Gospel and Law: justification and vocation
One of the gravest—and also the most common—forms of spiritual abuse is a failure (or worse, refusal) to distinguish the Law from the Gospel.
In this post, I want to give you another way to think about your Christian life: In terms of your salvation and your vocation.
There is salvation—justification, sanctification, and glorification—and this is strictly the domain of the Gospel. It is solely the work of God. The only thing you contribute to it is your own sin and need.
And then there is vocation. This is the domain of the Law. Not as a way to salvation, nor as a way to maintain or assure your salvation. Rather, this is where you strive to love and serve your neighbor. This is where God is at work within you, both to will and work for His good pleasure. Vocation is how God gives good gifts to others through you.
What the Law Can and Cannot Do
Let’s talk about the Law of God. In scripture, the words for Law can carry several different but overlapping ideas. Sometimes, law refers specifically to the moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:9-10). It can also mean the Pentateuch—the first five books of scripture, associated with Moses (Luke 24:44). It can be a reference to God’s instructions in general (Psalm 119:97).
It can also refer to a principle we invariably see at work in the human condition. For example, when St. Paul says:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Romans 7:21-23 ESV
In the above passage, Paul is contrasting the Law of God, which is good, holy, and just; with another “law” of the human condition. Fallen humanity is not good and holy and just. And so it is essentially the law of our nature resist and rebel against the Law of God (cf. Romans 8:7-8).
Broadly speaking then, when the Bible speaks of Law, it’s talking about a normative rule, that has sanctions attached to establish it. Whenever the Bible is commanding or instructing us to do something, generally this should be understood as Law.
Biblically speaking, Law serves three functions:
- To reveal our sin and misery, so that we cast ourselves upon God’s mercy in Christ. The knowledge of sin comes through the law (Romans 3:20 CSB).
- To restrain and punish evil. This is also called the civic use of the Law, because earthly rulers punish evil such as murder and theft. St. Paul was referring to this use of the Law in 1 Timothy 1:8-10: Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine (ESV). God uses the threat of temporal punishment to restrain the evil impulses of both saint and sinner, regenerate and reprobate.
- As a guide to train believers how we should love God and others in our vocations. St. Paul called this use training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17 CSB). Likewise, he taught that the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself (Galatians 5:14 CSB). And Christ famously said: Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12 CSB). Notice that our Lord and the Apostle didn’t say to love your neighbor instead of obeying the Law. Christ says that is the Law, and St. Paul said it fulfills the Law. In other words, if we would learn to love and serve God and our neighbor, we must learn it from the Law of God.
That’s a lot to digest. But the one thing scripture says the Law cannot do is declare us righteous before God.
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Romans 3:20, 28 ESV
What this means in practical terms is that: You are not saved by the strength of your performance, obedience, or lack of sin. The Law can condemn you, restrain you, or guide you. But it cannot declare you righteous. It will always and only point to your sin and failure. Even as it acquits you for your obedience over here, it condemns you for your failure over there (Romans 2:15; James 2:10).
You cannot be justified by the Law. Only the Gospel can do that.
What the Gospel Alone Does
Gospel is God’s own gracious initiative to save sinful humans; through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; in and by the Holy Spirit.
St. Paul says that the Gospel—and the Gospel alone—is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16 ESV).
Only by the Gospel of Christ are we justified— or declared righteous—before God. Not by our own righteousness, but because when we are joined to Christ through faith, God declares us righteous on His account. Just like Abraham: Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). By the Gospel, God justifies the ungodly (and that’s everyone, Romans 3:23), and counts our faith as righteousness (Romans 4:5). And regardless of how some are trying to redefine faith as faithfulness, to include our Law-keeping as part of our faith, Law and Gospel, faith and works, are two entirely separate principles. So Romans 4:4-5:
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
ESV
Likewise, it is only by the Gospel that believers are sanctified—or made holy in God’s sight.
We are not made holy by doing holy works. Rather, we are made holy first because Christ’s blood covers us and makes us holy to God (Hebrews 10:10, 14); and second, we are made more and more holy in this life by the work of the Holy Spirit, who bears good fruit in us (Galatians 5:22-23); and transforms us to be more and more like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are of course involved in our sanctification. But we are never sanctified by what we do.
Further, it is only by the Gospel that we will be glorified. Glorification is the term scripture uses for our resurrection to eternal life; with perfected, sinless, and immortal bodies; to dwell personally with God in a renewed creation (Romans 8:30; cf. Romans 8:18-25; 1 Corinthians 15:50-55; Revelation 21:1-7; 2 Peter 3:13).
Just as we cannot make ourselves righteous or holy by our own efforts, we obviously cannot resurrect ourselves to eternal glory by our own efforts. It’s solely the work of God the Father, through Christ, by the Spirit.
Thus we read:
Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:10-11 CSB (cf. Philippians 3:20-21)
So we see that from beginning to end, salvation is God’s work alone, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit. That’s why Christ is called the author and finisher of faith (Hebrews 12:2), and why we are promised that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6 CSB)
Generally speaking, Gospel is the promises of God. They are enacted by Christ, and applied to believers by the Holy Spirit.
We’ve been saved, we are saved, and we shall be saved solely on the basis of what God has done, is doing, and shall do through Christ, by the Spirit.
To sum up: Law is in the imperative. It tells us what we must do. But it cannot save us.
Gospel is in the indicative. It tells us what God has done, is doing, and shall do. And it alone saves us.
Ephesians 2:8-10: Salvation and Vocation
Ephesians 2:8-10 reads:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
ESV
This is an essential text for both distinguishing salvation from vocation; and seeing how they relate to one another.
In short, these verses teach that we are not saved by our good works; but we are saved for good works.
In the Gospel, God graciously saves us, so that we may glorify Him by loving and serving our neighbors, without the fear of judgment, or the anxiety that we need to be impressive to God.
Salvation is where God works for us; vocation is where we work—or rather, where God works through us.
Let’s take a closer look at what Ephesians 2:8-10 teaches us about salvation and vocation.
Ephesians 2:8-9: Salvation
First of all, notice that v8 does not say we are saved by faith. It says we are saved by God’s grace through faith. Grace is instrumental in our salvation. Faith is how we receive grace.
Moreover, even our faith is a gift from God. (1) Ephesians 2:1, 5 describes us as having been dead in our sin. Dead men cannot muster up faith from within themselves. Were this the case, faith would be a work, and we could pat ourselves on the back for believing while others remain hardened.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV)
God made us alive by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Acknowledging that even the faith through which we are saved is not our own doing, but a gift from God frees us from the nagging temptation to boast. St. Paul says this explicitly in Romans 12:3:
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
CSB
Notice that it says God is the one who gives faith to each believer. And this is explicitly so that none of us would think too highly of ourselves, comparing our faith to others’; but rather boast in the Lord for the grace he has given us.
The point is this: In Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul makes it plain that salvation is solely the work of God. This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works. He could not have made it any plainer.
Now, it’s right about here that someone will typically pipe up and ask: Yeah, well what about James 2:24?!
That verse, of course, tells us: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (ESV)
Hold your horses! I know full well that verse is in the Bible. But you can’t have James and Paul contradict one another, and there’s an easy way to not do that, without going through any torturous mental gymnastics. I’ll pick up this question after I talk about vocation in Ephesians 2:10.
Ephesians 2:10: Vocation (2)
Another word for vocation is calling. But vocation is helpful, because it helps distinguish the work to which God calls us, from the Gospel call (Romans 8:30).
Vocation speaks to the various stations of life in which a Christian is called to work for God’s glory and their neighbor’s good. Strictly speaking, an unbeliever doesn’t have a vocation. They only have a station. What makes a vocation distinct from a station is that a Christian is working for the Lord, and not for men; and the Lord has commandeered the Christian’s life for His particular use.
(This doesn’t mean that God cannot and does not work through unbelievers. But that is a different discussion.)
Now, vocation for a Christian doesn’t just mean the thing you collect a paycheck for. That’s one vocation to which you are called, as an employee. But in Christ, every station you inhabit becomes a vocation, where God is working through you in a unique way. So you might also have a vocation as a husband or wife; a mother or father; a church member; a friend; a citizen, etc.
Ephesians 2:10 speaks to us about vocation. But interestingly it doesn’t focus primarily on our doing the work. Instead, it focuses on God working for us, in us, and through us.
Because it tells us first that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Remember, we were dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1, 5). But God, we are told, gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17 ESV)
God created saving faith in us ex nihilo—“out of nothing”—just like He created the world: through the power of His word. And with that, He breathed His Spirit onto our dry bones, and called us back to life (Ezekiel 37:1-14). He has created us anew in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
He has done all this so that we could do good works. But these good works do not save us. We can now finally do good works because God has saved us from the dominion of sin: For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2 ESV; cf. Romans 6:6ff, esp. v23)
So our salvation is not the result of our good works; rather, our good works are the result of our salvation.
Now of course, this raises an important question: What are good works? Who decides what counts as good works? By what standard do we say: This is a good work?
This question was answered ably by the Westminster Puritans:
Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention.
Westminster Confession of Faith, XVI:1
Simple answer: The Law of God teaches us what good works are.
The Law teaches us how to love God, and how to love our neighbor. Whenever you see a command or instruction in scripture, to obey it is to do a good work.
But God even creates in us a heart that is willing and able to obey. Listen to His promise in Ezekiel 36:26-27:
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
ESV
Remember—we were dead in our sins. Our hearts were stony—dead and cold and petrified. When God made us alive with Christ, when He brought forth living faith in us, He gave us new hearts that could be pricked, that could repent, that could be moved with love and compassion. And He placed His own Holy Spirit within us, so that we could begin to live according to God’s Law.
Vocation is the stage upon which our good works are done. Liberated from our fear of death, our terror of God, our hatred for His instruction, and our compulsive need to be impressive, we are now set free to love God and serve our neighbor.
Martin Luther once put it like this:
Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us … and it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them.
“Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,” in Luther’s Works, vol. 35, Word and Sacrament I, ed. E. Theodore Bachmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960), 370.
What we discover—amazingly!—is that, in our various vocations, we are already doing good works! That’s what Luther was getting at in the quote above.
Elsewhere he said:
If you ask my critics if they regard as good works laboring at one’s trade, coming and going, eating, drinking, and sleeping, and all the other acts that help nourish the body or are generally useful, and whether they believe that God is pleased by such works, you will find that they say no, and limit good works so narrowly that they must consist in praying in church, fasting, or giving alms; other things they regard as actions which God does not esteem. By this damnable want of faith they reduce and diminish the service of God, whom all serve, who believe in him, in all that they say or think.
A Treatise on Good Works, 1520
When we understand the doctrine of vocation, we see St. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:31 in a completely new and refreshing light. So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (ESV) isn’t an admonition to watch yourself or try harder. It’s a way of viewing what you do in your vocation.
Parents are changing poopy diapers to the glory of God. You’re cooking dinner and washing dishes to the glory of God. You’re making the coffee at your office to the glory of God. You’re using your turn signal and being considerate at the 4-way to the glory of God.
Why? Because God is loving and serving your neighbors through your good works. He’s preserving, sustaining, and enriching His world through your good works.
James 1:17 tells us that: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (ESV). In your vocation, God is distributing His good gifts through your imperfect hands.
Vocation is God working in you both to will and to work according to His good purpose (Philippians 2:13 CSB).
He has commandeered your life as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1 KJV) The sacrifice is not for Him, but for your neighbor—the people around you. As you live out your vocation, your life is a thanksgiving offering, and a fellowship offering. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:16 ESV) Those offerings of service, of support, of sharing with others—they’re a pleasing aroma to the Lord, because He’s loving His world through you.
Vocation is also where we deny ourselves daily, pick up our cross, and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). Because we must war against the selfishness, sloth, and pride of our fallen flesh as God loves our neighbor through us. Every time we live for others, we die to ourselves. In this suffering world, as we co-labor with Christ (alas, how clumsily!), we must suffer.
But that suffering is not redemptive. It’s not the price we pay for heaven. Christ’s suffering already paid for that: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18 ESV).
Mark that last point well. Because so much spiritual malpractice and abuse, you will find, is premised upon the idea that suffering is for our sanctification. Suffering can and does yield hope (Romans 5:3-5). But the purpose of that hope is to fix our eyes on the glory that awaits us in the life to come (Romans 8:18). Not to make us holy. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. The blood of Christ sanctifies us. Suffering is but the natural consequence of living into our vocations as we dwell in sinful bodies in a fallen world.
Now, not only has God lovingly crafted us anew in Christ for good works—which we perform in our vocations—Ephesians 2:10 gives us more stunning news: God prepared these good works for us to do beforehand, that we should walk in them.
