God’s Law
Via Hans Iwand, Righteousness of God According to Luther
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, "Moses Smashing the Tablets of the Law" (1659)
Why is God’s giving of the law necessary? Is God really revealed in the law as much as He revealed in the gospel. Or, is what we call God’s law something different from what we call political, social or natural order in the sense that every people and every state has its own order? Is there, apart from earthly law, a God-given law; one that is ordained by God and given from heaven? Luther says “yes,” and that is how he answers the Antinomians who want to reduce God’s law to the rank of political order. It is indeed a “law sent from heaven, which means that it is not a human or earthly law, like the Kaiser’s command, that can only kill the body but cannot throw both body and soul into hell, like the law of the Heavenly Master.” Luther takes up Paul’s argument that the law is holy, godly, and good and Luther also uses the word “spiritual” to describe its nature. The law originates from God’s Spirit, so we must also have God’s Spirit to do justice to it. If the law meets us like a “dead letter,” then it is essentially not the law’s fault, but the fault of man and his sinful nature. Therefore the law is not cancelled or abolished by faith, but on the contrary; in faith it receives its correct value for the first time. Only faith fulfills the law because it gives us a new heart and a new spirit in order to understand the law, providing the will to love God and worship Him.
