"You see Law where none was intended, Myrtle."

"That's not Gospel, that's Law!"

"The Way of the World does not get to have the last word.

While the Law and the way of the world are not the same thing, in my mind the two are connected.  

I know that first assessment is true.  If you grow up spiritually in a works-based church, you cannot help but have Law bred to your bones, infused in your every waking moment.  For you cannot have faith without doing good works.  You cannot do good works without knowing the Law.  

So, first, read about the Law below and then I shall share the lesson I was given:

VI. The Third Function of the Law
The Chief Question at Issue in This Controversy

1 The law has been given to men for three reasons: (1) to maintain external discipline against unruly and disobedient men, (2) to lead men to a knowledge of their sin, (3) after they are reborn, and although the flesh still inheres in them, to give them on that account a definite rule according to which they should pattern and regulate their entire life. It is concerning the third function of the law that a controversy has arisen among a few theologians. The question therefore is whether or not the law is to be urged upon reborn Christians. One party said Yes, the other says No. Affirmative Theses

The Correct Christian Teaching in this Controversy

2 1. We believe, teach, and confess that although people who genuinely believe and whom God has truly converted are freed through Christ from the curse and coercion of the law, they are not on that account without the law; on the contrary, they have been redeemed by the Son of God precisely that they should exercise themselves day and night in the law (Ps. 119:1). In the same way our first parents even before the Fall did not live without the law, for the law of God was written into their hearts when they were created in the image of God.1

3 2. We believe, teach, and confess that the preaching of the law is to be diligently applied not only to unbelievers and the impenitent but also to people who are genuinely believing, truly converted, regenerated, and justified through faith.

4 3. For although they are indeed reborn and have been renewed in the spirit of their mind, such regeneration and renewal is incomplete in this world. In fact, it has only begun, and in the spirit of their mind the believers are in a constant war against their flesh (that is, their corrupt nature and kind), which clings to them until death.2 On account of this Old Adam, who inheres in people’s intellect, (tr-807) will, and all their powers, it is necessary for the law of God constantly to light their way lest in their merely human devotion they undertake self-decreed and self-chosen acts of serving God. This is further necessary lest the Old Adam go his own self-willed way.3 He must be coerced against his own will not only by the admonitions and threats of the law, but also by its punishments and plagues, to follow the Spirit and surrender himself a captive. 1 Cor. 9:27; Rom. 6:12; Gal. 6:14; Ps. 119:1; Heb. 13:21.

5 4. Concerning the distinction between works of the law and fruits of the Spirit we believe, teach, and confess that works done according to the law are, and are called, works of the law as long as they are extorted from people only under the coercion of punishments and the threat of God’s wrath.

6 5. Fruits of the Spirit, however, are those works which the Spirit of God, who dwells in the believers, works through the regenerated, and which the regenerated perform in so far as they are reborn and do them as spontaneously as if they knew of no command, threat, or reward. In this sense the children of God live in the law and walk according to the law of God. In his epistles St. Paul calls it the law of Christ and the law of the mind. Thus God’s children are “not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 7:23; 8:1, 14).

7 6. Therefore both for the penitent and impenitent, for regenerated and unregenerated people the law is and remains one and the same law, namely, the unchangeable will of God. The difference, as far as obedience is concerned, rests exclusively with man, for the unregenerated man — just like the regenerated according to the flesh — does what is demanded of him by the law under coercion and unwillingly. But the believer without any coercion and with a willing spirit, in so far as he is reborn, does what no threat of the law could ever have wrung from him.

Antithesis

8 1. Accordingly we condemn as dangerous and subversive of Christian discipline and true piety the erroneous teaching that the law is not to be urged, in the manner and measure above described, upon Christians and genuine believers, but only upon unbelievers, non-Christians, and the impenitent.

1 Gen. 2:16; 3:3.
2 Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:21, 23.
3 Rom. 12:7, 8.

Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration (Tappert)


Now for my lesson on the Law:

The Law is "good." It's not just good because it shows us our sin. It does that, and that is God's ultimate use of the in terms of redemption. But the Law is first good because it is good. It is good not to kill people. It is good not to steal. It is good to love. It is good to protect our neighbor's possessions, etc. The proper distinction of Law and Gospel is about many things, but part of it is being able to look at the Law and see how good it is to do—not for salvation, not because I must, but because the result is goodness for someone else. This is Luther's great insight: "God doesn't need your good works. But your neighbor does."

Or think of it this way, the Ten Commandments are promises of what life will be like with Jesus' once we're freed from these body's of death. In paradise, forever, you will have no other gods. You will keep pure worship, always. You will live in perfect harmony under a King. You will never hurt nor harm. You will never lust or envy or lie or despise. This is the law kept. But it will not be to earn rewards or so that we can look at ourselves and say, "Ha, aren't we good." It will be God's gift of peace and bliss and innocence forever—and it will forever be in and from Jesus. The Lamb at the center will be our light.

This view of that is received through faith alone now. Christ is the end of it. He fulfills it, and in him, as Peter says, we do have an example of what humanity not merely was supposed to be, but what we are in Him. Thus, having in him died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

Well...we have to, but we don't have to like it. That is learning to love the Law. Not because I have to keep it, but because it is the definition of love.

Granted: this makes it sound all nice and easy. It's not. Romans 7. The thing I want to do (the goodness of the law) I do not do, etc. The Law still must and will point us back to our need for Christ. But that's exactly why we must also hear it and be reminded of it, not merely, "You're a sinner," but "Do this. It is good to do this."

What's important will be important for you to wrestle with as you continue your growth in the Book of Concord is to be able to rediscover a love for the goodness of the Law and the left hand kingdom —this is the freedom of the Christian—not to be a slave to the law, kept under it as a guardian, but to be freed to pursue it with a clean conscience in the blood of Christ.

It is no secret that I was near miserable during Lent, hearing Law at every corner save for two beautiful sermons that I could "hear" properly from Pastor E.  I know the Law.  Delving into the Large Catechism, I was confronted with just how much greater a sinner am I than I ever thought...even when I was secretly carrying that burden as a Protestant.  I knew that no matter how much works I did, I still struggled with my sin.  I could not enlarge my faith enough to stop struggling.  Hence I was the failure; hence, my despair.

The best thing about Confessional Lutheranism, aside from the doctrine itself, most particularly Objective Grace, is that I am justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, for His sake alone, is the ineffable gift of the Book of Concord.  To have all that teaching at my fingertips, free access to the proper distinction between Law and Gospel, is to have life...and freedom.  But the very worst thing about Confessional Lutheranism, for me, was that confrontation with the Law.  Knowing my sin more deeply does overwhelm me.  I am overwhelmed by the depths of my wretchedness.  And I am overwhelmed, sometimes to the point of no speech, how much greater the gift of the cross was/is for me.

I would have said, before Pastor F wrote me, that I could have lived the rest of my life without hearing another mote of Law.  He is the one who told me that I struggled with Lent because I impose it upon myself 24/7 and thus do not really need it as others do.  He is right in that, too, just as Pastor E was in telling me that I see Law where none was intended.  I crave instruction so deeply because I know that too much of what I have learned as Law is really Gospel.  And I need that Gospel.

But in the most magnificent way, Pastor F pointed out, taught me, that I should learn to love the Law not merely for how it points me to Christ, but for its goodness.

I believe I shall be chewing on that for a long time to come.

What is the connection then to the Way of the World?  Neither get to have the last word with us.

The way of the world doesn't get to have the last word.  Shut your ears to what it says, and hear the Word of Christ, which stands fast against even the gates of hell, and which alone remains while the heavens and earth pass away.

When I still couldn't speak, but wrote anyway, he replied once more, changing the title of the email to reinforce the Word he was giving me.

The way of the world is still real in your experience of it; and it is still real, underneath the curse of sin and death, as God's own good creation.  But the way of the world is not the last word; nor does the way of the world determine what is finally true for you and for all those who are in Christ Jesus.  The world has hated Him, and so it hates all those who belong to Him.  They have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, so how shall they not call those who live under Him in His house demonic. But it is not so.  You are a beloved and well-pleasing child of your dear God and Father in heaven.  He loves you more than the world is ever able to hate or hurt you.  And He who is in you, in the midst of frailty and weakness, is greater than he who is in the world.  He has risen from the dead, and you also rise in and with Him.

Did you catch the connection?

The Way of the World does not get to have the last word with me.  How this is connected to the Law is that the Law doesn't get to have the last word either.  All too often, I allow the Law to be the final word with me.  And it is not.  This is what I need to be taught: how to see Gospel instead of reading Law; how to love the Law for its goodness; how to allow Jesus to be my final Word.

One of my all time favorite Michael Card songs (The Final Word) is on this very point.  Is that not strange I dearly loved a song, yet did not understand what it truly meant?

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father's wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the incarnation, and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Father's fondest thought took on flesh and bone.
He spoke the living luminous word, at once His will was done.
And so the transformation that in man had been unheard,
Took place in God the Father as he spoke that final Word.

He spoke the incarnation, and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.
 
And so the Light became alive and manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time so we could understand.

He spoke the incarnation, and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.
 

Lord I believe.  Help my unbelief!