The Preaching of Law, Gospel … 1st & 3rd Use Of The Law In Preaching

“How were the ten commandments given on Mt. Sinai? not by bare exactions of duty, but fronted with the Gospel, to be believed in the first place; ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ etc.’

Thomas Boston
The Crook In The Lot – p. 60

The Ten commandments, in their original context, were not given in terms of the 1st use of the law  but rather in terms of the third use of the law. For the Christian, preaching should be Gospel, Law (3rd use), Gospel. For the Christ hater preaching should be Law (1st use), Gospel.

The first use of the law (Law – Gospel preaching) has the purpose of illuminating the sinfulness of man’s sin. It is all demand and no relief. It is Pilgrim, in “Pilgrim’s Progress” being bludgeoned to the ground even after appeals for mercy. The first use of the law knows no mercy disconnected to Jesus Christ’s finished work. The first use of the law’s work is to turn a light on the sinfulness of sin in fallen man. The first use of the law finds the law as a rigid schoolmaster which has the purpose of driving the sinner to Christ for relief.

Augustine wrote on this matter;

“The law orders, that we, after attempting to do what is ordered, and so feeling our weakness under the law, may learn to implore the help of grace”  

For the Christian, however, he is reminded of God’s favor upon Him in providing escape from God’s wrath because of Jesus Christ, before He is reminded of God’s standard and then is reminded again, after the preaching of the third use of the law, of God’s graciousness towards Him for both the law that instructs in what is pleasing to God and beneficial to us and for God’s grace that reminds us that though we fall short in walking in full obedience to God’s law, God, for the sake of Christ’s Cross work, lovingly owns us as His people. Preaching ends with the Gospel because the Gospel tells the Christian that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

The third use of the law then is only for those who have closed with Christ and own him as their savior. If the first use of the law says, “There is none righteous, no not one,” the third use of the law says, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Both the first use and the third use of the law is God’s good to His elect. The first use of the law in driving us to Christ. The third use of the law in giving us the good life.

For the Christ hater, he is reminded of God’s wrath. He is explicitly told that God has no favor for him since he has walked contrary to God’s standard. He is told the only cure for God’s wrath upon him for his disregard of God’s righteous law is to repent, have faith, and flee to Christ who alone can provide shelter for Him in the face of God’s decided opposition (wrath) towards the sinner. Only when the sinner has been given God’s law and awakened by the terror of God’s wrath may the sinner be told of God’s mercy provided in Christ. Only after the sinner has been given God’s law can he be commanded to repent. The hot needle of God’s Law (1st use) must be the tool which pulls through the scarlet thread of redemption found only in Christ.

So … yes, preaching is Law – Gospel. But it is Gospel, Law, Gospel for the believer as we see in the quote above and Law – Gospel for the Christ hater.

Only by the preaching of the first use of the law will men outside of Christ see their danger. Only by the preaching of the third use of the law will Christians learn how to love their sovereign who said; “If you love me keep my commandments.”

Such preaching also has the advantage of steering the Christian away from both the Charybdis of antinomianism and the Scylla of legalism. Antinomianism is defeated because by preaching God’s third use of the law the Christian will not be able to say, along with the Dispensationalists an R2K chaps, “God’s law no longer applies.” Legalism is defeated because by a close preaching of God’s third use of the law the Christian will never think that somehow their behavior is currying and earning God’s favor. Christians will leave the preaching rejoicing in God’s freely given grace. 

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane