Peter Scaer on the Third Use of the Law

The “Facebook Apostle” Dr. Peter Scaer recently shared the paper I posted on his profile.

I was very pleased to be recognized by him, because Dr. Scaer is a talented and compelling writer who I think “gets” what I have been trying to say for so long.

Here is a compilation of some of his Facebook posts on or touching on the topic of the “Third Use of the Law”. This, again, is the skill and art of encouraging and exhorting Christians to lives as Christians — always on the basis of the mercies of God in Jesus Christ! (see Romans 12:1-2).

Peter excels at this skill but many Lutherans, particularly a bunch called the “Radical Lutherans,” have let these muscles atrophy over the years. Simply put, when very popular but very wrong teachers like Gerhard Forde and Steven Paulson get the atonement of Jesus wrong, there are massive consequences. A Fake Lutheranism that snuffs out the flickering wick and breaks the bruised reed is the result.

The posts are roughly in chronological order, with the most recent posts appearing at the top. Especially check out his first four short and punchy ones, his most recent work on the topic.

Use these for devotions with your family. They are excellent for that! Sadly, this kind of talk is lacking in a lot of contemporary Lutheran devotional material.

At the same time, also realize that Peter has also written much more besides this, on most every topic of Christian theology. If you just use what he has written below, you certainly will not get a complete view of all his great writing, nor a balanced view of the Christian faith!

Finally, if you would like to find the dates of these particularly posts (so you can like them, comment on them, or share them), you can find Peter on Facebook and do a search for “third use of the law”.

Here’s Peter:

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Run the race, fight the good fight of faith. Pray without ceasing. Struggle to enter through the narrow door. Store for yourselves riches in heaven. Forgive. Do not neglect the meeting together, as is the habit of some. Keep yourself free from idols. Bear one another’s burdens. Choose life. Love one another. What do all these exhortations have in common? They are all examples of the third use of the law denied by Paulson and his followers.

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If a man finds himself in prison for armed robbery, the law is a problem, but is not the cause of his problems. It was his armed robbery. If the man is released, and turns his life around, he is grateful for that law. The law was good, and still is. So it is with us sinners. Christ serves our sentence, pays the penalty of the law, which is the essence of the gospel. But the law remains, for the law is God’s good will. And the Christian, as Christian, helps his neighbor to improve and protect his possessions and income, which is the law viewed positively. This is the law’s third use.

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To Christians as Christians, the third use of the law sounds like encouragement and instruction, like the words of a coach, father, or perhaps a commander in battle. To the one who is not on board, to the one who is unrepentant, the third use sounds just like the first use. Likewise, to the one who struggles, the third use sounds like exhortation, but to the one who doesn’t wish to struggle, to the one who does not want to give up his sin, the third use again is hard on his ears. But the Christian as Christian, the repentant as repentant, the New Adam struggling against the Old, loves the law, knows it to be a better way, a way of life and love. So, really, when people deny the third use of the law, they are really denying the law’s first use, because, frankly, they just don’t want to hear it.

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Moses preached the gospel. Jesus preached the law. And vice-versa. And they both preached, and often, what we call the law’s third use, which is not just information, but exhortation.

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There Aren’t Two Kinds of Righteousness,

at least now as it talked about among us. We speak of civil righteousness, which is the righteousness of the unbeliever, the one who seeks to do good in accord with conscience and the natural law, or perhaps just for show. This sort of righteousness is outward, and has to do with the deeds that are done. It makes no difference whether a believer or an unbeliever helps me in physical distress. In either case, I am the better for it. But civic righteousness, righteousness apart from Christ, is not true at its core, as it is motivated by self.

In Christ, we are declared righteous, because Christ alone lived the perfect righteous life on our behalf. His active and passive obedience are credited to our account. He died for our transgressions, and rose for our justification. Christ did all things well, nor were his motives ever mixed or self serving.

But when Christians do good, they are acting in the righteousness of Christ. Christ lives in them. Christ animates them. For Christians, sin always remains, and motives always remain mixed. But, Christians, in as much as they are Christian, do good things. It would be a mistake to say that civil righteousness and the good works of a Christian, as a Christian are similar versus the righteousness that comes from Christ.

