The Language of Grace

Joshua Nickel

Copyright 2014 Joshua Nickel

All scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Contents

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Introduction

PART ONE: Law and Grace

1. Learning the Language of Grace

2. The Law Says, “If You…” Grace Says, “Because Jesus…”

3. How the Gospel Gets Translated into Law

4. Grace Will Test Your Faith in Good Works

5. Grace Is Hard Work Because Grace Works Hard

6. The Way of Cain

PART TWO: Luther’s Metaphors

7. Trembling at the Sound of a Leaf

8. The Law Brings Us out of Our Tents

9. Fall on the Earth Like Rain

10. The Law as an Empty Tomb

11. Moses on the Mountaintop Had No Law

12. On the Limits of Analogy

From the Author

Introduction

This is a collection of posts which originally appeared on my blog and are still available, along with other material and information, at TheLanguageOfGrace.net

The Language of Grace is about learning to hear the gospel of grace clearly and often so that it changes your life.

The same grace of God in Jesus Christ that gives you eternal life also makes your present life more abundant. The grace of God makes problems easier to solve, trials easier to bear, and people easier to love.

And while the riches of His grace are unsearchable and its depths unfathomable, there are simple things that you can do to make sure that you are experiencing grace in a practical and effective way.

You need to hear God speak His grace to you through the gospel every day. Proverbs 2:2 tells us to make our ears attentive to wisdom and incline our hearts to understanding.

You can train the ears of your heart to hear the language of grace, but to do so, you also need to hear the language of the law. You need to be bilingual, hearing both languages and keeping them distinct from one another in your heart.

I don’t want to reach the end of my life and discover that I could have lived in much more of the grace of God than I ever did. I am learning to hear the gospel well and I invite you to join me.

Visit my blog and sign up to receive new articles by email every Friday.

Blessings in Jesus Christ,

Joshua Nickel

Part One: Law and Grace

Learning the Language of Grace

Grace Not Only Saves Us, It Also Teaches Us How to Live

But, according to Paul’s summary in Titus 2:11-13 it teaches us something that the law also taught. So why do we need two teachers?

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:11-13)

The law of Moses also instructed the Israelites to live godly lives and to wait for their Messiah, just as Paul, in Titus, says that we are to do. The difference is that they waited for Christ's first coming and we for His second coming.

Of course grace does give us new information. But grace differs from the law not just in what it says, but in how effective it is at saying the same things. Yes, the law taught the people how to live, but it was like a substitute teacher that could do little more than keep the children under control until their regular teacher returned. The law taught the same subject, just not as well as grace teaches it.

I want to be taught by grace; not because it’s easier, but because it works better. It is the teaching that brings about real change. Actually, I want to learn from both grace and law, for God speaks to His children in both ways, using both teachers.

Law and Grace Are not Only Two Different Teachers, They Are Two Different Languages

And it seems that the language of law is easier to hear. In fact, sometimes when God speaks grace we hear law. It takes practice and effort not to turn God’s grace into another law.

One reason for this is that the language of law is what we are used to hearing and what makes more sense in this world. The language of grace, on the other hand, doesn’t describe this world, but creates a new world for us to live in.

Another reason that the language of law is easier to hear is that it gives us a measure of control, or at least the illusion of control. The language of grace shatters that illusion.

Another reason is that we actually fear the grace of God, sometimes even as much as we long for it. In this blog I will be examining exactly why this is so: why God’s children have a hard time hearing Him when He speaks grace to us, and why we fear His grace.

I will also be considering why and how grace works. It is a better teacher.

The language of grace is God’s creative voice at work in the world today. It overwhelms and lightens and energizes and flabbergasts all at the same time. It is the delight and privilege and birthright of every Christian.

I don’t want to reach the end of my life and realize that I could have lived in a lot more grace than I did. I want to learn to recognize the call of grace. Van Morrison once sang about a certain foghorn, “I need to hear it and I don’t have to fear it.” I have no idea what he was talking about, but that is exactly how I feel about the language of grace, and that is the reason for this blog.

