What the Law Requires
Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 29-30.
Thesis 2: Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.
“We should perhaps note, however, that the issues reflected here are not just ancient history. The modern world too tends to reject the law of God as a word from without. The self is encouraged to turn inward to the “moral law within” and the self’s own inner resources for assurance and power. Whatever may be the usefulness of such encouragement in the human sphere, this thesis insists that it can hardly advance the cause of righteousness before God. If the most holy law of God, given from without to enlighten, inspire, and move, only makes humans worse, how can turning inward upon ourselves be of any help? The cross makes it clear that the law, whether from without or within, is a dead-end street when it comes to the question of righteousness before God. For the law demands love. It is quite right in so doing. It is “holy, just, and good.” But it is not able to produce or induce what it demands. Law is over when the gift of love comes. In Leif Grane’s fine phrase, “What the law requires is freedom from the law!” Or as Luther could say, putting words in God’s mouth, “I am obliged to forgive them their sins if I want the law fulfilled by them; indeed, I must also put away the law, for I see that they are unable not to sin, especially when they are fighting, that it, when they are laboring to fulfill the law in their own strength” [LW 33.218]. What God finally wants is for us to do what the law points to but can’t accomplish: the freedom, joy, and spontaneity of faith, hope, and love. But that is, of course, an entirely different story!”
