Mark's thoughts: Hey Lutheran - No, the Law doesn't always accuse

 

“The law always accuses.” This is a Lutheran assumption that guides thought about the law.  It certainly did for me. Yet the challenge arises when we operate with this assumption and come to Formula of Concord article VI as it talks about the third use of the law. Article VI states that the law provides a sure guide for the Christian: “The law has been given to people for three reasons; … third, after they have been reborn – since nevertheless the flesh still clings to them – that precisely because of the flesh they may have a sure guide according to which they can orient and conduct their entire life” (FC Ep VI.1).  But how can the law serve as a guide if it is always accusing? The confusion deepens as the article goes on to expound about this guide and says:

Instead, the Holy Spirit, who is given and received not through the law but through the proclamation of the gospel (Gal. 3[:2, 14]) renews the heart. Thereafter, the Holy Spirit uses the law to instruct the reborn and to show and demonstrate to them in the Ten Commandments what is the “acceptable will of God” (Rom. 12[:2]) and in which good works, “which God prepared beforehand,” they are “supposed to walk” (Eph 2[:10). (SD VI.12).

I have come to recognize that the “The law always accuses” is a “Lutheran assumption” applied to the law in general only because it is an unexamined assumption.  It is powerful because the Apology explicitly states that “the law always accuses”: 

Paul says [Rom. 4:15]: “The law brings wrath.”  He does not say that through the law people merit forgiveness of sins. For the law always accuses (lex enim semper accusat) and terrifies consciences.  Therefore it does not justify since the conscience that is terrified by the law flees the judgment of God. They err, therefore, who trust that they merit the forgiveness of sins through the law and through their own works (Ap. IV.38).

However what we must note about this text is that this describes the situation when people try to merit forgiveness through the law and their own works.

 

The Apology can even say that “the law only accuses”:

Thus in the preaching of penitence it is not enough to preach the law, the Word that convicts of sin. For the law works wrath; it only accuses (tantum accusat); it only terrifies consciences. Consciences cannot find peace unless they hear the voice of God, clearly promising the forgiveness of sins.  Therefore it is necessary to add the Gospel promise, that for Christ’s sake sins are forgiven and that by faith in Christ we obtain the forgiveness of sins.  If our opponents exclude the Gospel of Christ from the preaching of penitence, they deserve to be regarded as blasphemers against Christ (Ap. IV.257).

Yet again, this is what happens when people consider the law apart from faith in Christ.

 

On the other hand, the Apology also states that “the law cannot accuse”:

Paul teaches this when he says in Gal 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” That is, the law condemns all men, but by undergoing the punishment of sins and becoming a sacrifice for us, the sinless Christ took away the right of the law to accuse and condemn those who believe in him, because he himself is their propitiation, for whose sake they are now accounted righteous. But when they are accounted righteous, the law cannot accuse or condemn them even though they have not really satisfied the law (Ap. IV. 179).

Note that this is the situation when the law is considered on the basis of faith in Christ.

 

Statements in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession about the law “always accusing” or “only accusing” describe the experience of the law apart from Christ.  However, the situation is completely different for the those who believe in Christ.  In their case, the law cannot accuse them.  When the expression “The law always accuses” is taken out this context and used by itself, this gives the impression that the law is always a negative force, and associates it only with the second use of the Law.  Yet this is not what Lutherans believe and confess about the law.

 

Sometimes one hears it said, “The law always accuses, but the law doesn’t only accuse.” This too still operates on the basis of the false assumption. It senses that that law does more than accuse since it is a guide that teaches.  But by saying “the always accuses” it is still taking the statement from Apology IV and applying it outside of the context for which it is true: when people try to merit forgiveness through the law and their own works apart from faith in Christ.  When we are talking about baptized Christians who have faith in Christ the statement “the law always accuses” is simply not true. It doesn’t apply to them, and therefore should be abandoned in our discussion about how the Spirit utilizes the law in relation to Christians.