The Law Says, “If You…” Grace Says, “Because Jesus…”

Grace is Unconditonal

God speaks to us in the language of grace and also in the language of law. These two languages run through all of Scripture and the Holy Spirit speaks them both today. We must hear them separately so that we can hear them both clearly.

One thing that distinguishes the language of law from the language of grace is that the former is conditional while the latter is unconditional.

There is a simple test to reveal whether a statement is a word of law or of grace. If it can be restated so that it begins with the word “if,” it is most likely the language of law, especially if the second word is “you.”

“If you do this, then that will happen.” This is the standard word of law, and we learn this language from a young age; we learn to hear it and to speak it. And it’s not a bad language, God speaks it too. It’s not bad, it’s just uncertain; it’s conditional. No matter how good the thing is that happens at the end of the sentence, if it depends on the big “if” at the beginning of the sentence, then it is law, not grace.

The language of grace is unconditional. It begins with the word “because,” and the second word is almost certainly either “God” or “Jesus.” “Because Jesus did that, therefore this will happen.” At this point it almost doesn’t matter what the thing is that happens. What matters is that it is Jesus doing it, not me. His is the light yoke of grace.

Grace in the Old Testament

Let’s look at an example. In Haggai 2:4 God exhorts the people to rebuild the temple: “Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, says the LORD, and work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts.”

Don’t be thrown off by the command to work. This is a statement of grace. It refers to a work that the people wanted to do, but did not know if they would succeed. God is guaranteeing their success with a promise of His presence. He goes on to say in the next verse, “According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!”

It is a word of grace because it can be restated as follows: “Because I (God) am with you, therefore work.” They can proceed to do what they want to do without fear because God has promised them His presence and involvement. This is what makes life easy and work enjoyable for Christians: knowing that God is actively participating with them in what they are doing. The language of grace imparts this confidence.

If Haggai 2:4 were a word of law, then it would have been said this way: “If you work, then I will be with you, says the LORD.”

Law in the New Testament

Haggai was an Old Testament prophet, but God could use him to speak the language of grace. The New Testament apostles could speak the language of grace, but they found it just as easy (or easier?) to speak law. The language being spoken does not depend on what part of the Bible the words are found in.

Here is Paul using the language of law in Romans 11:19-22: “You will then say, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” (emphasis added)

It is easy to see the language of law here. Verse 22 can be restated as follows: “If you continue in faith, then you will not be cut off.” Paul knew the power of those little words, “if you.” He knew how and when to use the language of law. He was warning against the danger of Gentile believers developing an arrogant attitude against Jewish unbelievers. He was right to be concerned about this, for church history shows that it is exactly what eventually happened.

In addressing such a danger Paul pulled no punches. He knew that the issue called for such a warning. But just a few chapters earlier, in Romans 8:31-39, Paul made one of his strongest assertions of the power of God’s grace to keep us from the kind of cutting off that he warns against in Romans 11:22.

What Paul said in Romans 8:31-39, in effect, is this: “Because Jesus died and rose and intercedes at the right hand of God, therefore nothing will separate you from God’s love.”

The Goodness and Severity of God

We learn something from these two passages in Romans: Distinguishing the language of grace from the language of law is just the beginning, knowing when each kind of language is in order is another matter.

We need to hear both grace and law; we need to consider both the goodness and the severity of God. Keeping them apart and keeping each in its proper place is the work of a lifetime, what Martin Luther considered the true job of a theologian. And every Christian should be this kind of theologian, for it is not merely an academic work. It is the deeply personal work of living with God as He truly is.

How the Gospel Gets Translated into Law

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 provides us with an example of how the law creeps into even the most grace-filled words because of the way we use language. When this happens, we hear grace as law.

Here is what the passage says: “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

This is the kind of life that Jesus died to bring about, as described by the last line of verse 15: that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Since Paul was describing the purpose for which Christ died for you, he used what is called the subjunctive mood, which is translated above as should live. He died for you that you should live for Him.

The translation I have quoted above is the New King James, and it is accurate. “Should” is the word that conveys the subjunctive mood that Paul was using. But it also suggests something that Paul never intended: uncertainty.

