Section XII: The Law is to be Preached in the Church, Against the Antinomians, § 204.
SECTION XII: THE LAW IS TO BE PREACHED IN THE CHURCH,
AGAINST THE ANTINOMIANS
The error of the Antinomians is attacked.
§ 204. The threefold use of the Law shows clearly that the madness of the Antinomians must be repudiated. They think that God’s moral Law must be banned and eliminated from the church. We oppose them with the following syllogism: Whatever God Himself has solemnly published, and the prophets and apostles and even Christ Himself repeated and stressed to their hearers, and its treatment is not only useful but also necessary—this must by no means be banished from the bounds of the church. The moral Law: (1) Was published solemnly by God Himself on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20). (2) It was repeated by all the prophets because, in addition to explaining the promise of grace, they were also expositors of the Law, which is evident. (3) And it was stressed by Christ Himself and His apostles to their hearers in the New Testament. Matt. 5:17: “I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.” Rom. 3:31: “We do not destroy the Law by faith, but we uphold it.” (4) It has use that is connected with a necessity, for it restrains the unreborn by outward discipline; by accusing sin it drives us to Christ; it prescribes the norm of good works to the reborn; it accuses their old flesh; it accuses the imperfection and uncleanness that still clings to their inchoate obedience, lest they be carried away into secret raptures, the license of the flesh, self-chosen worship, or to confidence in their own righteousness. To put it briefly, unless the pure, complete, and unstained doctrine of the Law is preserved in the church, the article of justification will not stand in purity and integrity, neither will the doctrine of good works nor orthodoxy regarding sin and free choice.
The arguments of the Antinomians.
§ 205. (I) The props the Antinomians use to confirm their error fall apart easily. (1) “1 Tim. 1:9: ‘The Law was not laid to the righteous man.’ The reborn are righteous.”
We respond. Not all who are in the external fellowship of the church are reborn and renewed, nor are those who are reborn and renewed wholly free from their old flesh. The Law was not laid to the righteous according as they are free from the curse of the Law by faith in Christ, and from faith they begin to show a willing obedience to the Law. At the same time, these righteous people are partly “still carnal and sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14). Therefore they need the mirror of the Law, for in it they see the filth of their sin which still clings to them and have a prescribed norm to follow in doing good works. Therefore the Law was not laid to the righteous with respect to its first use, according as the Holy Spirit leads them to obey the Law willingly, nor do they need its whipping. Second, [the Law was not laid to the righteous] with respect to condemnation. In this sense some note that the apostle said νόμoς oὐ κεῖται δικαίῳ [“the Law is not laid to the righteous”], not oὐ τίθεται [“is not given”]. Matt. 3[:10] uses this same formula, seemingly with the same meaning: “The ax is laid to the root of the tree.” Bernard (Letter 11): “Fittingly it does not say ‘the just have no Law’ or ‘the righteous are without the Law,’ but ‘the Law was not laid to the righteous.’ That is, it is not imposed on the unwilling but the willing, as freely given as it was sweetly inspired. Hence our Lord says beatifically: ‘Take My yoke upon you’ [Matt. 11:29], as if He were saying: ‘I do not impose it upon the unwilling; but you, take it up, if you will. Otherwise you will not find rest but labor for your souls.’”
(2) “The reborn are not ‘under the Law’ (Rom. 6:14). They have been ‘freed from the Law’ (Gal. 4:5). Therefore they do not need the teaching of the Law.”
We respond. They are not under the Law as regards the curse and condemnation of the Law. Rom. 8:1: “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Second, nor are they under the Law as regards the harshness of the Law to which grace is opposed, but at the same time they should “not use their freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” but should serve one another in love (Gal. 5:13). But now “the whole Law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (v. 14). Therefore they are not free from obeying the Law.
(3) “The reborn are ‘led by the Spirit of God’ (Rom. 8:14). Therefore they do not need the spur of the Law.”
