The Law and the Gospel
by Ernest C. Reisinger
P&R Publishing

Without a renewed emphasis on God's law, our nation will remain like a ship at sea without a rudder; like a man lost in the wilderness without a compass.  Christians, above all people, must be clear on this point.

Ernest C. Reisinger goes big-game hunting in this book.  Lesser issues are put aside while he sets his sights on the very heart of biblical Christianity.  Few subjects compare in importance with "law and gospel."  It is the hub from which all other biblical doctrines extend.  To be unclear on either law or gospel is to be spiritually paralyzed.  To confuse the relationship between the two is to fall into serious, crippling error.

Whether or not one agrees with the arguments set forth in this book, an honest reader will be forced to conclude that the subject is vitally important to a proper understanding of God's Word.  All of the Bible is either law or gospel.  God, man, sin, Christ, redemption, grace, guilt, judgment, atonement, forgiveness, and holiness are all revealed to us in the Scriptures in terms of law and gospel.  The Christian who neglects the study of this subject, therefore, does so to his own tragically detriment.

The failure to teach God's law in our churches has had devastating consequences.  Not only is gross sin being flaunted in the public square, but also the moral conduct of our church children has degenerated to alarming proportions.

The relationship between law and gospel desperately needs to be rediscovered in our day.   The law was given to teach sinners their sin.  When a sinner sees the law in all its strictness and spirituality, he thereby comes to understand the spiritual bankruptcy and grave danger of his condition.  The law, able to condemn but unable to save, sends the convicted sinner looking for salvation in the only place it can be found.   It sends him to Jesus Christ who, in His perfect law-fulfilling life and perfect law-fulfilling death, gave Himself to redeem helpless sinners.

--Thomas Ascol
The Law and the Gospel, Foreword

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