Sometimes, this is spoken of as a vertical righteousness versus righteousness on the horizontal level. But we do well to remember that the righteousness that is imputed to us is the righteousness of Christ as he lived and died among us. Christ’s cross is more than the key that opens up heavenly treasure and heavenly righteousness. What we receive is what Christ fulfilled for us as he walked the horizontal plane. As for Christian righteousness? It is not of a different kind from that of Christ. It is after all the life of Christ into which we have incorporated. Any good we do is due to Christ living in us, and his Spirit working through us. This good is always mixed, as we remain sinners, and is nothing to brag about. But it is not civil righteousness, for it is something wholly different, for it is the life of Christ in action, it is the life of the church and her members.

Or, perhaps, think of it this way. In the heavenly places, there is no place for civil righteousness. It is simply the life of Christ. To say that our righteousness is mixed up with sin is a given, and a painful one at that. The good that I do, I don’t do. And yet, the I is the I of Christ, the new life we have been given, the strength by which we say, and we mean, “Lord, thee I love with all my heart.” This righteousness, this holy desire, mixed as it is with sin and selfishness, is not of a different kind from the righteousness of Christ, for it is indeed the life of Christ.

So, yes, civil righteousness is the outward keeping of the commandments. But the life of Christ is in fact the life of Christ. We are saved because the merits of Christ’s life and death are given to us, and his righteousness is forensically applied. But the new man then participates in that very life of righteousness, and not into some other third thing.

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Commenting on Deuteronomy 30 in the latest Lutheran Quarterly, Steven Paulson writes, “Moses invented the theological idea of “sanctification” as something added to justification because he couldn’t quite believe that he himself was declared righteous by the second person of the Trinity – and his righteousness had nothing to do with his shining face and two tablets of stone!”

So there you have it. Moses offers up what looks like exhortation, a strong third use of the Law. So Paulson says Moses did not understand what he was saying. Accordingly, “Paul recognized that Dueteronomy 30 really says something Moses was trying to avoid . . .”

It’s remarkable what a theologian can do, slicing and dicing the scriptures, throwing even Moses under the bus. But then, what to do with all of St. Paul’s exhortations? Or Christ’s? Exhortations abound. But Paulson’s exhortation to avoid exhortation should be avoided, and indeed, should be considered laughable in our midst.

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Be Thou Faithful Unto Death,

and I will give you the crown of life. Strangely, in some worlds, these words are categorized as law, and since we are sinners, we cannot fulfill the law, and so we are driven to the gospel. But what is the gospel? Supposedly, it’s the word of peace, the word of forgiveness. Now, this is true, but the word of forgiveness has no meaning if it is not backed by Christ’s atoning death. And when we preach Christ’s death, we surely preaching about the gospel, which is supposedly bad. But that distinction is silly too, for in preaching about the gospel, that is the life of Christ, we are preaching the gospel. And the absolution, if it is simply a creative word, a creation ex nihilo, is no gospel at all, for the words of forgiveness depend upon Christ’s work, his active, yes active, and passive fulfilling of the law, yes, the law, which is God’s will. Our Lord is no outlaw god, which would be another god entirely.

This matter of dividing law and gospel matters, but it has been turned by some into a madness. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life! These are words of exhortation, and packed into them is a prize which is also a gift won by our Savior. Packed into these words is the strength that Christ gives for the journey, and sure hope of his promise.

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. In these words are vigor and strength, a powerful reminder that our life has purpose. These are words for the Christian, and they are exhilarating, reminding us that our Lord who died for us has for us life eternal. So, fight the fight, run the race. Work while it is day, before the night comes and no man can work. Don’t shy from ending your sermons with exhortation. St. Paul has plenty of it, as does our Lord. We are hereby reminded that our Lord has died to pay for our sins, and in his resurrection we have life, and that life, even now, has meaning, shape, and purpose.

To be at peace does not mean to be inert, and the Christian life is not passive. We have the armor to fight, and we have tongues to proclaim. Be thou faithful unto death. Of course, these words remind the sinful flesh of failing, but even more, they remind us that our life is indeed a noble calling, one that beckons us to the kind of courage that is well founded, and the kind of life that is joyfully active in life and confession. That’s what exhortation, sometimes known as the third use of the law, is all about. And it’s great.

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A Few Simple Theses on the Gospel (A Work in Progress)

1. The atonement is an objective fact accomplished on Calvary (as opposed to Forde who says, “The atonement is not an objective fact accomplished on Calvary.”

2. Christ actively and passively fulfilled the law on our behalf (as opposed to Forde who claims that Christ suffered the law only passively, and that he was acting according to God’s will, not his law.)

3. Can the suffering and death of one man atone for the sins of the whole world? Forde calls the question trite. But the answer is a resounding yes, for it is God’s Son who has suffered and died.

4. Forde asks, If God has been paid, how can one say that he really forgives? Yes, we can and do say this. God’s action in Christ is mercy, and it came at a great cost, which demonstrates how great is his love towards us.

5. If Christ has not fulfilled the law on our behalf, then there is no gospel to preach.

6. In creation, God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” In matters of salvation, absolution depends not simply upon a word, but upon the atonement, Christ having made payment for sin so that it may be forgiven. A gospel without such a payment is no gospel at all, and makes meaningless Christ’s sacrifice.

7. On the cross, mercy and justice embrace, for upon it Christ has more than satisfied the demands of the law. He dies not simply as one murdered, but as the necessary sacrifice. Christ did not sin, nor did he break the law, but as the scapegoat he did take upon himself all of our sins.

8. A God who does not demand payment for sin is not a more loving God, but an apathetic God who does not care about the suffering of Abel.

9. The law is eternal, for the law fulfilled is simply love. So we rejoice in confessing the law positively, including worship of the Triune God alone, honoring parents, protecting life, and all the rest.

10. The Third Use of the Law is not simply a reimposition of the law in order to whip unwilling Christians into shape. The law is useful for wisdom, exhortation, and understanding. The law always condemns, but does not only condemn. The Christian, in as much as he is a Christian, loves the law.

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Radical Lutheranism’s Appeal

Kilcrease’s “Forde’s Doctrine of the Law: A Confessional Lutheran Critique” is an excellent introduction to the problems of such a theology. But what is the attraction of radical Lutheranism today? I think it owes at least partially to its existential view of the law, which places the law, as Kilcrease puts it, “into the realm of vague abstraction.” In both Paulson and Forde, our salvation does not depend on Jesus actively fulfilling the law on our behalf or upon his death as a penal substitution. The question becomes, did Jesus die to pay for our sins, or did he die simply that the law might die with him. Is the enemy sin or is it the law? If law is the experience of dread, and if our sin is simply a matter of works righteousness, then there is little need to enumerate specific sins, leaving the content of the law, in Kilcrease’s assessment, “overly vague.”

But if you say that Jesus died for sins, and that the law is an expression of God’s eternal will, well then that changes everything. It means we have to come to grips with the specifics of what we have done, and also that, as Christians, we embrace those deeds which are good. This may explain why in radical Lutheranism there is so little discussion of particular sins, nor is there much appetite for discussing the besetting sins of our culture, those sins which the culture trumpets as virtue.

Those who look at Christ’s work as the law fulfilled, and the price of redemption paid will then think of their lives differently. The command not to kill is embraced, and now viewed positively for what it is, that is the command to honor and protect innocent life. The Christian pastor then goes further and proclaims the sanctity of life, the fifth commandment, the incarnation and the resurrection in one breath, as whole. For the Christian as a Christian sees the law as fulfilled by Christ, but also then having meaning for life today, for we are called to live the life of the law fulfilled, which is the life of love.

But as long as we play with radical Lutheranism, then we don’t have to address such things, as the law is vague, and flattening, and any attempt to speak the truth about the goodness of things now denied is turned into just another example of works righteousness, as if the Christian does not love what the Lord loves, and does not see the beauty of Christ’s life or in the Christian life. Again, this is not to deny that we remain sinners, but it is to assert that as a Christian, I see and speak of a better way.

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In Christ There is Rest

not paralysis. Biblical exhortation is invigorating. The third use of the law is simply the law as understood by one who knows that Christ has fulfilled it for us. We are freed not from the law, but from the law’s condemnation. We are freed not from the law, but from sin. For the law is good and right, and eternal. Moses sets before us life and good, death and evil. He tells us to choose life. In as much as we are sinners, we hear “Thou shall not murder,” and we know we are condemned. But in as much as Christ has fulfilled the law, we count ourselves privileged to fight for life. For Christians, the command to choose life is a shot in a arm, a spark of invigoration. In as much as we have been redeemed and baptized, we say together, “As for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.”

When St. Paul tells us to race the race, to fight the fight, we do not feel weighed down, as if it were a burden on the unwilling. When the Lord tells us to keep watch, to strive to enter through the enter door, we hear the words as an athlete might listen to his coach, like a soldier might hear his commander. When we are at rest in the Lord, we are free to be active, to be courageous. We, we happy few, we band of brothers!

In fear of the Lord, we need fear no man. Our Lord says, “Fear not, little flock.” And shortly thereafter he adds, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.” Knowing we are not saved by our own good works, our heart is cheerful to hear “Work while it is still day before the night comes and no man can work.” For at day’s end, we know that we shall count every hour in the vineyard as precious. When St. Paul exhorts us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, we are not dispirited but ennobled. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord,”Paul says. Hearing these words, we rejoice in hope.

Radical Lutheranism is really not Lutheranism at all. But there is no reason to think about this theoretically. Simply read through the scriptures as one redeemed. Hear our Lord’s commands as what they now are, an opportunity to get in the game, to play a part. Resting in the Lord does not mean inactivity. It’s a chance to fight the good fight, to put on the armor of salvation. Indeed, sin remains ever with us, as does the law’s condemnation. But the law’s third use is the law seen through the eyes of those who happy to comply, even as a son hears his father, a patriot rises to defend his homeland, a runner strives to reach the finish line. Biblical exhortation is not an enemy, but an encouragement to stay awake, to keep our lamps filled with oil, to make use of our talents, not out of some horrible constraint, but as the Father’s children, as those who are Christ’s brothers.

And if you still don’t understand, try Henry V’s famed speech on for size. He speaks in a human way, but gets at the idea that exhortation is not just another condemnatory law, it’s an invitation to life, real life. It’s an invitation to take up the cross, not as a burden, but as true glory.

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Christ’s Temptations

Radical Lutherans like Forde and Paulson have no place for Christ’s fulfillment of the law. They speak of Christ suffering whatever the law has to offer, and therefore his passivity in suffering, but not his active obedience. Paulson calls our Lord an Outlaw God, which is strangely reminiscent of the man of lawlessness. But the law is an expression of God’s good and eternal will. The law is eternal, and its fulfillment is love.

But in the temptation, our Lord begins fulfills the law in a most active way. This is why our Lord was baptized, to fulfill all righteousness. No, we are not saved by our good works, but we are saved by His. There is no need for merit from Mary or the saints. Christ offers up his life for ours, his credit for ours, his active and passive obedience for ours.

In what ways is our Lord tempted? To make stones to bread, to rule over the kingdoms of the world, to jump off the top of the temple. And what do those temptations summarize and encapsulate? The desire to fulfill the desires of the body, the will to power, and the desire for glory. In short, these are the kinds of things we all want, in our sinfulness, for ourselves. We want the pleasures of the body, though they lead to the heartache of broken families and the cruelty of abortion. We want power, to do what we want, and to have other people to do our bidding. Money helps with that, as does position. And we want others to think we are great. Ah, the glory of having the angels swoop you up from the fall. What a spectacle! What an honor! Your name will be in lights, in every headline, retweet a million times!

But our Lord says no. He came not for his own glory, but for the glory of his Father, and for that he was willing to endure the worst humiliations, stripped and spit upon, mocked and ridiculed. He came not to be served, but to serve and to save. He came washing the feet of his own not always stellar disciples. He came not for his own pleasures, but to endure the very worst of pain, to have nights where he had no place to lay his head, to be beaten and whipped, nailed agonizingly to the cross.

And so we pray, hallowed be THY name, THY kingdom come, THY will be done. We all want to make a name for ourselves, to have power, to get what we want. That is not the Christian way, for it is not the way of Christ. The third use of the law is instruction, but it is also an invitation into a much better life, the life of Christ which he lived for us and for our salvation, that life that is already ours, the life of Christ, who we claim when we say, “I am Christian.”

In my sin, I desire that which is selfish, that which is vain and gives me pleasure, damn the world and all others. But in Christ, I want something better. The law always accuses, but it does not only accuse. It shows us, positively, the life of true love. In the wilderness temptations, we see a truly glorious picture of the better Adam, the righteous and good and loving Adam, and it’s a sight to behold. And all of this our Lord does in loving obedience to his heavenly Father and in fulfillment of God’s eternal law. And all of this our Lord does that he might win for us salvation, bringing the law not to the end, but to its glorious fulfillment, here now, and then on the cross, for our salvation.

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Exhortation Allergy

I’m not sure where it came from, this fear of what is often called the Law’s third use. But woe to the preacher who offers a word of exhortation, to run the race, fight the fight, wait on the Lord, well, just about anything. Right away we hear, “Of course, we cannot run, fight, or wait, for we are sinners.” For that matter, we cannot even repent, for, we are told, God repents us.

Now, in this protest, there is a kernel of truth. We do the good that God has called us to do, and surely we stumble, fall and rebel. We do the good that God has called us to do, and, in the end, we see it was God’s doing all along. But still, in Christ, we are a new creation. The sinner remains. Original sin remains. To grow in Christ means to come to grips all the more with that sin that lurks in every fiber. And yet, we exhort one another to good works, to run, to fight, to wait, to show mercy, to help our neighbor, and, yes, to go to church.

Now, we may say that the law always condemns, and this is true, but it does not only condemn. Exhortation actually is invigorating. St. Paul includes so much of it in his letters, and likewise, or we should say, primarily, so does our Lord. Watch, he says. Work while it is still day before the night comes and no man can work, he says. Now, we might point out that the first disciples fell asleep in the Garden, and we may recall Peter’s denial. But then we should also think of Peter’s heroic sermon at Pentecost, and that he eventually fulfilled his promise to go to prison, even death, for the Lord.

Yes, exhortation is invigorating, for it is an invitation into the life of Christ. It is the general’s call to would be soldiers, who are grateful to play a part, ever so small, in the great cosmic drama of salvation. Exhortation is the natural call of the preacher to people redeemed. Exhortation is to say that your life matters, and that what you do, yes, what you do, matters.

All that we do, we well know, comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we know that our every good work is tainted by sin. And yet, think of all those Christians who have answered the call in your life, and in the life of the church militant. Think of martyrs, and faithful witnesses. Think of loved ones who brought you into the Truth. The saints are for us witnesses, examples of lives well lived.

So, when the preacher says, “Fight the good fight,” do no go into the corner and sit. Don’t think it too burdensome, nor think of yourself, by virtue of your sin or weakness, incapable. Get out into the ring. Enter the arena of life, as our Lord has blessed you. And when you do, thank God that you have been given the opportunity, knowing, that at life’s end, you will not have wanted it any other way.

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Ecumenical Opportunities and Pitfalls

The first thing we probably need to say is that the greatest challenge for our own church is the religion of the secular left, a piety that prizes abortion and dogs over children, an elite priesthood that punishes those who confess that there is such a thing as male and female, a people who have taken the rainbow, and turned it into a flag of defiance against the god of nature, a cult that while not valueing children, are on the prey for ours.

The second thing that faithful Lutherans need to watch out for is the hiding out behind slogans that make us feel comfortable, phrases like law and gospel, simul justus et peccator, theology of the cross and all the rest. This can be seen most vividly in the attraction of Forde and Paulson, whose radical Lutheranism isn’t Lutheran at all. But it is appealing. Drop the law’s third use, and you no longer have to speak to the rainbow pride, or the secular heresies that are stealing the hearts of our children. No man can serve to masters, and to deny the God of Creation is to deny the redemption of Christ, the eternally begotten Son of the Father.

And then, yes, the basics, the baptizing of infants, the body and blood, and yes, so very basic atonement. But now we are back to radical Lutheranism, which offers words behind and under which there is nihil.

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Apart from the third use of the law, apart from the atonement, the fact that Christ actually died for our sins, paying the price, a substitute in passive and active obedience, you end up with a strange world in which a version of Lutheranism remains, while Christianity itself vanishes.

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A Lawless Theology for a Lawless World

So, Steven Paulson continues to preach about his Outlaw God, and it is, admittedly, a good fit with the lawlessness all around us. The refrain, which hardly changes, goes something like this: The law kills and condemns, and it not only always kills and condemns, it only kills and condemns. So, there is no place for the third use of the law in the Christian life. Good works are spontaneous. How we might judge a good work good is hard to say, as love is the fulfillment of the law, the law lived out.

Now, all this has an appeal, but takes us nowhere. With the end of the law, and by this Paulson does not mean the fulfillment, but the law’s abolishment, there is no love, for love is spelled out most simply in the two tables of the law, love of God and love of neighbor. The Ten Commandments offer a good summary of the situation, but should not be viewed as a kind of code or a set of regulations. And, yes, Christians love the love. That is, they love to sing, “Lord, thee I love with all my heart.” Christians, as Christians, love to call on God’s holy name, and to go to church. So also, Christians as Christians love their mom and dad, and with that they love and defend marriage, and in doing so proclaim Christ our Bridegroom. They love to preserve and protect life, and in doing so they honor Our Father who art in Heaven, and likewise give praise to the one who made us male and female, so that offspring might come into the world and be cared for. And so on. The Christian loves the law, and the law is eternal, even as love is eternal.

But there’s more. A recent post captures the Paulson theology well. Turning again to the story of Nathan and David’s sin, he writes, “God’s all-working, almighty power is done purely by speaking, and it travels at the speed of sound.” Well, ok, I guess, as far as it goes. but does it ever go deeper? Here’s the problem. Absolution may be likened unto God’s powerful word at creation, but something else is at play. At creation, God could simply say, “Let there be light,” and there was light. At the speed of light or sound is not clear. But God could not simply say to David, “Let there be forgiveness.”

Absolution comes at the price of atonement. This is not simply a matter of God’s mercy overcoming his wrath, or his love overcoming his righteous anger. If God did not demand a price for sin, he would not show himself more loving, but simply apathetic, indifferent to the cries of Abel’s blood, and to the crimes of all humanity. Justice must be served, because God cares for those who have suffered.

What needs to happen brings us to the cross, but not just some theology of the cross, which is so often just a play of words and contradictions. But the cross is the culmination of God’s work, in which Christ fulfills the law on our behalf, and then pays the price for our sin, propitiating the wrath of God, taking upon himself our punishment. The law is not separated from the will of God, nor will it ever be. But on the cross, justice and mercy kiss. Like Abraham offered up Isaac, so also the Father places his Son upon the altar of sacrifice. Christ himself is victim and peace. This forgiveness does not come simply at the speed of sound, though that is the way it is delivered. It is earned by bloody sweat and tears, but a perfect life of obedience, by being forsaken that we might be embraced.

Ah, but a lawless God so fits our generation. Perhaps, for that reason, so many find it unnecessary to talk about the degradation of our humanity, as if it is somehow separate from Christ. As if somehow we can preach Christ’s birth without speaking out against abortion, as if by preaching marriage, we do not also speak of Christ and the church. The man of lawlessness is with us, but Christ is not that man, no outlaw God. Christ is the fulfiller of the law, and the one who gives us grace at what came at the most awful and mysterious price.

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Social Issues, Moral Issues and a Gospel that Is No Gospel

Some things need to be said. And when they are true, and when they are being denied, they need to be said over and over again. So, here goes. As Lutherans we love the gospel. But we better be clear by what we mean. Speaking of the gospel proper, we may say that it is the good news of salvation. It is for you. But it is not enough for it to be for you. There has to be a there there .The gospel comes to us in a word of absolution, but that word of absolution is not itself the gospel.

It is impossible to preach Christ without preaching about Christ. Before the absolution, there must be atonement. Peace with God is made by Christ’s active obedience. Not just passive suffering, but active obedience to the law, which is God’s will. Yes, the gospel is free, but it comes at a price.

The wrath of God is not to be equated with the hidden God, or that part of God that is somehow not touched by the atonement. The wrath of God is simply God’s reaction to injustice, to the shedding of innocent blood, and all such crimes. The opposite of wrath is not love, but indifference and apathy. Any God who is good and loving would be angry with sin, would demand that sin be punished. And that is done in the mystery of the cross, where Christ fulfills the law, not ending it, but taking its penalty so that as Christians we can see the law in all its eternal goodness. Those who would dismiss the third use of the law would dismiss love itself.

Some say, though, we need to free ourselves from what is deemed moralism, or even politics. By that they seem to mean the twin terrors of our time, the LGBTQ movement and abortion. But really, we may try to distinguish these things, but they can never be separated. Indeed, abortion and gay marriage are the sacraments of a false and competing religion. As it was for Israel and the Baals, so also today.

What could it mean to say we love the baby Jesus, but do not stand up and speak for children in the womb? What could it mean to say that we believe Christ is the bridegroom and the church the bride when we have no idea what marriage is. And no, these matters are not simply about our morality, but confessing Christ through our lives and our actions. When we deny marriage, we deny Christ as groom and God as creator. So also with those who deny the very idea of male and female. When we are silent about the unborn, we deny the Lord who made himself at home in Mary’s womb. It’s a package deal.

The temptation now is to run away. To retreat into a safe gospel, which is no gospel at all. If we confess that the Church is the body of Christ, we cannot stand idly by while fellow Christians suffer, as if their martyrdoms and sufferings do not affect us. The gospel has to be more than a slogan or a philosophy. Instead, it’s a life lived out by Christ for our sake, and now a life that we are invited into by means of Holy Baptism. There is no reason to look upon the cross of Christ, we are not then in the business of picking up whatever cross is placed upon us. And it does us no good to confess Christ if we are not doing so precisely where he is being denied, precisely where fellow Christians are suffering.

No, the gospel has to be more than words of affirmation. More than the story of a God who relents in his anger, because he wants to be a God of mercy. On the cross, justice and mercy kiss. And this life we now live, we live in Christ, which is precisely the life of the law, which is love itself. And apart from love we find ourselves apart from God.

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Once we speak of ethics, eyes glaze over. So also, the Third Use of the Law. What is there to say but that the life we live is the life of Christ? How can we speak academically about natural marriage or abortion? As if we were discussing the merits of gambling or marijuana? Of course, we can, but deeper still, it is simply the life of Christ. The life of Christ, in whose image we are created. The life of Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Marry. The life of Christ, who is the Church’s bridegroom. Tell me that the law is not eternal, and you tell me that life has no meaning, nor does love. It is not two separate words, or worlds, no dichotomy, no yes and no, but it is of a whole cloth. Please don’t tell me that God is not law, if you then don’t proceed to say that God is Love, which is nothing but the law fulfilled. Tell me nothing of the cross as a concept, if it is not the price paid for our sin. What is a gospel apart from the affirmation of these things except simply an empty and self-affirmation? To affirm the things of God is to affirm the man created in his image and vice versa. To affirm the things of God is to affirm Christ, who is the firstborn of all creation, the very image of God.

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Theology is for Proclamation, but Not Forde’s Theology

For whatever reason, Forde’s theology is having a mini-renaissance among us. Were it not so. I have my thoughts as to why it is. In a way, by denying the law’s eternality, our lives are made relative, which is helpful when society is in collapse. What began in women’s ordination and the divorce culture has led to the wholesale slaughter of the unborn and marriage which is not marriage. But if it is all the way of the law, which is not eternal, then no big deal. Supposedly like riding a bicycle without training wheel or hands. As if the law is not good, as if the fulfillment of the law is not ultimately the very definition of love.

But from the beginning Forde played with words, Lutherany words meant to bring us in. So he writes, “The favor of God does not need to be purchased by the suffering and death of God.” What nonsense. Why then did Christ die? Does not Christ call sin a debt? Or is God simply apathetic? Forde continues, “God cannot and does not need to be bought, even by Jesus.” What vile words. Forde takes that which is sacred and defiles it. His theology here is simply liberal protestantism, and is not sanctified by talk of absolution. God is not bought off, as if it were unseemly, but he is just, and cares for the suffering. Not to care for the blood Abel is not to make God more loving, but simply indifferent.

And true, as Forde says, “God out of love and mercy sent Jesus to forgive.” But that forgiveness would have a price. It wasn’t simply a word spoken from nothing, as if he could just say it without putting his money where his mouth was.

We simply must rid ourselves of Forde. Whatever may be good in what he says may be found elsewhere. And when he does say good things, he simply become all the worse for it, because he brings in his poison, striking our faith at its very foundation. Yes, Christ died for us. He paid the debt. God’s wrath is real, because love demands justice. And in the mystery of it all, Christ is abandoned and forsaken by his Father, who so loves his Son for being abandoned, and for that the Lamb is to be praised into the ages of ages, amen.

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The Law of Love: Let the Dove Fly

We might think of law and gospel as contrary forces. The law puts to death, and the gospel makes alive. And yet, in Christ, they are made one. The law is not to be thought of as a legal scheme, but as the eternal will of God. As such, Christ comes to be the telos of the law, not to put the law behind us, but to fulfill it. Christ came to do the Father’s will, but in doing so, he was not acting outside the law as if the law were alien to God, for indeed, the law perfectly expresses God’s will.

If we are to consider a topic like Anfechtung, we cannot let our discussion dissolve into complaints about a fallen world, as if that fallenness were not a result of the very sin which we commit. Unbelief is the ultimate sin against the Holy Spirit, but it is our sin, our very transgressions, that bring us into judgment in the first place. Our death is due to God’s justice, a penalty for transgression. Now, it is true, there is no way that we can climb a ladder to God. However, the fulfilling of the law does in fact play a role in our salvation, and so we speak of Christ’s active and passive obedience on our behalf. In his Baptism, Christ actively take our sin upon us, but so also does he begin for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Could Christ have simply forgiven, as some claim? No, he could not. He knew that forgiveness came with a price. Beware of any theologian who dismisses Anselm, or puts words like substitutionary in quotation marks. Indeed, our Lord died not only for us, and on our behalf, but also instead of us. He became for us a scapegoat and sacrifice. His death was a payment, not simply to the powers of this age, but in accordance with the eternal law. He offered up his sacrificial death as a payment to God for our sin.

Are we saved by some legal scheme? Of course, not. But we are saved by Christ who fulfills the law on our behalf and in our stead. What then is the law to us? Well, of course, it always condemns, in as much as we remain sinners. But in as much as we are Christians, we love the law, even as we rejoice in God’s will.

The law is then, for the Christian as Christian, nothing other than love, to love God with our heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourselves. To drive out the law in its third use is not to bring in more gospel, but to drive out love from within our midst. To say deny Anselm, to deny that Christ’s death was a payment to God is not to enhance the gospel, but to turn it into nothing. If this is all tied to legal imagery, so be it. After all, our Lord was declared guilty that we might we declared just. Though we might say Christ was murdered, a deeper truth remains: the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave.

Yes, our salvation came at a heavy price. His death is the propitiation for our sins. God’s justice is satisfied, and because of that fact, the dove can fly. This is a theology worth proclaiming, and a truth worth teaching. No theory, but the gospel itself.

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Abortion, Marriage, and the Third Use of the Law:

Heresies have a way of sharpening our confession. They force us to think about things that matter, things we have taken for granted. So it is with abortion, gay marriage, and transgenderism.

First of all, it simply won’t do to say, “I’ll preach the gospel,” if we are not addressing these issues. Nor is it enough to say that these are simply first article issues, while the second article, that of redemption is left untouched. Gnosticism, in all of its forms, has tried to separate the God of creation from the God of salvation.

It is not coincidence that abortion rises in a culture that rejects the Christchild. Every child is sacred through Christ, the one through whom the world was created, and the one who entered the womb of Mary. Every marriage is sacred, as it is the way through which God creates, even now, and is doubly sacred by Christ, who changed water into wine, blessing marriage, and anticipating the Lord’s Supper, the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb.

As Christians, we know that every birth is the celebration of the Christchild, and every marriage a celebration of Christ our Groom. Our own life is not separate, or an add on, or a living out of a code. Christ is our life, and our lives are wrapped up in him. The third use of the law is much more than a command or injunction, but it is life itself, our living in Christ into whom we were baptized. Life matters, because it is Christ who is the life, not as an add-on, but an essence, like vine to a branches, like a body to a head. To abort the child or to distort marriage is to abort the Christchild and to divorce oneself from Christ himself.

Christ has not come to put an end to creation, but to renew it. The second article is also the first, redemption is also creation. There is a lot of work to do here, and charity is called for as we work together. But this is important, a great opportunity to renew our confession. But make no mistake, confessing life and marriage is ultimately the same as confessing Christ, the Lord of Life, and to marginalize such teaching is to marginalize Christ.

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