The Gospel Produces Faith, Not Doubt

The purpose of these verses is not to tell you what you should do, or how you should live, but to tell you how you in fact are going to live now that Christ has died for you and risen from the dead. Paul is speaking the language of grace, which is why his statement can be made to begin with the words, “Because Jesus…”

“Because Jesus died for you, therefore you live for him not for yourself.” This is a wonderful promise of grace. But that little word “should” causes all kinds of problems. It’s hard not to hear that word as a burden being put on you: “This is the kind of life you should live, not necessarily the kind of life that you will live.”

The English Standard Version avoids the word “should”: “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” But that is no better. Replacing the word “should” with the word “might” doesn’t remove any uncertainty or take any burden off of my shoulders. I don’t want to hear how I should live or how I might live, at least not in these verses. There are plenty of other words in the Bible that tell me that. These verses speak the language of grace.

Jesus Died to Change Who You Live For

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 is a promise. You live for Jesus now, not for yourself. It is not something that might or should happen. Jesus died to make it happen. It is His gift to you. I would translate 2 Corinthians 5:15 like this: “and He died for all, to bring about the result that those who live no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again.” It is a bit cumbersome, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure that I am hearing God speak to me in the language of grace here, and not reading the law into this precious promise.

Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 film, told the story of soldiers during World War 2 who had been tasked with finding a certain young man whose three brothers had already been killed in the war. Private Ryan is eventually found and brought home safely, but at great cost. The army captain played by Tom Hanks was one of those who were killed during the mission. His dying words to Private Ryan were, “Earn this.” Not surprisingly, Ryan was uncertain for the rest of his days whether or not he was living a life that was worth such sacrifice, as the last scene of the movie shows.

Thank God that Jesus, when giving His life, said, “It is finished,” not, “Earn this.”

Grace Will Test Your Faith in Good Works

If good deeds are worth doing even though they are hard, then they're worth doing even though you don't have to. What would you do for God if you were told that you don't have to do anything?

One of the reasons that people sometimes fear the grace of God is that they think that it will lead to moral laziness. If too much grace is preached, it is reasoned, people will not even try to be good. They may stay out of trouble well enough, but good works will not really be done.

This is a legitimate concern, for by good works I mean a great many important things: helping those in need, caring about people, contributing, sacrificing, praying, avoiding sin, maintaining clean and pure behavior, etc. If we can be saved by the grace of God apart from all of these things, why should we still do them? Why live any differently from the rest of the world?

When the grace of Jesus Christ truly reigns in one’s life, there is a simple reason why he or she will continue to do an abundance of good works: because they’re good works. Grace means that we don’t need any other reason. Good works, in all their different varieties, are worth doing for their own sake—for goodness’ sake.

Doing good for goodness’ sake is not a uniquely Christian position. It is a universal axiom. “Integrity means doing the right thing when no one is looking,” the saying goes. It is common sense that if works are intrinsically good, then you don’t need to worry about who will reward you; you don’t do good merely to earn favor with God or with man. But do people really believe this? It seems that if they did, then more good would get done.

The Rewards Are Great; The Free Stuff Is Better

Of course no one ever really knows if the doer of good has pure or selfish motives in any given case, not even the doers themselves. That is where Christianity adds something: the confidence that there is a perfect judge who sees all, knows all, and will reward all. This is good news for some, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”

God will commend you for all the good that you do. Christians don’t have to say, “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking,” because we know that Someone is always looking. And He will reward good works. But grace means that something much greater than any reward is given to you for free, apart from all of your good works. Grace means freely given salvation, peace with God, eternal life, and countless blessings.

All of this absolutely free stuff keeps the issue of rewards in its place so that we can do good simply because it’s worth doing. We can do good selflessly, without worrying about what’s in it for us. We can do this not because we don’t really know if there will be rewards. There will. We can do this because what we are given for free is so much greater than any reward that could come from doing good works.

