CPTJ Archive | Volume 13 – Essays on a Theology of the Spirit
Title
The Power of the Holy Spirit in Law-Gospel Preaching
steve turnbull
Abstract
Steve Turnbull argues that the basic biblical and theological descriptions of gospel and law are crucial to understand, receive, and speak God’s word to his people. Underlying these descriptions and running through them all is the conviction that the Holy Spirit is the animating power accomplishing God’s purposes whenever God’s word is spoken. It is the Holy Spirit that is at work in the word of the gospel, doing gospel things: forgiving, healing, renewing, liberating, rescuing, delivering, reconciling, and the like. And it is the Holy Spirit at work in the word of the law, doing law things: instructing, guiding, directing, accusing, convicting, and the like. A clear understanding of these categories helps a preacher first to hear the breadth and depth of God’s word in Scripture and then to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to deliver the power of God’s word to God’s people.
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Steve Turnbull (PhD, Duke University) is the senior pastor at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio. He is also provost and professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at The Master’s Institute. He is a member of the St. Hildegard Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
