Gospel-Centered Mentoring Applies Law and Gospel Properly
#9 in the Gospel-Centered Mentoring Series
You can see why the gospel is essential to gospel-centered mentoring: It establishes and sustains the true identity of mentees; it unleashes the Spirit’s power and guidance for mentees; it transforms the mentees into wholehearted children of God who rest in Christ fully and reflect him faithfully. The gospel is the key! However, that does not mean that gospel-centered mentors eschew the law. They are not antinomians—far from it!
The Role of the Law
Paul says, “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly” (1 Timothy 1:8). Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.” In the section entitled “The Third Function of the Law” the Formula of Concord states:
The law has been given to men for three reasons: (1) to maintain external discipline against unruly and disobedient men, (2) to lead men to a knowledge of their sin, (3) after they are reborn, and although the flesh still inheres in them, to give them on that account a definite rule according to which they should pattern and regulate their entire life…
We believe, teach, and confess that the preaching of the law is to be diligently applied not only to unbelievers and the impenitent but also to people who are genuinely believing, truly converted, regenerated, and justified through faith…
[the Old Adam within believers] must be coerced against his own will not only by the admonitions and threats of the law, but also by its punishments and plagues, to follow the Spirit and surrender himself a captive.
We condemn as dangerous and subversive of Christian discipline and true piety the erroneous teaching that the law is not to be urged…upon Christians and genuine believers, but only upon unbelievers, non-Christians, and the impenitent.[1]
Gospel-centered mentors do not ignore, avoid, or abolish God’s law (Matthew 5:17). Rather, in line with our Christian forefathers, they use God’s law to convict mentees of sin and to guide them in a life of reflecting Christ.
So, the gospel-centered mentor’s goal is to properly apply both law and gospel to the lives of mentees (2 Timothy 2:15). In fact, gospel-centered mentors need both law and gospel to help mentees avoid two dangerous spiritual ditches: perfectionism and license.
Perfectionism occurs when we overestimate our ability and desire to overcome our own sinful natures and natural human weakness. Gospel-centered mentors avoid demanding perfection of their mentees or themselves (since the mentees can easily “catch” it from the mentor). God’s law reminds us that we will never achieve perfection and calls us to repent of expecting it from mentees. The gospel assures us that Christ obeyed God perfectly in our place, so we do not have to earn our place with him. The gospel assures us that Jesus is working powerfully in us despite our sin and weakness.
License happens when we undervalue the law because all is forgiven in the gospel. Skeptics sometimes scoff, “If everything is forgiven by God, why not sin all we want?” But Paul retorts in Romans 6:1–2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Even as Believers, we might think subconsciously, “yes, God does expect me to love others, but I don’t really have to work all that hard because all is forgiven.” Usually, license is an excuse for spiritual laziness; we use the gospel as freedom to sin instead of as freedom to serve and love (Jude 4).
While Christians believe that good works are not necessary for salvation, we still believe they are necessary for the child of God who “lives under him and his kingdom and serves him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” As Martin Luther stated so simply, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.”
The law reminds us that God is serious about sin, even among his forgiven people. We must repent of our license and laziness; we must not use the gospel as an excuse for disobedience. The gospel assures us that God will give us the strength to do what he calls us to do, such as loving him, blessing our neighbors, and sharing the gospel.
Law and Gospel Balance Help Us Avoid the Ditches of:
Perfectionism
Law: We will never achieve perfection so we must repent of expecting it from others (including mentees).
Gospel: Assures us that Christ obeyed God perfectly in our place so that we do not have to earn our place with him.
License
Law: God is serious about sin, even among his forgiven people.
Gospel: Assures us that God will give us the strength to do what he calls us to do.
As gospel-centered mentors use the law to convict mentees of sin and to equip them to live out their callings faithfully;[2] as they use the gospel to comfort mentees and charge them up with God’s promises; the Holy Spirit transforms the mentees’ hearts to rest more fully in Christ and reflect him more faithfully in every aspect of life.
The Predominance of the Gospel
Properly applying law and gospel is not like weighing beans on an old mercantile scale—One kilogram of beans in one pan; one kilogram of weights in the other. Not every sermon, Bible study, or mentor session should be 50% law and 50% gospel in time or content. “Properly applying law and gospel” implies using them in proper amounts for the needs of the audience, like a “faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time” (Luke 12:42–43). As a “faithful and wise manager” assesses the nutritional needs of the servants in his care, he gives them meat, vegetables, drink, and desserts at the right time and in the right amounts. Sometimes, mentees need more time in the law; sometimes they need more time in the gospel.
However, the gospel must always predominate! Professor C.F.W. Walther concluded his famous lectures on the proper distinction between law and gospel with this wise thesis: “…the Word of God is not rightly divided when the person teaching it does not allow the Gospel to have a general predominance in his teaching.” Because true and lasting hope, peace, and transformation only arise from the gospel, gospel-centered mentors unashamedly make the gospel predominant in all their interactions with mentees. While a gospel-centered mentor certainly encourages and urges mentees “to live lives worthy of God, who calls [them] into his kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12),” he/she always lets gospel words and a gospel-activated attitude predominate everything he/she says. Every interaction with mentees is suffused with gospel because the gospel-centered mentor truly believes in the power of the gospel to transform children of God over time (Romans 12:1, 2).
Additionally, in his commentary on Galatians, Martin Luther noted that, “the gospel is a rare guest in men’s consciences, while the Law is their daily and familiar companion.” Mentees already hear no end of voices that tell them what they could or should do better, what they should not have done. One of the loudest voices lives within their own hearts, the conscience which naturally understands the law (Romans 2:14,15). The gospel, however, does not come naturally. In fact, it is a message no one would ever dream up on their own (Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Galatians 1:11,12; Ephesians 1:9, 3:2-6; Colossians 1:26). And it is a message that our sinful hearts naturally resist (1 Corinthians 1:21-25). Since grace is so foreign to our broken hearts, the gospel-centered mentor makes it predominant in every conversation with mentees. They naturally know what the law says; they need regular reminders of the gospel.
Making the gospel predominant in mentoring means more than leading mentees on the expected “tour bus to Calvary” during every session (so mentors can check it off their list of mentoring to-dos). Gospel-centered mentors let the gospel suffuse their words, expressions, and posture so mentees rest in Christ more fully over time and reflect Christ with confidence.
Next: Gospel-Centered Mentoring Believes in Christ’s Potential
[1] FOC Part 1: Epitome, part VI – The Third Function of the Law
[2] Even when using law as a guide for the mentee, it is important to remember that the law nearly always convicts a Christian on this broken earth. So, even though you may have been using the law to guide a mentee into reflecting Christ more fully in his/her life, that same mentee might feel an immense burden of guilt or shame over how he/she has failed to follow God’s law in the past (Romans 3:19,20). You must do your best with the Holy Spirit’s power to discern when a mentee’s conscience is being crushed under the weight of the law and needs to be freed and strengthened again through the gospel!