Please SUPPORT Dr. Cooper with your treasures!! Don't just be a taker of his content. Show LOVE for his work. Thank you, Brothers and Sisters!! ❤❤❤

It's interesting Paul Washer always comes up as an example of a pastor who crushes someone's faith. My experience with him was totally the opposite. I grew up in church, knew the Bible, but later became apathetic about my faith. When I realized how lost I was becoming and decided to return to faith I felt a lot of despair because everyone I was listening to for guidance just gave me the same empty "free grace" or Ted Talk style gospel as I had heard my whole life in church preaching. It wasn't until Paul Washers sermons really convicted me of my Luke-warm attitude towards the grace of God in Christ that I begged God for forgiveness and the strength to apply my faith into living practice through the Holy Spirit. Several years later now I don't need to hear the Paul Washer types anymore but he is a necessary voice for the Luke warm believer. Eventually everyone has to get off the fence when it comes to God.

I love your distinction between offering absolution to the repentant and warning to those who are committed to their sin. This is so true and so needed.

Justification by faith alone doesn’t make sense without the Law-Gospel distinction. As a lifelong Protestant, I’ve only found this clearly taught in the Lutheran church.

The Law/Gospel Distinction as the Bible understands it literally saved my life. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins is where it's at!

In regard to not letting your conscience be your guide, a similar thing is going on with those who insist on the authority of “lived experience.” Somehow, it nearly always is allowed to have priority over the teaching of scripture and the church, and nearly always in favor of following whatever the culture dictates.

Also listen to Issues Etc’s 18 part series on Walther’s work “the proper distinction between law and Gospel.” Beautiful work and I’m not ashamed to say it’s made me cry from both conviction and joy in the word.

Great episode, very thankful for another clear explanation and defense of the law and gospel distinction. I am Dutch Reformed but I find there is agreement on this issue between us and the Lutherans, and I’m thankful to have my Lutheran brothers and sisters fighting for this vital distinction, especially since it’s been ignored and broken in the theology of those like Paul Washer and MacArthur (as you mentioned).

Brother, you should appear in some debates with denominational churches. I have seen many Protestant pastors speak very fluently in front of the camera

Wonderful! I'm still to watch, but wanted to support and show appreciation. Love the subject, love the Law-Gospel distinction, love the Gospel.

Great video about one of my favorite topics! If I can come with a suggestion, you recently uploaded a video of a sermon you did, 'Traditions of Men' which I loved, it would be great if you could upload another sermon where you (like you talk about in this video) go a bit heavier on the law.

Could you please talk about "free grace theology"? It is related to this topic.

Do you think seminarians and pastors in training should preach? What about elders in the absence of a pastor?

I would like to be corrected if I’m wrong about this, but I find Law and Gospel as the source of God’s joy. In Nehemiah where it says the Joy of the Lord is my strength, the context is when people were cut to their heart for their sins and this was God forgiving them for their sins.

Jordan Cooper out of context

I'd commend the Reformed Catholic/Anglican paradigm of the law and the gospel over this. On the one hand, we'd agree with you that the one who is struggling with sin and repentant does not need to hear, "try harder!" but "you're forgiven in Christ." Amen! We'd also agree that the one who is lazy or ambivalent about sin needs to hear "repent or perish." So perhaps on one level, this is just a theological difference as the pastoral practice can be similar. However, I think theologically, the law-gospel dialectic is an unhelpful way to understand this.

Would it be accurate to say that Lutheranism is a system of "repent and believe", where Law is preached to bring repentance (and to "remember one's baptism" as an objective confirmation of repentance/absolution), and then Gospel is preached to prepare for the Eucharist (where the receipt of the body and blood is objective confirmation of faith/justification)?

Can we say that the law function can be achieved, in part, through natural law?

God bless J&S ministry

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