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A Sampler of the History of the distinction between the Covenant of Works (Law) and the Covenant of Grace (Gospel)

Martin Luther (1483–1546)Luther “capitalized on Augustine’s insight that 2 Corinthians 3:6 teaches that the law is a killing letter for sinners.”

As early as 1518 in his Heidelberg Disputation, Luther made sharp statements on the law and the gospel. Luther penned in Thesis 23, “The law brings the wrath of God, kills, reviles, accuses, judges, and condemns everything that is not in Christ [Rom. 4:15].”

Luther wrote in Thesis 26, “The law says, ‘do this,’ and it is never done, Grace says, ‘believe in this,’ and everything is already done.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) “Removing, then, mention of law, and laying aside all consideration of works, we should, when justification is being discussed, embrace God’s mercy alone, turn our attention from ourselves, and look only to Christ. For there the question is not how we may become righteous but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous. If conscience wish to attain any certainty in this matter, they out to give no place to the law.”

Theodore Beza (1519–1605)
Beza, John Calvin’s successor in Geneva, famously wrote, “Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.”

Zacharius Ursinus’ (1534–1583)
Ursinus lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism, Pareus wrote, “The doctrine of the church consists in two parts: the Law and the Gospel; in which we have comprehended the sum and substance of the sacred Scriptures...We have, in the law and gospel, the whole of the Scriptures, comprehending the doctrine revealed from heaven for our salvation.”

Heidelberg Catechism (1563)Q&A 3, 4, 5, 10 — The Law Q&A 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and onward — The Gospel

William Perkins (1558–1602) ‘The law is not of faith,’ [Paul] sets down the main difference between the law and gospel. The law promises life to him that performs perfect obedience, and that for his works. The gospel promises life to him that does nothing in the cause of his salvation, but only believes in Christ. And it promises salvation to him that believes, yet not for his faith, or for any works else, but for the merit of Christ. The law then requires doing to salvation; and the gospel, believe, and nothing else.

The Pedagogical Use of the Law and Justification
Perkins wrote, “[T]he law requires perfect obedience and threatens death to the least breach thereof, not propounding any way for the fulfilling thereof, out of ourselves.”The use of the law is pedagogical, and it could not be used to earn one’s justification or salvation before God, instead it drove the sinner outside himself to Jesus Christ.

Acquaintance with this covenant is of the greatest importance, for whoever errs here or denies the existence of the covenant of works will not understand the covenant of grace, and will readily err concerning the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus. Such a person will very readily deny that Christ by His active obedience has merited a right to eternal life for the elect. This is to be observed with several parties who, because they err concerning the covenant of grace, also deny the covenant of works. Conversely, whoever denies the covenant of works, must rightly be suspected to be in error concerning the covenant of grace as well.

WILHELMUS À BRAKEL (1635—1711), The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1.355.