I hope for you, as for me, it has been enlightening to think about how Christians ought to understand the Law. In one of those really cool God-things, even as I’ve been posting from Packer’s thoughts on it, I came across Luther’s preface to Galatians, which puts the law in perspective. So today, two paragraphs from Packer and one from Luther…and tomorrow, more from Luther:
“But the love-or-law antithesis is false, just as the down-grading of law is perverse. Love and law are not opponents but allies, forming together the axis of true morality. Law needs love as its drive, else we get the Pharisaism that puts principles before people and says one can be perfectly good without actually loving one’s neighbor. The truest and kindest way to see situationism is as a reaction against real or imaginary Pharisaism. Even so it is a jump from the frying pan into the fire, inasmuch as correctness, however cold, does less damage than lawlessness, however well-meant. And love needs law as its eyes, for love (Christian agape as well as sexual eros) is blind. To want to love someone Christianly does not of itself tell you how to do it. Only as we observe the limits set by God’s law can we really do people good.
Keep two truths in view. First, God’s law expresses his character. It reflects his own behavior; it alerts us to what he will love and hate to see in us. It is a recipe for holiness, consecrated conformity to God, which is his true image in man. And as such (this is the second truth) God’s law fits human nature. As cars, being made as they are, only work well with gas in the tank, so we, being made as we are, only find fulfillment in a life of law-keeping. This is what we were both made and redeemed for.” J.I. Packer, Growing in Christ
Now for Luther:
“Once you are in Christ, the law is the greatest guide for your life, but until you have Christian
righteousness, all the law can do is to show you how sinful and condemned you are. In
fact, to those outside of Christian righteousness, the law needs to be expounded in all
its force. Why? So that people who think they have power to be righteous before God
will be humbled by the law and understand they are sinners.”
