Horton on Law & Gospel
2009 October 23
We are not called to live the gospel but to believe the gospel and to follow the law in view of God’s mercies…Any form of doing the gospel is a confusion of categories. The law tells us what to do; the gospel tells us what God has done for us in Christ. When it comes to the question about how we relate to God, doing is the wrong answer.
Horton, M. (2008) Christless Christianity. Baker. pp. 124
Yes, this reflects Mike Horton’s Lutheranism and where he doesn’t follow his own reformed tradition or the Bible. For example, 2 Thess. 1:8 speaks of how God will condemn those who do not “obey the gospel”. The gospel, in the NT, doesn’t simply explain what Christ has done, but also the call to faith and repentance (i.e. to do something). To be sure, our faith and repentance is not the gospel (but it’s fruit), but the gospel does call us to action. See my talk on Calvin’s doctrine of the gospel here: http://www.ttc.wa.edu.au/downloads.shtml#Audio
Horton must’ve gotten it from those Lutherans who wrote the Heidelberg Catechism.
Nope, Ursinus in his commentary on the HC clearly disagrees with Horton:
“But the gospel commands us expressly and particularly to embrace, by faith, the promise of grace; and also exhorts us by the Holy Spirit, and by the Word, to walk worthy of our heavenly calling” (Q 19.III.4, Williard, p. 105).