Your self-worth is not derived from the good works that you do. Neither do good works give your life its meaning and purpose. All of that is safely guarded in the grace of God in Christ Jesus. How can knowing this not make you “zealous for good works”? (Titus 2:14)

Grace Is Hard Work Because Grace Works Hard

Are grace and works mutually exclusive? It depends of what you mean by works. The good news is that for grace to work in your life you don't have to be perfectly quiet and still, which is, after all, really hard work.

At times the apostle Paul could set grace and works in a strict antithesis. A clear example of this is Romans 11:5-6, where, referring to Israel, he said, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Here is a plain statement that grace and works are mutually exclusive. Paul is speaking of works versus grace as the basis for election. Election is either a matter of “if you…” or “because God…”

What Paul is not saying is that, since works implies activity, grace must be inactivity. Grace is not inactive. On the contrary, grace works hard, and that’s why it’s hard work.

In another context Paul speaks differently about grace and works. In 2 Corinthians 9:8 he says, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Here, grace and works are not set in antithesis, but rather, the abundance of grace results in an abundance of good works.

Is It Still Work if You Don't Have to Do It?

Of course work itself is not unpleasant, especially if one has a vested interest in what he or she is doing. Consider what some people do in their free time: gardening, skiing, restoring old automobiles. You’d have to pay me good money to do any of those things, but other people do it for pleasure. One man’s hard work is another man’s hobby.

A hobby can involve hard work, and so can grace. A hobby is what someone does in their free time, and a work of grace is what you are free to do; it’s what you do with your freedom.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Paul was busy keeping up with grace. The hard-working grace of God was so much a part of his life that he had to remind himself that it was grace doing the work, not him.

Let Your Work Be to Hear the Gospel

Paul used himself as an example in his letters because he knew that the grace of God would work just as hard in the life of any believer. But in order to keep up with the grace of God at work, we need to recognize it. We need to learn to hear the language of grace and distinguish it from the language of law. So, in order to be engaged in the hard but exhilarating work of keeping up with grace, we need to do the work of discerning it.

It is hard work to exercise your senses, by regular use, to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). It is hard work to constantly be transformed by the renewing of your mind so as not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2). It takes work to keep from trusting in your own efforts and abilities. It takes vigilance to remember that it is not a matter of, “if you do this hard work, grace will be with you,” but, “because grace is hard at work in you, you work hard.”

The Way of Cain

To be under grace is to be powerless before God. To be under the law is to be powerless before God as well. Since God is all-powerful, that means that there is no power left for you, so powerlessness is your only choice when you come before God. The question is, will you come before him in submission or in defiance? I believe this was the choice faced by Cain and Abel when they brought their offerings to God in Genesis 4. They each chose a different approach.

Abel’s gift of a lamb was in line with what God was trying to teach them about His grace and their sin. Their own efforts could do nothing to fix the problem of their sin, and Abel's gift reflected that. Cain’s offering, on the other hand, represented his own efforts.

According to Genesis 4:2, “Cain was a tiller of the ground.” And I am sure that he was a good tiller, and the produce that he offered was good. But God did not respect Cain’s offering, not because God doesn’t like agriculture, but almost certainly because the offering revealed Cain’s pride and self-sufficiency before God. He did not want to come before God powerless.

So, after Cain killed Abel, God took away Cain’s strength, his skill as a tiller of the ground: “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” (Genesis 4:11-12)

Cain wasn’t cursed from God, but “from the earth.” His loss should have driven him to God in helplessness and dependence. Instead, Cain reacted by saying, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” (Genesis 4:13-14)

God showed mercy on Cain, putting a mark of protection on him. Cain was, in his own words, driven from the face of the ground. But not from the face of God. On the contrary, his loss of agricultural prowess was intended to drive him to God. Instead, as Genesis 4:16 tell us, “Cain went out from the presence of the LORD…” He went out; he was not sent out, he was not driven out, he went. It was a self-imposed exile fueled by resentment.

God is all-powerful. We can come before Him in weakness or not at all. Cain chose to come in strength, and when that strength was taken away, he chose not to come at all.

Part Two: Luther’s Metaphors

Trembling at the Sound of a Leaf

Why Did the Lone Ranger Use Silver Bullets?

