LAW...What is it Good For?

All of my early life I was taught and believed that there was only one use of the Law—to tell us what God expected us to do.  My church taught that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, over the course of a lifetime we could come to a place where we perfectly kept the law. The understanding was that, regardless of whether you reached the goal, you were to spend your days trying; and, that you would ultimately be judged by the quality and degree of your efforts, the intentions of your heart and the general direction of your life.

Obedience was stressed above all else.  I deeply believed that God’s approval of me was directly related to my level of obedience; yet I was comforted by the understanding that, if I was faithful in confessing my sins, salvation, in the end, was still possible.  It could be achieved by a combination of my obedience to the Ten Commandment Law and my confession of sin.

Blessedly, the Gospel—the Good News of Jesus Christ—found me and taught me that salvation is not something one achieves at all; rather, it is a free gift of God, given to us through faith alone in Christ alone, which is completely unmerited, unearned and unrelated to my obedience!  I began to see that Scripture presented a completely different use of the Law, a rather counterintuitive use of the law, which is that of an accuser, whose main purpose is to show me my utter inability to obey it and then to lead me to acknowledge my desperate need for salvation apart from the Law and to finally bring me to Christ, who fulfilled the Law on my behalf.

Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s co-reformer, said “Lex semper accusat”, the Law always accuses.  Intellectually I accept that premise, I see it in scripture and I agree that it’s true; however, there is still a part of me which desperately wants to believe that one day the Law will finally pat me on the back. It is the part of me which still wants to earn, be worthy of, deserve, my salvation. It is the part of me that wants to show the world I can put my money where my mouth is, and have some skin in the game.

Depending on whether one is looking at the uses of the Law from the Reformed or Lutheran perspective, the first and second uses of the Law are reversed, but, as I stated above, one use of the Law is to give us a knowledge of our sin and our need for a Savior. The other use is to restrain the sinful excesses of sinners in general, through the fear of punishment, which brings about an outward conformance to moral standards and results in a measure of peace in society. This has been called the Civil use of the Law, which is about keeping order, and has nothing to do with an inward transformation of the heart.

But, there is a third use of the Law, one which I have been pondering in light of that part of me which still wants to take credit for something relating to my salvation.  I think that a misunderstanding of the third use of the law coupled with our innate desire to claim credit has led directly to the “do more, try harder” emphasis in Christianity today, which places the focus on the Christian Life rather than on Christ.

This misunderstanding of the third use of the law presupposes that, since we know there is no reason to fear condemnation from the Law any longer because of Christ, it can now be safely used to show us how God wants us to live and what he wants us to do.  We are encouraged to take the verses about being conformed to the image of God’s son (Romans 8:29), being a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) and others, as setting before us the now achievable goal of becoming Christ-like through obedience to the Law. This is very appealing to that part of me which relishes the challenge and is ready to finally get that pat on the back.  It also affords me the alluring opportunity to compete with others in the contest to see who can be the most like Christ.

The problem is, the presupposition, that finally we can be guided by the law without experiencing condemnation, is faulty.  The Law always accuses.  The Law always shows us what we should do, but can never give us the power to do it.  The Law, when it is not used to drive us to Christ, but to drive us to moral improvement, will always turn us into hypocrites who are pretending to be improved. That is not the third use of the Law.

The third use of the Law, as I am coming to understand it, works quietly in the background of the Christian heart.  It is the steady hum of the Law which has been written in our minds and on our hearts, as it says in Jeremiah 31:33-34. It is what the Holy Spirit uses to continually call us back from pride to the reality of our continued need for a Savior.  It is the standard by which we are urged to measure ourselves so that we will remember we are no better than anyone else for whom Christ died, and therefore we have no one upon whom we can look down our noses. It is the ever present reminder of our dependence upon a salvation which is completely outside of us and for which we are due no credit.

In other words, as it always accuses, the Law, in its third use, always drives us to Christ; because we must constantly be driven to look from ourselves to Him.  And it is only in beholding Christ that fruit is produced in us and we are freed to offer the same grace and mercy we have received from Him to those around us.