Ethical Issues with Law or Gospel Theology

Kingdom Polemics

In this episode, host Aldo Leon discusses how the law or gospel paradigm, popularized by some Reformed theologians, can lead to ethical problems and biblical distortions. He argues that this paradigm is not faithful to the Reformed tradition or the Scripture, and that it fails to account for the complexity and diversity of the law and the gospel in their various senses and uses. He interacts with some tweets by R. Scott Clark, a prominent proponent of this paradigm, and shows how they are inconsistent and problematic. He also quotes from some Reformed sources, such as Burgess, Owen, and Calvin, to demonstrate how they understood the law and the gospel in a more nuanced and balanced way. He concludes by warning against the Tarantino tendencies of the law or gospel spirituality, and calling for a more holistic and ethical approach to the Christian life.

Some of the topics covered in this episode are:

• The law or gospel duality: How some theologians reduce everything to a law or gospel issue, and why this is not biblical or helpful.
• The law and the gospel: How the law and the gospel are both related and distinct, and how they have different senses and uses in Scripture and in the Christian life.
• The law or gospel spirituality: How this paradigm affects the way we read the Bible, apply the law, understand the gospel, and relate to God and others.
• The law and the gospel sanctification: How the law and the gospel both sanctify us in the covenant of grace, and how we need both the promises and the commands of God.

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