There are three good and legitimate uses of the Lord’s law, the curb, mirror and guide. As a curb the Lord’s law orders the things of creation and keeps society from chaos. As a mirror the law shows us our sin and our need for Jesus and His mercy and salvation. As a guide the law gives shape to our Christian love for our neighbor. These uses or functions of the law are good and right, they are the reasons that the Lord gave His law to humanity.
But more often than not the law of God is misused. Instead of the Lord using the law on us, we take up the law and use it ourselves, on God or on our neighbor. We could call this the “illegal use of the law”. Here are five examples to consider.
The Cosmetic Use of the Law.
The Cosmetic Use (or the Mary-Kay Use). This is where the law is used to make us look good, all my blemishes are covered up. I dress myself up in outward righteousness so that my neighbor (or worse, God) would say, “My, look at how holy that fellow is!” Jesus calls this the “White-Washed Tomb Use”.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28)
Instead of covering up our sinfulness, the Lord desires that we would confess our sins and hear His promise of forgiveness.
The Pedestal Use of the Law.
Perhaps the worse misuse of the law, this is where I place myself on a pedestal of good works in order to gain God’s approval. This illegal use of the law has people saying, “I know I’ll go to heaven. I’m a good person.” But this works-righteousness is called out in the Scriptures:
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)
Rather than lift us us, the law casts us down so that the Gospel can lift us up and give us life.
The Parking Validation Use.
How do I know that I’m saved, that I’m a Christian, that the Lord’s loves me? Instead of looking to the Gospel and the means of grace, the Parking Validation Use of the Law looks to my works and obedience to find the answers to these questions. This illegal use of the law looks for comfort and consolation in good works. It is true that our works of love flow from faith, we do not look to the fruit of faith for comfort. To find comfort we look to the source of faith. St Paul excludes this illegal use of the law when he says things like this:
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh– though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: … as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Philippians 3:3-7)
We, with Paul, put no confidence in the flesh and avoid the Parking Validation Use of the Law. Our confidence is in Christ Jesus and His promise of forgiveness.
The Measuring Stick Use of the Law.
The law always counts and measures. We misuse the law when we use it like a measuring stick to see how much better I am than you. This illegal us of the law is always comparing, putting things in the balance, judging if things are fair, and it is always fixing the scales so that I come out on top. It keeps track of every sin committed against us. This misuse of the law fails to see the planks in our own eye, but sees very clearly the specks in our neighbor’s eye. If your goal is to be better than your neighbor, the measuring stick will see to it. Jesus is speaking against this misuse of the Law when He says:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)
We apply the law first to ourselves, and we do not measure up. No matter how deep our sin, the Lord’s love is deeper still.
The Telescopic Use of the Law.
A telescope will help you see clearly things that are very far away. When we use the law like a
telescope we are examining the sins of others very closely while keeping a safe distance. While this use is similar to the measuring stick use, it is not comparing ourselves with sinners, but avoiding them. This misuse is often found in the pulpit where the law is preached about those “other people out there,” about the worldlings who are dead in sin. The Telescopic Use forgets the we, too, are sinners, that Jesus came to the earth for all of us sinners. The Telescopic Use gives the illusion that there is holiness in distance, in separation, but the Scriptures teach holiness is found in Christ. The Pharisees pull out their telescopes on Jesus, but Jesus destroys them with His parable of repentance.
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:2-7)
We are not given to find delight in other people’s sin, but rather in the mercy and Love of Jesus.
All of us are experts at misusing the law. This is bad. Each and every misuse of the law steals honor from Christ and comfort from us. But praise be to God, the Holy Spirit wields the law perfectly to us. He convicts us of our sin, even our sin of misusing the law, and then He brings to us the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from every sin.
May the Holy Spirit continue to wield with us His precious law and Gospel, that we would know His joy and peace. Amen.
Lord’s Blessings,
Pastor Wolfmueller
Pastor Wolfmueller, this is a nice piece! One thing you wrote up at the top, even though you weren’t into the meat of it yet, was also really well said: “As a guide the law gives shape to our Christian love for our neighbor.” I like how you put that. Think of how much abuse of the law gets conducted under the guise of “Third Use,” where this use is misapplied. It’s supposed to give shape to our/my Christian love for my neighbor, not be a prescription I launch at other Christians about how I think they ought to behave!
These days I’m wondering whether we shouldn’t insist that Third Use is entirely a use I make of the law for my own spiritual growth, the outworking of my own faith in Christ. As soon as I try to impress on other Christians how I think Third Use should apply to them, I’m wondering if it ceases to be Third Use anymore, and starts inclining toward one of the illegal uses you’ve pointed out.