Section XI: The Triple Use of the Moral Law, § 203.
SECTION XI: THE TRIPLE USE OF THE MORAL LAW
§ 203. Although we cannot perfectly fulfill the Law in this life and cannot be justified by it before God, its use is still extremely great and very worthy. 1 Tim. 1:8: καλὸς ὁ νόμoς, ἐάν τις αὐτῷ νoμίμως χρῆται [“The Law is good if one uses it lawfully”]. We shall follow the common enumeration accepted in our churches’ symbolical books which sets forth the triple use of the Law.1
First, the political use.
(I) The first use is political or pedagogical, to control τὸ ἐπιθυμητικὸν [“the desires of the heart”] and to restrain people who have not yet been reborn from erupting into open crimes which disrupt society, goodness, and tranquility of human life. Rather, by the bridle of the Law they are constrained to outward obedience. 1 Tim. 1:9–10: “The Law is not laid down for the just but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and of mothers, for homicides, fornicators, those who defile themselves with men, kidnappers, liars, perjurers.” The outward conduct of those not yet reborn is sin “because it is not from faith” (Rom. 14:23), and thus does not render one pleasing and acceptable before God since “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Nevertheless God sternly demands it and exacts it, even rewarding it with bodily rewards in order to preserve society and to make it possible for people to be taught about Christ.
** Jerome (Q. ad Algasiam, 8): “The Law was given to reveal the toxin of sin and to restrain man by the bridle of the Law, who formerly walked without foresight, sliding down a steep descent. Then it teaches him to walk properly ‘so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter’ [Rom. 7:6].” **
Luther (commentary on Galatians 3, vol. 4, Latin edition, f. 99b):
The first understanding or use of the Law is to curb the wicked, for the devil rules in all the world and drives men to disgraceful acts of every kind. Therefore God has established public officials, parents, instructors, laws, bonds, and all civil ordinances so that, if nothing else, at least they may bind the devil’s hands, lest he rage however he like in his people. Therefore just as ropes and bonds are thrown on possessed men in whom the devil holds powerful sway, lest they hurt anyone, so also the whole world, which is possessed by the devil and goes headlong into all wickedness, has the civil government with its bonds and chains—that is, by laws it restrains the hands and feet from rushing headlong into shameful acts of every kind. This civil restraint is most necessary and has been established by God for the sake of the public peace and also to preserve all things, but most especially so that the course of the Gospel not be hindered by the uprisings and seditions of unbridled men.2
Second, the theological, refutative [use].
(II) The second use is theological, refutative [ἐλεγκτικός], to accuse sin. In Hosea 6:[5] the Law is called a pickax. Rom. 3:20: “Through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” Rom. 4:15: “The Law works wrath.” Rom. 5:20: “The Law entered to increase the trespass.” Rom. 7:7: “I would not have known sin except through the Law. I would not have known what it is to covet, if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ” Gal. 3:19: “The Law was appointed because of transgressions.” Verse 22: “Scripture consigned all things under sin,” etc. There are many extant statements of the ancients about this use of the Law. Ambrose (commentary on Romans 3): “Through the Law comes knowledge of sin, but through faith comes abolishing [of sin]. Therefore one must follow faith.” On Romans 7: “The discloser of sin is the Law, but it is not the source of sin. It makes sinners guilty.”
** Ambrose (De fug. secul., ch. 7): “The Law condemns the deed; it does not remove wickedness.” Cyril (on John, bk. 8): “All are condemned under the Law because of sin.” Jerome (on Ecclesiastes 2): “The Law is rigid, unkind, unsparing; it kills the sinner.” Chrysostom (on Romans 4): “So if the Law works wrath and makes men guilty of transgression, then it clearly also makes them subject to its curse. Such as are guilty of cursing, punishment, and transgression are certainly not worthy to receive the inheritance but to be punished and cast out.” **
Chrysostom (on Romans): “Both the accusations and the reproofs especially serve to open the door of faith to those who hear them clearly.” Again (on 1 Timothy 1): “If you use the Law lawfully, it sends you to Christ; for whenever it is incapable of its goal to make a man righteous, it sends him to the One who can.” Augustine (De poenit. medic., ch. 1): “The Law was given for this: to make the proud man aware of his weakness and to persuade the weak man to repent. The Law was given for this: to show sin’s wounds which are healed by the blessing of grace. The Law was given for this: that we might say even in the valley of tears: ‘I see another law in my members,’ etc. [Rom. 7:23], and to help us when God hears, who lifts the fallen, loosens the bound, and gives sight to the blind by His grace through Christ Jesus.” Augustine again (De actis cum Fel. Manich., bk. 2, ch. 11): “The Law was given to the proud, who attribute everything to their own powers so that, being unable to fulfill the Law given them, they might be found to be transgressors and, having become guilty under the Law, that they might seek mercy from God, their Creator.” Augustine again (Letter 