God in His mercy compelled a complete stranger to, with my feeble assistance, completely dig my car out from the additional foot or so of snow that was piled upon my home.  I was simply stunned, when in the midst of shoveling my way down my sidewalk toward the car, a voice called out asking if I needed any assistance.  Little did he know.  God knew.

~~~~
As I have written before, one of my favorite passages of the Old Testament is the counsel to have the word every present on our tongues, written upon our foreheads and at the entrances to our homes.  This was for the Jews.  Though no Christian I know takes this literally, I yearn for the Word to be ever before me.  Along the railing of my deck is many inches of snow, a white board if you will.  I wrote upon this white board Psalm references to remind me that which I tend to forget.  I am forgiven.  Each time I let Kashi out, each time I glance through the kitchen window, I see the words and remember the Word. 

~~~~
Walther's Tenth Evening lecture is on Thesis VI:  In the second place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when the Law is not preached in its full sternness and the Gospel not in its full sweetness, when, on the contrary, Gospel elements are mingled with the Law and Law elements with the Gospel.

It is a lecture chock full of practical, specific examples.  But, in sum, it teaches that the proper teaching of the Law will reveal the following:

This, that the Law cannot make any person righteous because it has not a word to say about justifying and saving faith.  That information is found only the the Gospel.  In other words, the Law has nothing to say about grace. (79)

Nothing to say about grace.  I find this ironic, given that much of legalism is taking the Law and applying it to your life to gain righteousness, to achieve holiness.  In fact, much of Christian publishing is essentially about how to's, steps to achieve, to gain, to enlarge faith, godliness, and holiness.

Likewise, every sweet ingredient injected into the Law is poison; it renders this heavenly medicine ineffective, neutralizes its operation. (80)

Therefore, when preaching the Law, you must ever bear in mind that the Law makes no concessions.  That is utterly beside the character of the Law; it only makes demands.  The Law says:  "You must do this; if you fail to do it, you have no record to the patience, lovingkindness, and long-suffering of God; you will have to go to perdition for your wrong-doing." (80)

If the Law does not save us, if Christ fulfilled the Law, then why teach it still?

Rom. 7,14 the same apostle writes:  We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.  When a minister preaches the Law, he must by all means bear in mind that the Law is spiritual; it woks on the spirit, not on some member of the body; it is direction to the spirit in man, to his will, heart, and affections.  That is the way it operates in every instance.  When the Law says:  "Thou shall not kill," that sounds as if applied only to the hand.  But it applies to the heart, as we can see from the Ninth and Tenth Commandment, which prohibit evil desires of the heart. (81)

This fits with what I have found in how Luther spins out his teaching on the Ten Commandments, beginning first with the letter of the law and then the spirit, showing us that the Law cannot be kept by us.  Yet I cannot say as if I have ever heard the Commandments taught that way, as being spiritual.  Yes, the heart was mentioned, but always the focus was on what to do, what not to do, obedience...keeping to the hand, not the heart...except perhaps with murder since Christ Himself spun out that commandment.  But the Law working on my heart, spiritually working?

I have read recently that the three-fold purpose of the Law is as a curb, a guide, and a mirror.  The author assumed what each of those meant was understood and thus never explained them.  I am surmising that the curb is to stop us from doing that which we should not do, that the guide is to show us that which we should do, and that the mirror is a reflection of our true selves, the dirty rotten snake-spit sinners we are before God (new adjective compliments of Mabel Mae).  In this, the mirror would 1) function to maintain that proper relationship between God and man, lest for even the merest moment we believe that we are godly enough to approach the throne on our own and 2) would reveal the depth of God's mercy and grace in the gift of His Son dying on the cross.  What did we do to ever deserve such?  Nothing...the mirror causes us to remember the curb and the guide, necessary because we cannot, will not, ever keep the commandments.  A ludicrous notion given our condition. 

To poor teaching of the Law, teaching that does not accuse, leave the listener in desperate anguish, bring certain death, Walther writes, The reason why so many imagine that they can pass for really good Christians is because their parents reared them to be self-righteous Pharisees; they never made them aware of the fact that they are poor, miserable sinners. (83)

My godmother's two oldest sons, though still wee ones in Kindergarten and first grade I believe, know they are sinners, know they will always be sinners.  They are already accused.  Yet they also have already feasted on the sweet Gospel of forgiveness.  No greater gift does a parent give than the proper distinction between Law and Gospel.

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!