4. Law and gospel in their binding together.

4. Law and gospel in their binding together.

Law and gospel are not only to be strictly separated, but also to be bound together in practice in the closest possible way. Luther expresses this as follows: "Although these two are very far apart (remotissima) in content (re ipsa), they are at the same time bound together most closely in one and the same heart. Nothing is more closely bound than fear and confidence, law and gospel, sin and grace. For they are so bound that the one is absorbed (absorbeatur) by the other. Therefore, there can be

952f) Luke 23:27 ff. v. 31: "For if this be done in green wood, what shall become of dry?"

952g) 635, 12. 13. [Trigl. 955f., Sol. Decl., V, 12 🔗] 952h) 535, 10. [Trigl. 803 V, 10 🔗]

278 > Law and Gospel. [English ed. ~ 236-237]

no mathematical connection that would be equal to it." 953) This close binding is already found in becoming a Christian or in conversion. Of course, conversion happens at the moment when faith in the Gospel shines in the heart.954) But the forgiveness of sins offered in the Gospel is accepted by faith only by the man who has come to the realization of his damnability through the Law. Therefore, whoever would not preach the law would not allow the gospel or Christ in his work of redemption to take effect. This is what Luther did so thoroughly and in many different ways in his fight against antinomianism. Also objectively or according to the content, law and gospel refer to each other in such a way that the gospel offers and gives just what the law demands. The gospel, as is generally admitted, tells of Christ's work of redemption. But Christ's work of redemption consists in the fact that Christ, in the place of men, by his perfect obedience, fulfilled the law given to men955) and bore the penalty for the transgression of it.956) Therefore Luther rightly says that the antinomians with their demand to banish the sermon of the law from the church, as much as there is in them, also deprive the church of the gospel and Christ. Luther writes, "If the law is taken away, no one knows what Christ is, or what he did, since he fulfilled the law for us." Further, "What do you retain of Christ, if the law, which he fulfilled, is abolished, and you do not know what he fulfilled?" 957) Further, "Where will you learn what Christ is, what he has done for us, where we are not to know what the law is, which he has fulfilled for us, or what sin is, for which he has done enough?" 958) And if we look at the relation in which, in the heart of man, the effects of the law and the gospel stand to each other, we have the state of affairs that the gospel, with its judgment of justification, must overcome or "swallow up" the law, with its judgment of condemnation. "For grace" (which the

953) Ad Gal. Erl. (lat.) II, 113; St. L. IX, 454.

954) Acts 11:21; Col. 2:12 etc. 955) Gal. 4:4. 5; Matt. 5:17.

956) Gal. 3:13; Is. 53:4-6.

957) Fifth dispute, sentences 61. 67. XX, 1646.

958) Wider die Antinomer, XX, 1616. Second Disputation wider die Antinomer, XX, 1634, sentences 25. 26.

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Gospel speaks) "shall war and prevail in us against the law and sin, that we despair not." 959) Therefore Luther's judgment on Antinomianism is appropriate, "that the devil does not mean to take away the law by this ‘spiritism’, but Christ, the fulfiller of the law".960)

But even after a man has become a Christian, the law and the gospel are still bound together in him, or, to be more precise, the law is still used in him, and therefore he cannot do without the sermon of the law. Of course, it should be noted that the Christian, in so far as he is a Christian or a new man, no longer needs the law. This is clear doctrine of Scripture: "No law is given to the righteousness, but to the unrighteous and disobedient, to the ungodly and sinners." 961) For the Christian according to the new man, the law is not merely partially, but completely superfluous in every usage it has. Without external law, according to the new man, he knows both what sin is and what good works are, and because, according to the new man, he is inwardly completely pious, he does not need the law to be kept in check outwardly by its threats and plagues. After all, according to the new man, the law is written in the heart of the Christian,962) just as the first men had God's law in their hearts through creation before the fall.963) The Formula of Concord also speaks this repeatedly and very clearly. It says: "Without all doctrine, admonition, stopping, or doing of the law," the Christians after the new man "do what they are obliged to do according to God's will; just as the sun, the moon, and the entire

959) Luther XX, 1656.