 

Instead, Formula of Concord article VI should guide our thinking as it states about the three uses of the law:

The law has been given to people for three reasons: first, that through it external discipline may be maintained against the unruly and the disobedient; second, that people may be led through it to a recognition of their sins; third, after they have been reborn—since nevertheless the flesh still clings to them—that precisely because of the flesh they may have a sure guide, according to which they can orient and conduct their entire life. In this connection a dispute occurred among a few theologians over the third use of the law (FC Ep VI.1).

The first use of the law deals with the unruly and disobedient who do not have faith in Christ.  It maintains order as it restrains sin in the world.  Naturally, this is not the primary concern for the Church.  Instead, the focus is on the second and third use of the law. 

 

In the second use of the law, the Spirit utilizes the law to reveal sin.  The Formula of Concord states that the second reason the law has been is given so “that people may be led through it to a recognition of their sins” (FC Ep. VI.1).  It functions to lead people to a knowledge of their sin:

We therefore unanimously believe, teach, and confess that in its strict sense the law is a divine teaching in which the righteous, unchanging will of God revealed how human beings were created in their nature, thoughts, words, and deeds to be pleasing and acceptable to God. This law also threatens those who transgress it with God’s wrath and temporal and eternal punishments. For, as Luther stated against the nomoclasts, “Everything that reproves sin is and belongs to the law. Its proper function is to reprove sin and to lead to the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3[:20*] and 7[:7*]) (FC SD V.17).

However, the Spirit does not only utilize the law to reveal sin.  There is also the third use of the law.  The term “use” has been subject to misunderstanding.  The term sounds like it describes how a person uses the law.  But in fact, the law’s use is the effect it has on the sinner.

 

The Formula of Concord is clear that only the Holy Spirit utilizes the law and determines the use (the effect it has on the sinner).  It states, “the Holy Spirit uses the written law on them to teach them” (FC SD VI.3). Likewise it notes, “Thereafter, the Holy Spirit uses the law to instruct the reborn and to show and demonstrate to them in the Ten Commandments what is the ‘acceptable will of God’ (Rom. 12[:2*]) and in which good works, ‘which God prepared beforehand,’ they are ‘supposed to walk” (Eph. 2[:10*])  (FC SD VI.12).  The individual Christian is the recipient of the Law and not the user.  In the same way, the preacher can’t control how the Spirit will utilize the Law.

 

The “use of the law” is the effect or effects on the individual that are caused by the reception of that law, and that effect – that “use” – is what the Spirit intends as he utilizes the law.  There is only one law that the Spirit uses as it pleases him.  The Spirit utilizes the law based on what the hearer needs. Because of the complexity of the sinner, the Spirit may do several things at once.

 

The third use of the law is needed because of the flesh/old Adam that continues to plague the Christian.  The Formula of Concord explains, “Indeed, if the faithful and elect children of God were perfectly renewed through the indwelling Spirit in this life, so that in their nature and all their powers they were completely free from sin, they would need no law and therefore no prodding” (FC VI.6).  We live as those for whom rebirth and renewal is not yet perfect: “For even if they are reborn and ‘renewed in the spirit of their minds’ [Eph. 4:23], this rebirth and renewal is not perfect in this world. Instead it has only begun” (FC Ep VI.4).

 

The Spirit utilizes the law in the third use to accomplish two goals. First, it teaches Christians to live according to God’s will, and not their own.  Article VI states that the law provides a sure guide for the Christian: “The law has been given to people for three reasons; … third, after they have been reborn – since nevertheless the flesh still clings to them – that precisely because of the flesh they may have a sure guide according to which they can orient and conduct their entire life” (FC Ep VI.1).  We learn how we are to live from the law.  As we have already seen, the Formula of Concord also says the law serves to teach the Christian:

Instead, the Holy Spirit, who is given and received not through the law but through the proclamation of the gospel (Gal. 3[:2, 14]) renews the heart. Thereafter, the Holy Spirit uses the law to instruct the reborn and to show and demonstrate to them in the Ten Commandments what is the “acceptable will of God” (Rom. 12[:2]) and in which good works, “which God prepared beforehand,” they are “supposed to walk” (Eph 2[:10). (SD VI.12).

