Here are some resources on the relationship between the gospel and the law, especially with regard to the Mosaic covenant’s place in the one covenant of grace. I receive questions about these issues on a regular basis, and will be using this page as a central place to keep all the resources I often share.
“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:97, 102-105)
Books and Articles:
- Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
- David Holwerda, Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two?
- Peter Lillback, The Binding of God
- Vern Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses
- O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants
- Cornel Venema, Review of The Law is Not of Faith in the Mid-America Journal of Theology 21 (2010): 35–101.
- Michael Williams, Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption
- Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament
Online Resources
- The Mosaic Covenant in Reformed Theology
- John Murray, The Covenant of Grace
- John Murray, “Law and Grace,” from Principles of Conduct
- Richard Pratt, “God of Covenant”
- C. Veenhof, trans. Nelson Klooosterman, “The Word of God and Preaching”
Blog Posts
- Al Baker, The Clear and Present Danger of a Truncated Gospel
- Mark Jones, “Jesus + Nothing = Everything (An Analysis)”
- Mark Jones, “Confusing ‘Law’ and ‘Gospel’?”
John Murray: “The disposition to construe the demand for obedience in the Mosaic economy as having affinity with works rather than grace arises from failure to recognize that the demand for obedience in the Mosaic covenant is principially identical with the same demand under the gospel. When we re-examine the demand for obedience in the Mosaic covenant (cf. Exodus 19:5, 6; 24:7) in the light of the relations of law and grace in the gospel, we shall discover that the complex of ideas is totally alien to a construction in terms of works as opposed to grace. Obedience belongs here no more ‘to the legal sphere of merit’3 than in the new covenant. The New Testament believer is not without law to God but under law to Christ. He delights in the law of God after the inward man and he therefore reiterates the exclamation of the Old Testament saint, ‘O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day’ (Psalm 119:97). And he also is not forgetful that he who was the incarnation and embodiment of virtue, he who is the supreme and perfect example, said, ‘I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart’ (Psalm 40:8).” (“Law and Grace,” in Principles of Conduct)