157 ad Optatum): “The Law had to be given to show man himself the more clearly, lest the arrogant mind of man think he can be righteous of himself—ignoring the righteousness of God, which comes to man from God, and seeking to establish his own, as if produced by his own powers, not subjecting himself to the righteousness of God. Therefore it was necessary for the command to be added: ‘You shall not covet,’ so that the charge of transgression might also be added to the proud sinner, so that his illness, not healed but convicted by the Law, might seek the medicine of grace.” Letter 200 ad Asellicum: “The Law is useful for convicting man of his weakness and for driving him to beg for the medicine of grace, which is in Christ.” De spiritu et lit. (ch. 9): “Through the Law, God shows man his weakness that he may flee by faith to His mercy and thus be healed.” Chapter 13: “By the law of works God says, ‘Do what I command.’ By the law of faith one says to God: ‘Give what You command.’ For the Law commands in order to show what faith does,” etc. Chapter 17: “A veil is placed over the reading of the Old Testament until one comes to Christ and the veil is removed—that is, until one moves on to grace and learns from Him that justification is ours. By this justification we do what He commands, and He gives the commands so that, despairing of ourselves, we may flee to Him for refuge.” On Psalm 83: “The Law was given to men not to save them, but that they might learn from it the sickness in which they lay,” etc. “The Law was given to convict the sick man, who thinks he is healthy, of his illness; to expose his sins, not to remove them.” Bernard (Sermon 2 in vig. nat., col. 37): “In addition, He ordered His Commandments to be kept exceedingly so that, seeing how our imperfection fails and how it cannot fulfill what it should, we may flee for refuge to His mercy and say, ‘Your mercy is better than life.’ ” On Song of Songs (Sermon 50, col. 642): “By commanding the impossible, God has not made men transgressors but humble, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be subject before God. For by works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight [Rom. 3:20]. Therefore receiving the commandment and realizing our inadequacy, we shall cry out to heaven, and God will have mercy on us,” etc.
Luther very frequently speaks of this use of the Law, especially in his commentary on Galatians 3 (Latin edition, vol. 4, p. 101): “The Law shows man to himself as a sinner, and therefore guilty of death and deserving eternal wrath. Of what use is this humiliation, crushing, and pounding by that hammer of the Law? It serves this use: to open to us the way of grace. So, therefore, the Law is a servant and preparer for grace.”3 Page 110: “The Law is a spiritual and truly hellish prison because, when it exposes sin and threatens death and the eternal wrath of God, one cannot flee or find consolation,” etc.4 The Law performs this, its office, by accusing not only outward sins but also inner sins, even the hidden corruption of our nature; by exposing the hideousness of sin; by working contrition; and by driving us to Christ with its blows, as Luther teaches everywhere.
Third, the theological, didactic [use].
(III) The third use of the Law is theological, didactic. In this use it instructs the reborn as to what truly are good works in which they should walk and by which they can please God. For just as an unbroken horse is tamed and restrained by the bridle, yet a tame horse is guided by the same bridle to be kept within the limits of the right road according to the will of its rider, so also by the Law of God intractable people are restrained, but the regenerate are guided by it and kept within the limits of those works in which they should walk according to the will of God.
** Cyril uses this comparison and says (Contra Julian., bk. 3, f. 53): “Just as reins guide horses to run well and are also ornaments, and just as rudders steer ships so they head the right way, so also the Law is useful to people.” **
Ezek. 20:19: “Walk in My commandments.” Jer. 31:33: “I shall write My law in their hearts.” Rom. 3:31: “Do we then destroy the Law by faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Law.” Rom. 13:8: “He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law.”
[Many] think that the first use of the Law applies only to the unreborn. This must be understood with qualification, insofar as believers are reborn and renewed. You see, since the reborn are still partly carnal, they, too, require the bridle of the Law to restrain their flesh along with its desires, lest it burst forth into outward sins and unseat its rider, the Spirit. Luther (on Galatians 3, vol. 4, Latin edition, p. 114): “Because of the flesh, the reborn still need an instructor who will poke and prod the strong jackass, that, by this guiding, sins may be lessened and the way prepared for Christ. For as Christ came bodily once in time, abrogated the whole Law, wiped away sin, and destroyed death and hell, so also He keeps coming to us spiritually and forever extinguishes and kills them in us.”5
1 FC SD VI.
2 Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535), AE 26:308–9 (WA 40/1:479–80).
3 Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535), AE 26:314 (WA 40/1:487–88).
4 Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535), AE 26:337 (WA 40/1:519–20).
5 Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535), AE 26:350 (WA 40/1:537).