The law teaches the Christian how to live according to God’s will. This provides needed guidance and understanding.  It also prevents our tendency to make up our own way of serving God.  Article VI states,  “This teaching of God’s will opposes …nevertheless the Holy Spirit uses the written law on them to teach them, so that through it believers in Christ learn to serve God not according to their own ideas but according to his written law and Word, which is a certain rule and guiding principle for directing the godly life and behavior according to the eternal and unchanging will of God” (FC SD VI.2-3).  It also notes: “In order that people do not resolve to perform service to God on the basis of their pious imagination in an arbitrary way of their own choosing, it is necessary for the law of God to light their way” (FC Ep VI.4).

 

The second aspect of the third use is that the Spirit utilizes the law to compel and repress the old Adam.  Discussions of the third use often overlook this.  However, article VI is replete with language describing this effect of the law.  The metaphor of “rule” that is frequently used to explain the third use indicates the teaching function of the law.  Yet when our explanation of the third use stops there, we have not conveyed the full truth confessed by the Formula of Concord.

 

Article VI explains, “Likewise it is necessary so that the old man not act according to its own will but instead be compelled against its own will, not only through the admonition and threats of the law, but also with punishments and plagues to follow the Spirit and let itself be made captive (1 Cor. 9[:27]; Rom 6[:12]; Gal 6[:14]; Ps. 119[:1]; Heb. 13[21]) (FC Ep. VI.4).  It goes on to say:

Indeed, if the faithful and elect children of God were perfectly renewed through the indwelling Spirit in this life, so that in their nature and all their powers they were completely free from sin, they would need no law and therefore no prodding. Instead, they would do in and of themselves, completely voluntarily, without any teaching, admonition, exhortation, or prodding of the law, what they are obligated to do according to God’s will, just as in and of themselves the sun, the moon, and all the stars follow unimpeded the regular course God gave them once and for all, apart from any admonition, exhortation, impulse, coercion, or compulsion. The holy angels perform their obedience completely of their own free will (FC SD VI.6).

It also adds:

For the old man, like a stubborn, recalcitrant donkey, is also still a part of them, and it needs to be forced into obedience to Christ not only through the law’s teaching, admonition, compulsion, and threat but also often with the cudgel of punishments and tribulations until the sinful flesh is completely stripped away and people are perfectly renewed in the resurrection. Then they will need neither the proclamation of the law nor its threats and punishment, just as they will no longer need the gospel, for both belong to this imperfect life (FC SD VI.24).

Thankfully, the Christian is not only old Adam.  He is also new man in Christ. In the third use, the new man’s response is one of delighting in the law.  Article VI explains, “Instead, Paul holds that the law cannot burden those whom Christ has reconciled with God with its curse and cannot torment the reborn with its coercion because they delight in the law of the Lord according to their inward persons” (FC SD VI.5).  In the same way, it states, “However, when people are born again through the Spirit of God and set free from the law (that is, liberated from its driving powers and driven by the Spirit of Christ), they live according to the unchanging will of God, as comprehended in the law, and do everything, insofar as they are reborn, from a free and merry spirit” (FC SD VI.17).  For the new man, the law is something he wants to hear.  Christians hear descriptions of God’s will in the law, and through the work of the Spirit they experience the response: “Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do!” 

 

In the third use the Spirit utilizes the Law so that the actual behavior of a Christian reflects God’s will.  It is the Spirit who always supports the new man in Christ through the Gospel so that he can struggle against the old Adam. The new man struggles against the old Adam. New obedience and good works are produced by the Spirit working through the Gospel. New obedience and good works are considered good by God because of Christ.

 

It is the Spirit who applies the law in the third use.  The Spirit utilizes the law to teach the Christian how to live according to God’s will.  He also utilizes the law to compel and repress the old Adam.  Both of these actions aid the new man so that the new man determines what the individual actually does. In this way (and this way alone) it is entirely correct to say that the law helps the Christian live according to God’s will.