960) Wider die Antinomer, XX, 1614. Chemnitz says (Loci, L. de iustificatione II, 228) about the togetherness of law and gospel despite their difference: Utrumque considerandum est, et differentia legis et evangelii et quod ita coniuncta sint lex et evangelium, ut nulla mathematica coniunctio dari possit, quae huic sit similis, sicut inquit Lutherus in 3. ad Galat. Consistit autem convenientia legis et evangelii in eo potissimum, quod beneficia Christi, de quibus evangelium concionatur, nihil aliud sunt quam satisfactio pro culpa et poena, quam nos legi debebamus, et iustitia legis perfectissima obedientia, et haec duo, quae lex requirit et flagitat, credentibus donantur et imputantur ad iustitiam. Nec intelligi potest magnitudo beneficiorum Christi, nisi hoc modo ad rigorem et severitatem legis exigatur. [Google Translated)

961) 1 Tim. 1:<w:t>9.<w:t>962) Jer. 31:33.<w:t>963) Formula of Concord 640, 5. [Trigl. 963, F. C., Sol. Del., VI, 5 🔗]

280280 > Law and Gospel. [English ed. ~ 238]

heavenly bodies have their proper course unhindered for themselves, without admonition, stopping, driving, constraint, or coercion.964) The Christian, however, as he exists in concreto in this life, is not a completely new man, but still carries the old one about him..964) But the Christian, as he exists in concreto in this life, is not completely new man, but carries also still the old one at himself. And in this respect, after the old man, the Christian needs the law according to all the usages that the law has, no matter how one classifies or names these usages.965) Therefore it is not a contradiction when Paul says on the one hand that no law is given to the Christians, on the other hand — Luther reminds966) — already in the same chapter (v. 18) starts with commandments: "This commandment I command you" etc. This is not a contradiction because the Christian is considered once according to the new man and then again according to the old man still existing in him. Luther asks: "Are Paul and Timothy or the Christians not pious? Or what may Paul say: 'No law is given to the righteousness' and goes to and gives it himself?" Luther answers from this: "According to the spirit the believer is justified, without all sin, without any law; according to the flesh he still has sin. … All kinds of filth are still clinging to him and evil desire, care for food, fear of death, avarice, anger, hatred; the filth always remains next to the faith, so that he may beat himself with it and fight it out. Since this is still the case, the Scriptures count us as unrighteous and sinners in that we must have as much law according to the flesh

964) A. a. O., 641, 6 [Trigl. 965, Sol. Decl., VI, 6 🔗]; 643, 17 [967, ibid., 17 🔗]. Luther IX, 879.

965) Nitzsch-Stephan, Dogmatik, p. 509: "According to the doctrine of the Formula of Concord, the old dogmatists also assert partly a threefold, partly even a fourfold usus of the law: 1. a usus politicus seu civilis, 2. a usus elenchticus, 3. a usus paedagogicus, 4. a usus didacticus or normaticus. [Google] Sometimes, however, nos. 2 and 3 are combined. Where they are distinguished, the characteristic feature of the usus elenchticus is: peccati manifestatio et redargutio, the characteristic feature of the usus paedagogicus is the compulsus indirectus ad Christum according to Gal. 3:23 f." There is no need to be frightened by either the tripartite or the quadripartite division, as long as the ideas thereby emphasized correspond to Scripture, which is really the case. If the usus paedagogicus is again distinguished from the usus elenchticus, this is justified by the fact that the law does not in itself lead to Christ, but only when Christ takes it into his hand. In itself, the law leads only to despair. The Holy Spirit must establish the right, intentional binding between law and gospel in the heart of man.

966)St. L. IX, 880 f.

