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We all know that law and gospel

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are critically important.

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Vital paradigm in understanding

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Lutheran theology,

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understanding God's word,

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understanding what it

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means to be human.

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We know God's law and

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we know his gospel.

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And keeping those things

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straight is vitally important.

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We also have heard about this

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thing called Law gospel

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reductionism.

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You've probably heard about it.

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And my experience a lot of

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people just don't quite

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get this straight.

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They have a tendency to kind of

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have a wrong understanding.

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And you often hear it as simply.

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Gospel reductionism.

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And a lot of people assume that,

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oh,

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gospel reductionism just means

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being too nice and not giving

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people the law they

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need to hear.

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And that's not entirely

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accurate.

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So I want to spend just a couple

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of minutes here running through

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what law gospel reductionism

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actually amounts to. Now,

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the real issue with law gospel

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reductionism is the sense of

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trying to create a polarity

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between law and gospel.

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And in fact,

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that's where the problems

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start to come.

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As soon as we start talking

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about a polarity,

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we immediately think,

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now we're in the world of

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science and in the world

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of polarity,

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we know this comes out of basic

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physics where you have a

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magnetic field and in any

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magnetic field you have a

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positive pole and then you have

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a corresponding negative pole.

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And the point is they're

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always together,

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the positive pole and

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the negative pole.

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That's what makes polarity.

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And we're very familiar

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with that.

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So then it seems reasonable

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to say, wow,

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we can apply this to

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law and gospel.

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And so we're quite familiar with

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how this plays out. So the law.

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Well,

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that's a word of God that comes

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and it kills and it exposes our

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need. And the gospel, well,

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that makes alive because it

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heals and makes things right.

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The law is condemning.

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It's harsh and condemning.

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And the gospel that acquits,

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it makes things free and right.

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So acquits. The gospel

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or the law enslaves

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and the gospel liberates.

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The law is harsh and the gospel

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is gentle and we can keep

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on going with our list.

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And ultimately,

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as we work our way

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down the list,

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we're going to end up with the

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law is negative bad and the

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gospel good. Now, you might say,

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no, wait a minute,

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you just went a step too far.

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But it's the inevitable push

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of how this thing goes.

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The law becomes killing,

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condemning, enslaving,

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harsh and obviously bad.

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The Gospel makes alive acquits,

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liberates is gentle and is good.

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And so it's clear if we're

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going to talk polarity,

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we know that the law is the

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negative pole and the gospel

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is the positive pole.

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Now this is a pretty faithful

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articulation of how this works,

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especially when it comes to

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our standing before God.

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Before God the law condemns,

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it enslaves us. It is harsh,

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it kills us.

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Then God's Gospel that comes

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through us, to us,

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through Christ,

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makes us alive and liberates.

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Delicious stuff.

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But the problem is if we only

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operate with this polarity and

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if we think that this polarity

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is the final word then what

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we're left with is the law

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in a negative light.

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And we're left with saying

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the law is bad.

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Some would even go so far as

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to say inherently bad.

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And there are some Lutheran

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theologians who actually

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will articulate this.

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Gerhardt Forde comes pretty close to

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saying the law is always a

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problem and the point is to live

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always simply in the gospel.

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And there are others who maybe

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won't say it quite this clearly,

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but there is

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what comes through is a very

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strong suspicion of the law.

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So when there's law talk,

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we're really suspicious of that

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and we think it can't

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quite be right.

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And this starts to creep into

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all kinds of other places where

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you have this idea that if it's

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gospel, it's good, if it's law,

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it's bad.

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So anything that smacks of law,

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it's got to be bad.

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Anything that looks a little

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bit legalistic, well,

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that's legalistic. It's the law,

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it's bad.

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That's what legal means.

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This is what law gospel

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reductionism is.

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Law gospel reductionism is

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trying to say everything that we

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do in theology runs through

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this polarity.

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Everything fits in

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this polarity,

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and you end up with the law

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as bad.

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And then this breeds rather

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clearly and rather obviously

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Antonomianism,

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which is no use for the law at

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all.

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And we're left with saying

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things like the law is simply a

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negative word and we don't need

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to think about it as Christians.

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That's a big problem.

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And the law gospel polarity lies

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at the root of a lot

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of this problem.