The gospel and the whole counsel of God

[timfost]

Are we to understand the gospel as the whole counsel of God or as a part of the whole counsel of God?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Theodore Beza (1534-1605).

We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the ‘Law,’ the other the ‘Gospel.’ For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings…Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity (The Christian Faith, 1558)

(ht RSC http://rscottclark.org/2012/09/classical-covenant-theology/#On_Law_and_Gospel )

Clearly, according to Beza (and a whole host of Reformed luminaries) the gospel is one thing; law another.

Taken together they are the whole counsel of God. "All the rest (of this Word) can be gathered under the one or the other."

 

[MW]

The Gospel is the good news of God's counsel. It might be compared in certain ways with other parts of God's revelation, but in itself the gospel is the whole counsel of God bringing glad tidings to the lost sinner.