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as they." 967) Luther also expresses it this way, "A Christian is in two realms at once. Inasmuch as he is flesh, he is under the law; inasmuch as he is spirit, he is under grace."968) Admittedly in such a way that in the struggle of the two against each other the time of grace or of the gospel retains the upper hand: "If thou art terrified by the law, say, Madam Law, thou art not alone; so thou art not all, but apart from thee there is still something greater and better, namely, grace, faith." But the victorious time of the Gospel always has as its prerequisite the defeated time of the Law. "Therefore the doctrine of the law is necessary in the church, and by all means to be kept in it, because Christ cannot be kept without it." 969) And this is what the Formula of Concord states in the 6th. Article, "Of the Third Usage of the Law," confesses to error and vacillation on the basis of Scripture: "We believe, teach, and confess that the sermon of the law is to be diligently practiced not only among the unbelieving and impenitent, but also among the true believers (qui vere in Christ credunt), the truly converted, the born-again, and those justified by faith," stating: "For though they may be born again and regenerated in the spirit of their minds, yet such rebirth and regeneration is not perfect in this world." 970) In addition, it will be explained in detail how the law and the gospel are bound together in the Christian. First, because the Christian still sins daily according to the flesh, but at the same time is still inclined according to the same flesh not to recognize sin correctly, but even to imagine "that his work and life are completely pure and perfect,"971) and because consequently the Christian stands in danger of falling from the faith, the law must continually reveal and rebuke sin in him, and on the other hand he must daily draw comfort from the gospel that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's sake. The Formula of Concord expresses this in this way: "Therefore, whenever believers stumble, they are punished by the Holy Spirit out of the law, and by the same Spirit are raised up again and comforted with the

967) op. cit., 881.<w:t xml:space="preserve">968) To Gal. 3:23. St. L. IX, 452.

969) Luther, fifth disputation, sentence 66. St. L. XX, 1646. Cf. in the same disputation sentences 40-45.

970) Epitome 536, 3. 4. [Trigl. 805, 3-4 🔗] <w:t>971) Formula of Concord 644, 21. [Trigl. 969, Sol. Decl., VI, 21 🔗]

282 > Law and Gospel. [English ed. ~ 239-240]

Sermon of the Holy Gospel."972) — Secondly, because the Christian is inclined according to the flesh to err with regard to the good works that God wants him to do, he still has to learn from the law of God, as the unchanging standard of a godly life, what God's will is for him. Formula of Concord: "Therefore also such doctrine of the law is necessary for the believers, lest they fall into their own holiness and devotion, and under the appearance of the Spirit of God perform their own chosen worship, without God's word and command, as it is written Deut. 12: 'Ye shall do none of these things, every man whatsoever seemeth him right: but hear the commandments and the statutes which I command you, neither add unto them, nor take away from them.'" 973) The gospel, however, must be continually put to use with regard to good works, in order to work the desire and the power to do the will discerned from the law of God. The Formula of Concord is also very careful to sharpen this point of view. It says: "But it must be explained in different ways what the gospel does, creates and works for the new obedience of the believers, and what in this, as far as the good works of the believers are concerned, is the work of the law. For the law says that it is God's will and command that we should walk in the new life, but it does not give the power and ability for us to begin and do it, but the Holy Spirit, who is not given and received through the law but through the sermon of the gospel, Gal. 3, renews the heart." 974) — Finally, according to the flesh, the law is also used by Christians to keep the flesh in check externally. There is no rhetorical exaggeration when Luther975) and also the Formula of Concord976) say that the flesh of Christians never becomes pious in this life, but thoroughly retains its character as "enmity against God" (εχϑρα εις ϑεόν Rom. 8:7). Scripture, indeed, says of the flesh of Christians negatively, that nothing good dwells in it,977) and positively, that it lies at war against the new man (άντιστρατενεταϊ),978) By this constitution also the flesh of Christians can only be forced outwardly into obedience to the will of God, and this compulsion is put upon it both by the verbal and the real preaching of the law, viz.

972) Formula of Concord 624, 14. [Trigl. 967, ibid., 14 🔗] <w:t>973) 644, 20. [Trigl. 969, ibid., 20 🔗]<w:t>974) 642, 10. 11. [Trigl. 965, ibid., 10-11 🔗]

975) St. L. IX, 880.<w:t>976) 643, 19. [Trigl. 969, ibid., 20 🔗]<w:t>977) Rom. 7:18.

978) Rom. 7:23.

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by the threat of God's eternal wrath979) and by the imposition of plagues in this life.980) Formula of Concord:981) "For the old Adam, as the intractable, refractory ass (quasi asinus indomitus et contumax), is also still a matter in them, which not only with the doctrine of the law, admonition, driving, and threatening, but also often with the bludgeon of punishments and plagues to compel into the obedience of Christ until the flesh of sin is utterly put off, and man is perfectly renewed in the resurrection, having no need of the sermon of the law, nor of its threatenings and chastisements, nor of the gospel, which belong to this imperfect life."