Confessing Evangelical

John H Monday 25th June, AD 2007

In his discussion of the Reformational understanding of law and gospel (see previous post), Alastair cites John the Baptist as an example of someone who does not fit with the conventional division made between law and gospel:

John the Baptist, for example, can ‘evangelize’ (Luke 3:18) people by proclaiming the coming kingdom and wrath of God and calling people to ‘bear fruits worthy of repentance’ if they are going to escape imminent judgment.

If the biblical meaning of the term ‘Gospel’ were prominent in our mind this would appear entirely natural to us. However, as we tend to think in terms of categories that have become quite detached from those of Scripture, John’s preaching on such occasions strikes us as ‘Law’.

However, I’d argue that Luke 3:7-18, far from showing us the inadequacies of the traditional law/gospel distinction, provides an excellent example of both the preaching of both law and gospel.

Take verses 7 to 9:

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

There is no gospel here. This is pure “law”, confronting people with the reality of sin and judgment. And, frankly, if this is part of the “good news” proclaimed by John (see verse 18), then I’d hate to think what the bad news would sound like.

By contrast, however, we have verses 16 and 17:

John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Here we see John addressing those who have demonstrated their penitence (in verses 10 to 14, which provide an example of what would later be terms the “third use” of the law), and to them he proclaims the gospel, announcing to them the imminent arrival of the Messiah, who will baptize them “with the Holy Spirit and fire” and “gather” them like “wheat into his granary”.

John still refers to judgment, but the nature of this reference has altered. Those whom he is addressing – those who are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire and gathered into the Messiah’s granary – are not “the chaff [that] he will burn with unquenchable fire”.

Of course, for any still-impenitent individuals “listening in” on what John says in verse 16 and 17, there is still a message of law and judgment here. This illustrates how the distinction of law and gospel is not about being able to go through the Bible with a couple of highlighter pens, marking each phrase or sentence either blue or pink depending on whether it is law or gospel. The two messages are intertwined and even inseparable, but they are still distinguishable, and John does distinguish them in his own preaching.

In conclusion, when Luke 3:18 tells us that “with many other exhortations, [John] proclaimed the good news to the people”, the “good news” here refers back to the message of verses 16 and 17, not that of verse 7 to 9. In short, John was neither a preacher of “law” only nor “gospel” only, but of law and gospel.

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