Five Views on Law and Gospel [Paperback]

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (Author), Douglas J. Moo (Author), Stanley N. Gundry (Series Editor), Willem A. VanGemeren (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Counterpoints: Bible and Theology | Publication Date: October 10, 1996

Do the Law and the Gospel belong to two separate dispensations? Has the Gospel replaced the Law? What is the relevance of the Old Testament Law to our lives as Christians? Is there continuity between it and what Christ expects of us in the Gospel? It is no secret that Christians have differed widely on these questions. This book explores five major approaches to this important biblical topic that have developed in Protestant circles. Each of the five authors presents his particular perspective on the issue and responds to the other four. The Counterpoints series provides a forum for comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians. Counterpoints books address two categories: Church Life and Bible and Theology. Complete your library with other books in the Counterpoints series.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Do the Law and the Gospel belong to two separate dispensations? Has the Gospel replaced the Law? What is the relevance of the Old Testament Law to our lives as Christians? Is there continuity between it and what Christ expects of us in the Gospel? It is no secret that Christians have differed widely on these questions. This book explores five major approaches to this important biblical topic that have developed in Protestant circles. Each of the five authors presents his particular perspective on the issue and responds to the other four.

About the Author

Stanley N. Gundry is executive vice president and editor-in-chief for the Zondervan Corporation. He has been an influential figure in the Evangelical Theological Society, serving as president of ETS and on its executive committee, and is adjunct professor of Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He is the author of seven books and has written many articles appearing in popular and academic periodicals.

Greg L. Bahnsen, was resident scholar at the Southern California Center for Christian Students.

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. (PhD, Brandeis University) is distinguished professor emeritus of Old Testament and president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Dr. Kaiser has written over 40 books, including Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching; The Messiah in the Old Testament; and The Promise-Plan of God; and coauthored An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning. Dr. Kaiser and his wife, Marge, currently reside at Kerith Farm in Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. Dr. Kaiser's website is www.walterckaiserjr.com. SPANISH BIO: Walter C. Kaiser, (hijo) (Ph.D., Brandeis University) es profesor distinguido de Antiguo Testamento en el Seminario Teologico de Gordon-Conwell.

Douglas Moo (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is the Blanchard Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. His work centers on understanding the text of the New Testament and its application today. He has written extensively in several commentary series, including the NIV Application Commentary, Pillar Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentary, and the New International Commentary on the New Testament. SPANISH BIO: Douglas J. Moo es profesor de Nuevo Testamento en Wheaton Graduate School, Wheaton, Illinois. Anteriormente enseno durante mas de veinte anos en Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ilinois. Es autor de muchos libros, incluyendo un comentario a la Epistola a la Epistola a los Romanos que saldra proximamente en la Biblioteca Teologica Vida.

Wayne G. Stickland is professor of theology and co-chair of the Bible and theology department at Multnomah School of the Bible.

Willem VanGemeren (PhD, University of Wisconsin) is professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of a number of books, including Interpreting the Prophetic Word (Zondervan) and a commentary on Psalms in the Expositor's Bible Commentary series (Zondervan).

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (October 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310212715
• ISBN-13: 978-0310212713
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wayne G. Stickland is professor of theology and co-chair of the Bible and theology department at Multnomah School of the Bible.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, November 1, 2002

By 

J. F Foster - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Views on Law and Gospel (Paperback)

While this collaborative counterpoint effort has a number of negative aspects to it, I still found this book to be very helpful in assessing the relationship between the OT Mosaic law and the NT Gospel message.

First, the positives. Five contributors are asked to provide their views on this question. Of the 5, I found Kaiser to be the most persuasive, followed by Bahnsen and then Moo. All of the contributors do a good job of sufficiently nuancing the issue to reveal the many points upon which scholars depart from each other. I felt that each scholar made a solid attempt to deal with the whole counsel of Scripture as it relates to this question, which is a definite plus since this is not a given. Given this, the reader might well conclude that each view presented has strengths and weaknesses in light of Scripture.