We respond. The renewal of the Spirit does not remove all that belongs to the old flesh in the reborn, but there remain the old and the new man, the outer and the inner, the flesh and the Spirit. Therefore the flesh needs the bridle and spur of the Law: the bridle, lest it rush into outward sins; the spur, to urge one to serve and obey the Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit does guide and lead the reborn, yet He does not do this without means but uses the Word as an instrument. Therefore the norm of good works in which the reborn walk must be sought from the Law. All of Psalm 119 pertains to this.
(4) “If the reborn were still under the Law, their works would have to be motivated by the Law and not by the Gospel.”
We respond. The good works of the reborn pertain to the Law with respect to object, because the Law is the norm and rule of those works. They pertain to the Gospel with respect to effecting, because it is by the preaching of the Gospel that the Spirit of renewal is given, whose fruits are the good works of the reborn (Gal. 5:22[–23]). From these [arguments] the rest can be decided easily.
The use of the Law explained in greater detail.
§ 206. The things that we have said about the Law can be further expanded and explained in this way. (1) The Law is a mirror of divine righteousness, holiness, and perfection. I explain this thus: From eternity God the Father begot the Son, in whom His image shines fully and perfectly. Col. 1:15: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Heb. 1:3: “He is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact imprint of His nature.” Briefly, this means that the Son of God is the substantial image of the Father. Therefore as the Father is omnipotent, eternal, just, perfect, so also the Son is omnipotent, eternal, just, and perfect because He is the substantial and perfect image of the Father. Although God the Father has begotten this image of His—the Son—from eternity, out of the abundance of His goodness He also wanted there to be another image of Himself, not substantial but accidental. Therefore He created man (as also the angels) “after His own image and likeness” (Gen. 1:27). According to the apostle’s interpretation, this must be defined as true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24). Due to this image of God shining out in him, man was in conformity with his Creator. Just as God is just, good, holy, and merciful, so also man, created according to the image of God, was just, good, holy, and merciful. Yet he was not just, good, holy, and merciful on the same level of perfection as God, seeing as man was not the substantial image of God but was created according to the image of God. Therefore man was able to lose the image of God shining within himself because it was an accident in him, even as he, alas, did lose it through the fall, with only the tiniest remnants still remaining.1 Therefore God set before us another image of His righteousness and holiness in the Law. You see, how [God] in the Law wants us to be—free from every stain of sin and, on the other hand, radiant with the light of righteousness and holiness—that is how He is, but in a far more perfect and unique way, because the image of God displayed in the Law does not even come close to the dignity of His image which was shining in the first man, since the image of God shining in the first man was alive and within, but the image of God that is set forth in the Law is outward and depicted by characters and letters. So, then, since man cannot hope from the Law to restore God’s image within himself by his own powers, God sent into the world His Son, who is the substantial image of God the Father with regard to His divine nature. [He was sent] to manifest, in the flesh that He assumed, the image of God that shines in the most perfect way and to restore it in us through faith and by the Spirit of renewal. He was not only pure, holy, free from every inborn stain of sin from the first moment of His conception, but He also perfectly obeyed the Law. He gives this obedience to us by faith and begins to repair the image of God in us through the Holy Spirit. He will finish this completely in us in eternal life.
(2) The Law is a mirror of the original righteousness of man. How God in the Law wants us to be, that is how the first man was in his concreated wholeness and righteousness. Whatever the Law prescribes to us outwardly had been written inwardly in man’s heart in living letters. The Law commands loving God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength. Such love used to shine in the heart of the first man. He was not in the least contaminated by any blotch of corrupt desires or inordinate love. Hence, because of such remnants of the divine image in man, the apostle declares (Rom. 2:15) that “the work of the Law is written on the hearts of the Gentiles.” And yet the Law of God was written and engraved in the heart of the first man. Why, then, did God forbid him to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree with that specific law [cf. Gen. 2:16–17]? We respond. It was given for him to practice the obedience he owed to his great Creator, seeing as the image of God, after which the first man was created, included not only the reality of righteousness and holiness but also freedom of choice. Therefore his freedom needed to be exercised by an external object. Athanasius (Serm. de incarn. Verbi, p. 39): “God shaped mankind after His own image and gave them the gift of His reason so that, possessing some shadows and traces (σκιάς τινας), so to speak, of His reason and having been created as rational beings, they had the ability to persevere in blessedness, truly living the life of saints in Paradise. Noting that the will and choice of man could go either way, He wanted quickly to fortify the gift He had given with the protection of a law and of the place.”
