When the Reformed and Lutheran scholastics talked about God’s moral law (lex moralis), they taught that there are three basic uses of the law (usus legis). They are:
1) The civil use (usus politicus sive civilis). That is, the law serves the commonwealth or body politic as a force to restrain sin. This falls under the general revelation (revelatio generalis) discussion in most of the scholastics as well as natural law (cf. Rom 1-2).
2) The pedagogical use (usus elenchticus sive paedagogicus). That is, the law also shows people their sin and points them to mercy and grace outside of themselves. In Muller’s summary, this is “the use of the law for the confrontation and refutation of sin and for the purpose of pointing the way to Christ” (p. 320). This can be found in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 2-4.
3) The normative use (usus didacticus sive normativus). That is, this use of the law is for those who trust in Christ and have been saved through faith apart from works. It “acts as a norm of conduct, freely accepted by those in whom the grace of God works the good” (p. 321). This can be found in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 32-52.
Note: “In this model, Christ appears as the finis legis, or end of the law, both in the sense that the usus paedagogicus leads to Christ as to a goal and in the sense that the usus normativus has become a possibility for man only because Christ has fulfilled the law in himself” (Ibid.). In other words, in both the pedagogical use and the normative use Christ is central as the one who has saved his people from the law’s demands and the one who has merited the gift of Spirit-wrought obedience.
And now in plain speak. We have discussed in the past that there is a clear and distinct difference between Law and Gospel. This is one of the two main category distinctions that we get from Martin Luther. The other main category distinction is between the two kingdoms, which we will discuss in the next post. The Law consists of commands. It is always tied to a blessing and curse principle. Do this and you shall live; do it not, and you shall perish. One of the most important things to develop at the outset is the context of that last sentence. When discussing do this and you shall live, we are not talking about the here and now. This is a statement concerning Judgment Day. We are in the realm of eschatology again, and we are talking about eternal life. So, in terms of the Law, Do this and you shall live means do this and you shall have eternal life. Obviously, the second part of the clause is the curse that damns the person to eternally suffering the Wrath of God, i.e. hell.
The key feature of the Gospel is that it is in the indicative mood. We can call this the present perfect tense as well, because it is completed action in terms of the present. The Gospel events have finished. It is a declaration of the condition of things based upon events that are finished. This is NOT present progressive tense. This is NOT ongoing action. This is completed action. The Gospel is News. It is not dependent upon how we react to it. The World Trade Center towers have fallen. They fell regardless of how we feel about it, or how we reacted to it. That event is outside of us. That event occurred independent of our interaction with it. That was news. The Gospel is news. The Gospel is in the indicative mood. The Gospel is in the present perfect tense. The Gospel is NOT about how we feel. The Gospel is about what Jesus has done for us.
The Law, then, is imperative. The Law is a command. The Law tells us what to do. Let’s break down Luther’s three uses of the Law and see what they mean.
The first use of the law is the civil use. This means that the law restricts how we behave towards one another. All people are aware of this use of the law. We receive this form of the law by general revelation or natural revelation. Natural revelation is the law as we have imprinted upon our hearts. We, in creation, are hard wired for natural revelation. Adam and Eve did not yet have the stone tablets of Moses, and yet they were aware of the Law. The Law was obvious to them by observing creation. Natural revelation is available and known to all people, even atheists. Natural revelation gave Adam and Eve the Law under which humanity fell.
Specific revelation is more specific than natural revelation in that it uses words. Specific revelation is the Law as written in the Torah. Specific revelation was given to Moses. Whether we are Christian, Jew or neither, some form of natural or general revelation is known to us. Under these terms, we know the difference between right and wrong. We know generally how to behave towards one another. This is the Civil use of the Law. When governments make civil laws, they are using general and natural revelation, which are right kingdom items, to mandate behavior in the left kingdom, the kingdom of man, the kingdom of the here and now. The Civil use of the Law is a government of man using the Law of God to restrict behavior and enforce some ethical code.
The second use of the law is the pedagogical use of the law. This is a vastly important point that must be clearly understood in order to understand the Gospel. The second purpose of the Law is to show people that we are sinful. I didn’t know what it meant to covet; I had to look that up. Now, I know what it means to covet, and I realize that I do, indeed, covet. The Law has made me aware of my sin. This goes much deeper than mere definition, however. The Law carries reward and punishment. The wage of sin is death. The Law teaches us that we have all earned death. The Law finally teaches us that we are all fallen creatures in Adam. The purpose of the Law is to condemn man. The second purpose of the Law is to bring man to his knees in the realization that we cannot possibly uphold the Law. The second purpose of the Law is to turn us away from ourselves, outside of ourselves, to the Gospel. The second purpose of the Law is to turn us towards the redemption and salvation offered to believers through Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension. The second purpose of the Law is to show us that we cannot do it, and turn us toward the One who, not only could do it, but did do it, and He did it for His people.
The third use of the law is normative use of the law. This use is for believing Christians. It has no applicability to non-Christians. Once we understand that we are completely incapable of fulfilling the law, that we are therefore left in a wholly desperate predicament, that we have therefore turned outward towards Christ and His alien righteousness through the Blood of the New Covenant, then the Law serves a very different purpose. Jesus has fulfilled the Law in terms of the Blessings and the Curses of the Old Testament Covenants of Law. We are reborn through Christ’s blood in the Sacrament of Baptism into the New Covenant as believers. We have been given the gift of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are no longer under the Law. That is Christian Liberty. Now, we have a new master that is not the Law. Our master is Christ Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our King. We have an obligation of obedience to Him. We are expected to follow the moral law, the Decalogue, not under the blessing and curse principle, but out of our obedience and gratitude for the intervention of Grace on our behalf. We freely accept this obligation as our duty to Christ as one of His people, chosen before time to receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of faith.
In summary, the three uses of the law are the civil, the pedagogical and the normative uses. The civil use of the law is the use of general and natural revelation by civil authorities to mandate behavior that avoids sin. The pedagogical use of the law is to cause believers to realize that they are sinners incapable of the standard of perfection required for salvation, and to therefore turn them away from themselves towards Christ. The normative use of the law is for believers who understand and believe that their righteousness before God is independent of their works, based completely upon the imputed righteousness of Christ for us, and is therefore a freely accepted normal standard for behavior. I hope that you found this helpful.
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