Lag och evangelium i luthersk och reformert tradition : en historisk-dogmatisk och biblisk-teologisk komparativ studie

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates the relationship between law and gospel in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions through a historical-dogmatic analysis of Martin Luther and John Calvin, a comparative examination of their theological “grammar,” and a biblical-theological synthesis considering redemptive-historical metanarratives. The study shows that Luther formulates the law–gospel distinction as a hermeneutical center to safeguard the gospel as God’s efficacious promise, in which the law primarily exposes sin and drives the human person to Christ. Calvin integrates law and gospel within a covenantal whole, where the law–without becoming a condition of salvation–also has a guiding function in the new life. The comparative analysis clarifies that the differences largely concern prioritization and systematic architecture, while both traditions share a common Christological and redemptive-historical framework. With support from modern biblical theology (Vos, Beale, Goldsworthy, and Stuhlmacher), law and gospel emerge as distinct yet coherent elements within the unity of Scripture, from creation to new creation. The thesis concludes that Lutheran and Reformed perspectives can be understood as compatible articulations of a shared redemptive-historical pattern, in which confessional differences primarily concern emphasis and theological ordering rather than the content of the gospel. At the same time, the study points to the need for further research on later confessional reception (especially the third use of the law) and on how the redemptive-historical metanarrative framework is tested through concrete exegetical work in key New Testament texts.