg Castle). This brief foreword is full of comfort and good news. In it, Luther sets forth insightful instruction on how to read the Gospels (and the entirety of Scripture- the OT and NT)....

The basic function of the law never changes. What is this function? Read on to find out....

Graeme Goldsworthy explains godless preaching. ...

Graeme Goldsworthy on the relationship of the gospel to Christian living. ...

Nowell's Catechism on the Chief Parts of the Word of God...

In his work, A Body of Divinity, James Ussher sets forth the difference between the law (i.e., covenant of works) and the gospel (i.e., covenant of grace)....

In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus discusses four differences between the law and gospel....

Understanding the Contrast of “Law” and “Promise” in Galatians 3....

Michael Horton on what the third use of the law can and cannot do....

Gerald Bray: "'What would Jesus do?’ seems like an innocent question to ask, but it is impossible to answer literally and does not reflect the teaching of the New Testament. ...

James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland for the Church of Ireland (1625-1656) on the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace....

The late 16th century Anglican pastor/theologian, William Perkins, on seven differences between the law and gospel....

Collapsing the covenants into one overarching theme of grace confuses law and gospel and effectively eliminates an explicit law-gospel distinction in Scripture....

Zacharias Ursinus, author of the Heidelberg Catechism, discusses the law and gospel. Ursinus refers to the law and gospel the "chief and most expressive mark of the true church."...

Theodore Beza on the similarities and the differences between the Law and the Gospel....

Theodore Beza on what end (purpose) the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the Law....

Theodore Beza on the Gospel and its authority, why, how and for what end (purpose) it was written....

Theodore Beza on the two parts of the Word of God....

A review of David Platt's book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream....