The Third Use of the Created Word
“Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” Those words are reflexive for almost any Anglican. Repeated nine times weekly at least during Lent and Advent if not year round, they are said between 54 and 468 times a year, each time the Ten Commandments are recited, ending with “Write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee” after the tenth commandment.
The Ten Words opens the service of Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer with a spirit of penitence, acknowledging our conviction for sin and our hardness of heart before a Holy God. But that first (pedagogical) use of the law is also prayed back to the Father as a request to become the third use—may the instrument which crucifies me with Christ become the throne on which I am seated with my resurrected King.
Man is crucified with Christ because the law killed him (Galatians 2:19–20). He is alive with Christ because Christ obeyed the law and then defeated death. Obeying the law was not sufficient for the salvation of men, but it was a prerequisite. Now in Christ, man is seated with Jesus in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).
This is the inverted order but identical logic of Psalm 119, which ends in verse 176 with “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.” In the Ten Commandments, Galatians 2 and Psalm 119, the message seeping through the text is that the law both provides the righteous standard from which man has deviated from and the godly standard by which man ought to live.
But is this positive use of the law warranted in the New Covenant? A short reflection cannot possibly plumb the depths of a question which has vexed so many Germans, but a few comments might be helpful in attuning our minds to think of the law in the new covenant.
Consider this syllogism: every design of God which reveals himself to the world is both an object of judgment and blessing. Nature and the law are both designs of God which reveal God to the world. Therefore nature and law serve as both judgment and blessing.
Let’s look at the particulars. The distinction between a blessing and a curse in Scripture depends on the nature of the person on whom it falls. Water falls upon Noah and it blesses him greatly, but it is a judgment upon the people of the earth. Jesus’ clever phrase that “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45) proves this: was there a greater judgment upon the enemies of God than when the “sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day” (Joshua 10:13)? Or when “Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain” (I Kings 18:41)?
Prescriptively, Psalm 19 sets up the positive, blessing design of both written law and nature:
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. / Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. / There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. / The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. / The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. / Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward (1-3, 7-8, 11).
And Romans 1:18–20 clearly articulates the negative design of nature:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
From these two passages we hear from God how he prescriptively uses both nature and law to bless his children to condemn the wicked. The only remaining quadrant of our puzzle, that God uses the law to condemn, is the easiest to find, for in the very next chapter of Romans, Paul says that “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.”
Two objections could be raised to this logical syllogism: one is that blessing does not equate to keeping the law. The second is that the law has been fulfilled in the New Covenant so it no longer serves as a standard for living.
The first objection is dealt with by contemplating our saving union with Jesus Christ, agreeing that the Christian need not keep the law, but affirming that he will obey it willingly. Why isChrist seated at the right hand of the Father? Because, among other things, he kept the law. How are we saved? By union with Christ. How do we have confidence that we are in communion with Christ? In imitating Christ who kept the law (Matthew 4:19, 1 Corinthians 11:1).
The second objection is also answered by the above paragraph, but we can go further. In Jeremiah 31:33, God promises to “put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;” a promise universally agreed to be fulfilled with the coming of the Holy Spirit. But in those very words, the law is said to be written on the heart, not merely the Spirit. Quickened by the Spirit, the law is lived out, continually pushing the saving blood of Christ, containing within it the Breath of God, to the entire body—oxygenating the mind, filling the will, and strengthening the heart to begin again.
The last possible objection would be that the law is not the Ten Commandments, but some other set of principles by which man ought to follow God. To this, we are reminded that Deuteronomy 11–26, the moral and civil law, is an exposition of the Ten Words in order, and that the sins Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 and Colossians 3:8–9 are all contained clearly within that exposition of the Commandments. If there was another law for the Christian, it is nowhere stated. It is far better to consider that, just as nature is made new in Christ such that it groans all the more clearly for the return of Christ, so too is the law fulfilled in Christ, becoming all the more beautiful, clear, and light for the Christian (Romans 8:22). Neither source of revelation is destroyed, but both are perfected for his beloved through him who is all things and in all things. Amen.
For those in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation under the law. The curse is lifted, sin is defeated, and the heavy burden of our iniquities has been separated from us. Filled with the Spirit of Christ, we can now pray without reservation, “make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight” (Psalm 119:35).