Bible Study - Thoughts on Law & Gospel

The Scriptures in worship for the last few weeks have had a lot of Law in them. The Law of God is very important and has three main purposes, as a “curb,” a “mirror,” and a “ruler” in our lives. You may have learned those descriptions from Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation years ago.

First, a curb is intended to keep cars and other vehicles where they belong, in the street, and not on a sidewalk or other places where they could do harm. God’s Law is like a curb, when it keeps people from doing very harmful things to others. It helps provide some order and authority in a very disorderly world.

A Scripture suggested in our latest version of the Catechism, related to this, is 1 Timothy 1:9-10. Paul writes, “The law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient. for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” These are lawless people who do not accept basic moral standards, but might be restrained in some of what they do, because they don’t want to get caught and be in trouble. Paul is not saying here that evils described here do not apply to “the just” also, those who already trust in Christ as Savior, and live by His grace. Believers should already know that these things are wrong and should be trying to avoid these sins, too.

Unfortunately, that is not always true, and believers, with a sinful human nature, also struggle to know right from wrong at times. That is where the Law of God also serves as a guide, a ”ruler,” a straight line for what is pleasing to God in our thoughts, words, and deeds. This is called the “third use of the Law.” A few Scriptures that speak to this are Psalm 119:105: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path;” Proverbs 6:23: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life;” and Psalm 119:160: “The sum of Your Word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.”

Many people and even some churches and denominations, reject this use of the Law because they no longer believe that the Scriptures are entirely the Word and message of God. They would prefer to pick and choose what sounds acceptable to them, according to their human reason and desires and what sounds “loving” and “tolerant” to them. To them, the greatest virtues are tolerance and acceptance and approval, no matter what.

Taking such a false view of Scripture also means that people will often also reject the second use of the Law, as a “mirror” for their own lives. In everyday life, we look into a mirror to see what we look like and to fix anything that doesn’t look so good. We may need to comb or brush our hair in a better way, fix makeup, change our clothes, wash away a spot on ourselves, etc. The Law serves as a “mirror” when we look into it to see what our lives look like, in comparison with God’s standards. When we do that, we are always shown to be sinners, who “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Paul put it this way: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20). When we look in the mirror of the Law, we see our faults and sins, but we cannot fix these problems, these sins, and their guilt, on our own. We can comb our hair when we look in the mirror, but we cannot straighten out our sins and sinfulness when we look in the mirror of the Law.

Some use the SOS letters to talk about this. The Law “Shows Our Sins” and how desperately we need God’s help and rescue and forgiveness. The Law always ultimately accuses and condemns us. We can never keep its standards as we should, as Paul describes in the Epistle lesson for this week (Romans 7:14-25a). Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). How far we all are from that, even as Christians, in what we do!

What we need, then, is another SOS, with regard to Jesus and His Good News, the Gospel. The Gospel “Shows Our Savior.” Our eternal hope is never in ourselves and our performance before God or others. Our hope is in Christ and what He did for us, in His perfect life in our place and His death on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins and His mighty resurrection and ascension to the Father, showing that His saving work was complete.

Paul put it this way: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law, although the Law and the prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:21-22). As a result, Paul wrote, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life sets you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh (our sinful flesh), could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4). We need the Law, for its three useful purposes, but our hope is finally in Christ and continually being brought back to Him and His saving words and works for us.

When we look at our world today, we see so much that is sinful and evil. We can become very discouraged. We might say with the psalmist in one of last week’s readings: “I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commandments” (Psalm 119:158). We hate sin and the great damage it does to so many. The Law of God will not let us put a stamp of approval and acceptance on what is clearly wrong.                                                    

At the same time, we also know that we are still sinners, too. God does not hate just the “big” sins we prefer to point out in others in our society. He hates all sin. Sin is sin - even the sins of thought, word, and deed that we confess day after day and week after week in worship. We continually need God’s mercy, and we want that mercy and forgiveness for ourselves. Somehow, we need to be ready to convey the hope of the Gospel, as well as the Law, to others, too. Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). How many people today have been never been taught or have been so misled that they have no real sense of what is right and wrong, or the consequences of wrongdoing. How much we need care and concern for them, too, even though we can’t give approval for wrongdoing.

Both Martin Luther and C.F.W. Walther, a great early leader of our LCMS, said that distinguishing Law and Gospel and knowing when and how to apply each is one of the greatest challenges for church leaders and teachers and for us all. It would be easy just to pound others with the Law. We need also, though, to pray for the lost and straying and confused and misguided people, as we pray for ourselves and our struggles. We need to pray for wisdom, too, in trying to find ways that show that we do care for others and want the best for them, as people for whom Christ also died. Walther also emphasized that “the Gospel should have a general predominance in our teaching.” He said that otherwise people will be spiritually underfed because the Bread of Life is not the Law, but the Gospel.” Please pray about all this. The Lord’s blessings.