I felt that Kaiser's main essay was the most persuasive, as well as his rebuttals to the other essays. I thought that Bahnsen, while regretably employing a rather harsh tone here that pervades many of his writings, was nonetheless accurate in many of his critiques of the other views. I also felt that Bahnsen did a very good job of arguing for a theonomic position that is widely rejected because of the discomfort such a position tends to create on our modern sensitivities. But in many ways, Bahnsen made a good case for this view. Both Kaiser and Bahnsen argued in favor of continuity between law and gospel and applicability of portions of the law on the believer today, although they disagreed with each other mainly over how much of the law is applicable today. Moo offered the antithetical approach, and while I don't agree with him, I thought his essay was well done, although not without its problems. Strickland offered the dispensational view, which I found unpersuasive and mostly incoherent. VanGemeren offered a continuity proposal that was not well written, nor were his critiques of the other views persuasive. In my view, his efforts here were the weakest of the five scholars.

There are a number of negatives that need to be pointed out. First, the book often gets very technical, and while this will be profitable for a more advanced reader familiar with theological terms, the beginner may have some trouble with this because many non-common theological words which are heavily used throughout each essay go undefined. Second, the diversity of views is overstated here. Ostensibly, this book is supposed to present five different views on this question. But really, VanGemeren, Bahnsen, and Kaiser are very close to each other in arguing the continuity position and disagreeing only in the details, while Strickland and Moo are very close to each other in arguing for discontinuity. So the diversity in approaches is not as diverse as it might seem on the surface. Lastly, there were a number of typos, particularly in Moo's essay, that should have been caught in the editing process. This negative is quite minor though.

Overall, this book is a helpful addition to the recent explosion of works that have been produced on the law and its relationship to the believer today. This book is rather lengthy (better than 400 pages), but there is a sufficient amount of meat here for the reader to chew on as a springboard for further study.

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Overview of Major Evangelical Views, July 21, 2003

By 

theologicalresearcher "theologicalresearcher" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Views on Law and Gospel (Paperback)

Anyone interested in the various views on the Law and Gospel should definitely consult this book. Ever since the groundbreaking book by E. P. Sanders in the late 1970s the issue of the Law's role in the Christian life has exploded in biblical-theological circles. This book will give you five predominant evangelical views on the Law and Gospel. This review will give a concise evaluation of the five views.

The first essay is by William VanGemeren and he expouses the standard Reformed perspective. His approach is very similar to Vos' redemptive-historical approach, and thus, many traditional Reformed people (especially those who are seeped in the WCF) will find some points of disagreement. However, in essential agreement with standard Reformed theology, VanGemeren argues that no person can be justified by the Law and that the Law (the moral aspect) is a rule for the regenerate. This essay was the weakest by far, since VanGemeren argued mostly using logic than exegesis.

The second essay by Greg Bahnsen argues for the Reformed theonomic approach. I found Bahnsen using logic and "God's nature" a lot rather than exegesis to argue for his position. It is no surprise then that most Christians reject this view because it fails to take into account the redemptive-historical shift after the Cross. Also, those who do accept this position do so because of social-cultural-political distate of our secular world than biblical exegesis.

The third essay is by Walter Kaiser. Though his essay is the shortest of all (only 22 pp.) he argues most effectively for the continuous position than VanGemeren and Bahnsen. Kaiser argues that the moral aspect of the Law continues to have relevance for the new covenant Christian for sanctification. For Kaiser the Law was a gift given by God because of His grace (not a legalistic enactment). However, doing the Law does not confer salvation, but is an expression of faith by the redeemed.

The fourth essay is by Wayne Strickland. This is another weak essay and does not represent all dispensationalists (especially progressive dispensationalists). Strickland argues for a strict discontinuous view where the "law of Moses" is replaced with the "law of Christ" (his dispensational view comes out quite obviously in his essay). However, his argument that "telos" in Romans 10:4 means "termination" is quite well-argued and his exposition of Galatians 3:10-12 is very well presented too.

