LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1977, Page 88

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88 ESSAY AND BIBLE STUDY

has been emphasized in our Lutheran heritage—the
distinction between the Law and the Gospel. We shall
pay particular attention to the implications which this
distinction has for the relationship between faith and
works, for proper concern for pure doctrine and against
false doctrine, and for the efforts to bring about peace
and concord in the church. May God grant us His Holy
Spirit so THAT also WE MAY GROW up unto salvation
through our study of His holy Word together during this
convention.

I
The Law

What is the law? Scripture tells us that “in the
beginning God created man in His own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female He
created them” (Gen. 1:27). God’s law was written in their
hearts, and Adam and Eve willingly did that which was
in perfect accordance with God’s law. Their fall into sin
(Gen. 3:9), however, obscured and dulled the knowledge
of God’s law and will for their lives, although it did not
completely obliterate it.

In the course of time God revealed His law in written
form on Mount Sinai when He presented the Ten
Commandments to Moses and the Children of Israel. In
so doing He made available to them His will in bold and
clear outline.

However, no supernatural revelation of the Law was
necessary to inform fallen mankind concerning the fact
of God’s law. Even after the fall, the whole human race
continues to have at least some knowledge of God’s law
in their hearts. As St. Paul writes to the Romans: “For
when the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, do
instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the
Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the
work of the Law written in their hearts, their con-
science bearing witness and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending them” (Rom. 2:14-15).

Because remnants of the Law originally written by
the Creator in the human heart remain, all man-made
religions—and this includes all religions except
Christianity—are religions of the Law. Except for the
Christian religion, all religions of this world from the
fall of Adam and Eve until this very day are based on the
works of the Law. All of them demand that certain
things be done, that rules be kept, and that costly
sacrifices be offered in order to appease God’s wrath,
earn His good favor, and merit forgiveness and salva-
tion.

The Law, ever since the creation of Adam and Eve,
also when it manifests itself in the pagan religions, is
characterized by the making of demands. It says: “Do
this and you will live” (Luke 10:28).

But with the fall into sin came a major change with
respect to the ability of the human race to keep God’s
law. Whereas before the fall Adam and Eve were able to
keep God’s law perfectly, after the fall they could not
deep from disobeying God’s law. This is the situation in
which also you and I and all of humanity now find
ourselves. This is why all human religions ultimately
end in disillusionment. The Law lays down re-
quirements, and it promises everlasting life and

salvation—but always and only on the condition that it
be kept perfectly. This, however, is just what fallen
humanity is unable to do. The clear Word of God
confirms what we already know and feel in our hearts.
We have not kept the Law—none of us! We are guilty—
all of us! Even the best of our deeds and thoughts are
spoiled by the failure to measure up to the Law’s
demands. “There is none that does good,” says the
psalmist, “no, not one” (Ps. 53:3). “There is no distinc-
tion,” says St. Paul, “forall have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22-23).

Not only are we all guilty—the failure to keep God’s
law necessitates and demands punishment. The Lord
our God, says Moses, “is a devouring fire” (Deut. 4:24).
[God is just!] “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by
all things written in the Book of the Law, to perform
them” (Gal. 3:10). Moreover, he writes to the Romans:
“The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). In view of this
fact, St. Paul’s words that “the Law brings about wrath”
(Rom. 4:15) should not be very surprising. Because the
promise of the Law can be gained by no one born
according to the course of nature, the Law arouses our
inherent hostility against God for demanding the
impossible of us. Threatened by the Law, the immediate
reaction of the accused sinner is to want to do away with
God, to throw Him off His throne in order to get rid of
Him and His impossible demands completely and
forever.

Ultimately, as the Law performs its function of
making unmistakably clear the actual state of affairs
between fallen mankind and God, it produces
hopelessness and utter despair. It reveals to us that we
are sinners from conception (Ps. 51:5), that we continue
to sin, that we cannot keep from sinning for as long as
we live in this world, and that sin must be punished
with death. The Law reveals how terribly bad off we
really are. It tells us that from our perspective our
situation is hopeless.

Luther has expressed so movingly the effect which
the Law produces in the heart of the smitten sinner in
the follow hymn stanzas:

Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o’er me,

Sin was my torment night and day,
In sin my mother bore me;

Yes, deep and deeper still I fell,

Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.

My own good works availed me naught,

No merit they attaining;

Free will against God’s judgment fought,
Dead to all good remaining.

My fears increased till sheer despair

Left naught but death to be my share;

The pangs of hell I sufferered. (TLH 387: 2, 3)

The Lutheran Confessions summarize what the Law
is and does in the following words:

We unanimously believe, teach, and confess... that, strictly
speaking, the law is a divine doctrine which reveals the
righteousness and immutable will of God, shows how man
ought to be disposed in his nature, thoughts, words, and
deeds in order to be pleasing and acceptable to God, and
threatens the trangressors of the law with God’s wrath and
temporal and eternal punishment. (FC SD V, 17)

This is the situation of every one of us under the Law.