Reformed Reading Guide · 15 books

The Best Books on Law and Gospel

In Reformed theology, the law and gospel distinction describes how Scripture both commands (the law) and promises redemption in Christ (the gospel), and how the two relate without being confused or separated. The moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, functions to expose sin, restrain evil, and guide the believer in grateful obedience, this last role being known as the third use of the law. Rightly understanding this relationship guards the church against both legalism and antinomianism.

Few doctrines shape the Christian life more quietly than the relationship between law and gospel. Get it wrong in one direction and you drift toward legalism, wrong in the other and you slide into antinomianism. The books below trace a confessional Reformed path through the uses of the law, the third use, and the place of the moral law today. They are grouped from accessible introductions to demanding academic studies so you can start where you are.