The fifth essay is by Douglas Moo and advocates a "modified Lutheran" view. I found this to be the most convincing and well-written essay. Moo argues that the distinction between Law and Gospel is a "salvation-historical" issue. The Mosaic Law is abrogated because no person can obey ALL its requirements to inherit eternal life. Thus, Christ is the only possible way sinners can receive justification and salvation. However, believers are still bound to live with the moral requirements of the new covenant. Moo's exegesis is quite persuasive.

Hopefully there will be an updated edition where a sixth position will be expoused: The "New Perspective" view (or the "Anti-Protestant" view). Perhaps someone who has gripes with the Reformation can contribute to that essay. Overall, though, this essay still does the job of presenting major evangelical views on the Law and Gospel accurately.

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Detailed but incomplete, September 17, 2000

By 

Alwyn Lau (Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Views on Law and Gospel (Paperback)

This debate in the Counterpoint Series, whilst informative as a look at how 'Law & Gospel' can be viewed through various theological grids, lacks greatly in the area of historical and sociological analysis.

The book opens with three authors arguing for basic continuity between Law and Gospel : Willem A. VanGemeren starts with a Reformed perspective which emphasizes that the Law is the `perfection of righteousness in Jesus Christ'. He precedes Greg L. Bahnsen who advocates the minority-held Theonomic view i.e. OT civil laws (especially the penal sanctions) are timeless and absolute and therefore should be enforced by the government. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., undoubtedly the biggest fish in the pond, then teaches that it is the `weightier' moral matters of the Law which the post-OT Christian must obey (a'la Matthew 23:23).

The final two essays uphold that the relation between Law and Gospel is generally one of discontinuity and antithesis: Wayne G. Strickland (who is also the editor) presents a Dispensational view i.e. the OT Law was meant as a rule of life for Israel and is no longer binding on the church saint. Douglas J. Moo wraps up with a modified Lutheran approach which states that given the salvation-historical framework the Mosaic Law, being tied to the Sinaitic covenant, has been completely abrogated in Christ.

Taking a cue from Kaiser's very systematic responses, here's a listing of the issues over which the battle ensued:

a) Does the Mosaic Law put forth a hypothetical offer of salvation?

b) Is the Mosaic Law a unified whole which disallows any distinction between its ceremonial, legal moral/ethical aspects? Can the moral elements remain without the ceremonial ones?

c) Is Christ the `end' or the `goal' of the Mosaic Law? What about the Law & Prophets did Jesus say He came to fulfil, and which commandments did He warn everyone against breaking the least of (Matthew 5:17-20)?

d) Was Paul's charge against the Jews for their continued allegiance to the Law or for their misuse of it (i.e. their legalistic righteousness)? Does the `law of righteousness' in Rom 9:31 refer to the Mosaic Law or not?

As mentioned earlier, my biggest complaint is the total absence of interaction with the work of E.P. Sanders and the issues prevalent in Second-Temple Judaism. There is no discussion about Paul's criticism of the 'works of the law' as possibly representing an ethnocentric barrier to inclusion into the people of God; as a Jewish denial of equality to Gentiles as co-participants in the eschatalogical age of God.

A far more interesting book (especially given the present theological climate), IMO, should contain dialogues with the works of Dunn, Wright, Stendahl, Nanos (but his contribution only appeared in '97, a few years after this book came out), Raisanen, Schreiner, Westerholm, Thielman and, of course, Sanders.

To be fair, Kaiser et al take into account the entirety of Scripture and their efforts are aimed at producing big 'systematic theology' pictures on how Law relates to Gospel, whereas the 'Paul & the Law' authors work almost exclusively with the Pauline epistles and Acts.

Nevertheless, although this book should still be a worthwhile read, that there was no mention of Sanders at all makes the authors, IMO, a bit less credible than they could be.