St. Paul uses this same phrase, prepared beforehand, in Romans 9:23, where he speaks of believers as vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory (ESV).
This language tells us that God has predestined and planned and prepared specific good works for those who He saves by grace through faith, from before the foundation of the world. He has already decreed the good works you will do, and included them in His eternal purpose for working all things together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
Consider this with awe and wonder, with fear and trembling: All those nights you spent sleepless, driving around in the car to soothe your colicky infant—God planned and prepared those moments from eternity, so He could love that baby through you.
When you are able to view your Christian life through the enchanted lenses of vocation, you see that you are already doing the good works God to which God has called you. And that encourages you more and more to live for His glory and your neighbor’s good.
The James 2:24 conundrum solved
So we have seen that St. Paul said: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)
But then James says: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24 ESV)
How do we reconcile the tension between these two seemingly contradictory phrases?
Some have tried to argue that we are saved initially by grace through faith alone; but then we have to do good works to stay justified before God.
But that won’t work, either. Because St. Paul also said: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And elsewhere: to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Romans 3:28; 4:5 ESV).
So that “solution” will not hold.
It comes down to what James means when he says justified by works, and in whose eyes we are justified.
In Matthew 11:19, Christ said that wisdom is justified by her deeds (ESV, emphasis mine).
Obviously, Christ didn’t mean that wisdom is declared righteous in God’s sight by what she does. He meant that we can see and judge for ourselves what is wisdom, when we see its results. Wisdom is vindicated in the eyes of mankind by the good she produces.
This is what James is getting at. Our faith is shown to be genuine in the eyes of our neighbors because of the good works it produces. Our faith is vindicated by our works.
James even says as much in the immediate context: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:18 ESV)
We don’t have to do good works to prove to God that our faith is genuine. God already knows. The Lord knows those who are his (2 Timothy 2:19).
But Martin Luther said: God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.
That’s James’ point.
It would be extremely helpful for the church to recover the categories of coram Deo and coram mundo.
Coram Deo refers to our life before God. In the eyes of God, we are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone.
But coram mundo means our life before the world. In their watching eyes, the truth of our profession of faith is proven by our works. Like Christ told us: let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16 ESV)
These good works are not for our salvation. They’re God’s outreach to the world, through us.
Our vocations are carried out coram mundo—in they eyes of the world. And this is the arena where God’s Law guides us, teaching us how to love our neighbors as ourselves; bear one another’s burdens; and to do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10 ESV)
James 2:24, then, is referring to our vocations, not our salvation.
What is the practical application for preaching and teaching?
It means primarily that preachers shouldn’t be threatening Christians with condemnation under the Law.
That is, they should not paint a picture for the saints that they will be judged at Judgment Day according to their own works—and may be condemned for their failure. Romans 8:1 says there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
Meanwhile , Christ Himself tells us: Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24 CSB) Truly I tell you, is a promise. God’s grace in Christ, working through our faith, will save us now and at the judgment. Not by works. Period.
Those in Christ will be judged upon the basis of His finished work—not our imperfect and incomplete works.
The compelling tension of the Christian life is never: Am I doing enough to be saved? Rather, it is: How can I glorify God by living faithfully into my vocation?
This—and not fear of judgment—is the primary motivation of the Christian. Liberated from the fear of judgment, and the desire to be impressive, we are free to quietly love and serve our neighbors in the vocations in which God has called us. As St. Paul told us: make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you (1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV).
Justified by grace through faith, and being sanctified by the Holy Spirit living in you; all God expects is for you to live out your vocation, doing the good works God planned and prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.
___________________________
(1) Many modern exegetes deny that faith is the gift of God, simply making “salvation” God’s gift. However, for an insightful defense of the more traditional view (dating all the way back to the Church Fathers), that faith is indeed the gift of God in these verses, see Matthew Olliffe, “Is ‘Faith’ the ‘Gift of God’? Reading Ephesians 2:8-10 with the Ancients,” The Gospel Coalition (Australia), 9-13-2017. See also Acts 13:48: as many as were appointed to eternal life believed (ESV); and Acts 16:14: the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul (ESV). Passages like these confirm that the response of faith to the Gospel is enabled by God.
(2) A really excellent introduction to the Christian doctrine of vocation is Michael Berg, Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing (Irvine, CA: 1517, 2021).
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