How To Divide the Bible
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
How does one divide the Bible? The common answer is “Old Testament and New Testament;” the correct answer is “law and gospel.” The law is the declaration of God’s unchangeable will, rooted in His very character. As God is perfect, so He only allows perfect people into His perfect heaven. “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14) Let us not mince words: God only accepts perfection.
If this is the law, what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that God will be gracious to sinners and forgive their sins. As Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15) Petrus Dantheus thus says, “The greatest perfection a man can attain in this life consists in the confession of his imperfections.” Christ bears our imperfections, our sins; Christ imputes to us His perfect righteousness. The church historically has called this justification – the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. When God looks at us, God sees His Son. This is why God can look at David – David the adulterer, David the murderer – and say, “My servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in My eyes.” (1 Ki. 14:8) When God looked at imperfect David, God saw the perfect righteousness of His Son.
Now, this pastor must lay aside his pen and talk plainly. Many readers look in the mirror and do not see Jesus. The lines on our face and the patches of gray hair speak of shame, of regret, of imperfection. The apostle Peter wore those same marks upon his brow after the denial of Christ, after the failure in Antioch, and after the countless sins unrecorded which are common to fallen man. Yet this same apostle quotes Leviticus – “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16) How could Peter expect this out of himself, out of us? Well, Peter knew the gospel – “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5) All God justifies, God sanctifies. All God saves by His Son, He conforms to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). As Ralph Erksine pens,
To run to work, the law commands;
The gospel gives me feet and hands:
The one requires that I obey;
The other does the pow'r convey.
Let us say together with Paul, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” (Phil. 3:12) Do not let past sins define the present; let God’s promise to save and to sanctify define you. Let the gospel define you.