(3) The Law is a mirror of the corruption introduced into human nature by the fall of the first man. Rom. 5:19: “By one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” That is, the first man refused to give the due tribute of obedience to God and transgressed the law God had given him. Thus he introduced sin into the world, on account of which “by nature all men are sons of wrath” (Eph. 2:3) and “are sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14). Not even the reborn are completely free from this in this life. For though they “delight in the Law of the Lord according to the inner man” through the Spirit of renewal (Rom. 7:22), they still “see in their members another law at war with the law of their mind and making them captive to the law of sin which dwells in their members” (v. 23). Because of this warfare, we always strive for what is forbidden. The Law commands us to love God with all our heart, to trust in Him and fear Him, but by nature people run away from God, being empty of true trust and fear toward Him. The Law commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but by nature man is inclined to seek his own advantage and honor. The Law forbids us to covet, but “out of man’s heart,” as if from a poisoned spring, surge forth corrupt desires that defile him (Matt. 15:19).
(4) The Law is a mirror of the most perfect obedience that Christ, our Mediator, rendered in our place. Christ was not only born holy (Luke 1:[35]), but He also spent His whole life on this earth in holy works. He showed the most perfect obedience to the Law in every detail so that not even “one iota or dot” passed which He did not fulfill (Matt. 5:18). Hence He can truly say (Matt. 11:[29]): “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” The holy life of Christ is the most perfect rule of piety and all virtues. Whatever the Law prescribed outwardly2 gleamed inwardly in the heart of Christ. All His actions, all His words, were in complete conformity with the norm of God’s Law, seeing as “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth” (Isa. 53:9; 1 Pet. 2:22).
(5) The Law is a mirror for the pious and holy life the reborn are to lead. Christ gives His righteousness to believers, and this is imputed to them through faith. To this benefit of justification and regeneration, renewal is indivisibly connected. Through renewal believers begin to be reshaped into the image of God in the spirit of their mind so that they become “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14), and “they serve God in righteousness and holiness” (Luke 1:75). The norm for these works, for this righteousness and holiness for which the reborn ought to be zealous, is set forth in the divine Law such that they have no need for new commandments or a new, evangelical law.3 Ps. 19:7: “The Law of Jehovah is perfect.” Deut. 4:2; 12:32: “Do only what I command you; you shall not add to it nor take from it.” Thus Eph. 2:10 says that God prepared those works in which the godly should walk. The discussion about the counsels of perfection in the new law added by Christ lacks a solid foundation, as will be clear in its own place [On the Gospel (Commonplace XVII), §§ 82–104]. Christ does not set His explanation [of the Law] in Matthew 5 against the teaching of Moses, but against the pharisaic corruption thereof; not against the prophetic Law, but an erroneous and heretical gloss.
(6) The Law is a mirror of the perfection in eternal life that is to be awaited. In this life the reborn do begin to show sincere obedience to the divine Law, but this obedience of theirs is not perfect in every way. However, in the life to come it will be absolute in every detail. Just as in eternal life their bodies will be changed to be like the glorious body of Christ (Phil. 3:21), so also in the spirit of their mind they will be fully and perfectly renewed, divested of all the old flesh, and perfectly reshaped after the image of God. 1 John 3:2: “When He appears, we shall be like Him.” About this Nazianzen writes very beautifully (De theol., orat. 4): “No longer will we be as we are now in all respects, buffeted by various impulses and affections of our hearts, having nothing or too little of God in us. Rather, we shall wholly be similar and conformed to God, conforming only and completely to God. This is the perfection to which we press on.” That is why Augustine so often reiterates that the command to love will be perfectly fulfilled only in the life to come, when there will no longer be any concupiscence that must be restrained.
1 On the image of God being an accident in man, see On the Image of God in Man (Commonplace XI), §§ 94–98; on the remnants and loss of the image of God in man, see the same, § 129.
2 Read exterius with Cotta instead of externus.
3 See On the Gospel (Commonplace XVII), §§ 82–104.