For the same reason that he rode a white horse: so that listeners to the radio program would have something to hold onto with their minds, something that would stick in their imagination and make it easier to listen to the story. A silver bullet was something clear and simple to picture and remember. Images such as this were called shiny things for the mind.

Martin Luther also used pictures in his talks with his students. We will be examining some of his illustrations from his lectures on Galatians, because they are designed to help us apply grace to our lives.

But before we look at Luther's metaphors, let’s begin with an image that Moses used that Luther found memorable and helpful. It is found in Leviticus 26:36: “As for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as thought fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.”

Through Moses, God describes the kind of faintness of heart that will afflict the Israelites if they turn away from Him. They will be so fearful and insecure that they will run away at the sound of a shaken leaf.

Martin Luther used this imagery to describe, in general, the way that the law of God can strike terror into hearts of sinners: "…to make guilty those who are smug and at peace, so that they may see that they are in danger of sin, wrath, and death, so that they may be terrified and despairing, blanching, and quaking at the rustling of a leaf."

We Fear What We Can't Control

The law is not just about performance, it’s also about control. It attracts us because of our desire to be in control. It terrifies us because we can't control everything—in fact, we can't control much.

It is natural to feel the anxiety of the law. But when you do, recognize that it is a manifestation of the flesh so that your actions and behavior are not determined by this anxiety.

The law works in your life as a flesh detector. Not only does it reveal pride, envy, lust, etc., it also reveals fear and anxiety and desire for control. Let the law do its work.

The apostle Paul described himself and his fellow workers as suffering from “fear within” (2 Corinthians 7:5). This is a natural human tendency. Not even Paul was immune to it. We fear things that we should not fear, worry about things that will probably never happen, and magnify small problems out of all proportion.

If we are only hearing the law, then these carnal tendencies will never end. But when we hear the language of grace as well, we can put things in context and be emboldened and encouraged by God.

The image of a driven leaf works well because it's memorable and also because it's funny. It is humorous to think of someone who is so nervous that he jumps at the sound of every dry leaf blowing in the wind. If you can recognize that same nervousness in yourself, then you can laugh at yourself. It is fun to catch yourself trembling at the sound of a driven leaf. But it's also beneficial, because once you can laugh at yourself, then you can laugh at the leaf.

The Law Brings Us out of Our Tents

What We Can Learn From the Israelites at Mt. Sinai

Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, utilized a passage from Exodus that describes the day God gave the law on Mount Sinai.

Exodus 19:16-17 says, “Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.”

No doubt the people were afraid and may well have preferred not to come close to the mountain when they saw the cloud and heard the trumpet blast. And this fear persisted despite the fact that the whole nation had been fasting for three days in preparation. But Moses did not allow them to stay at home; he brought them out of the camp to the foot of the mountain.

Martin Luther seized on this event as a great illustration of what the law does. He said to his students, “Moses brought the people out of the tents to meet the Lord…So the right place of the law is to lead us out of our tents—that is, out of the complacency in which we live—and stop us from trusting in ourselves and bring us into God’s presence, to reveal his wrath to us and to set our sins before us.”

The Israelites’ desire to hide in their tents works well as a metaphor. It's dramatic and it reminds us of the actions of Adam and Eve after they first sinned, making clothes out of fig leaves and then hiding from God when they heard Him. The fig leaf clothes represent an attempt to cover their sins with their own efforts.

Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground represented a similar attempt. Cain trusted in his own efforts whereas Abel trusted in the Lord.

Both Cain and Abel were Adam’s sons, and they both took after their father. Adam had both of these tendencies, as do all Christians. That is why, even when we are daily hearing the language of grace, we still need to daily hear the law as well, to bring us out of our tents.

The Gospel Gives Us a Better Tent

2 Corinthians 5 finds Paul boasting in the confidence that he and his coworkers have as ministers of a new covenant. In verses 1-4, which we will look at in a moment, he describes his longing for his glorified heavenly body. Verse 5 reveals how confident he is of what he is longing for: “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

In verses 6-8 Paul insists that he is so certain of what awaits him after death that he is ready to go right away: “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

Paul’s confidence, firmly rooted in the grace of God and nothing else, makes what he says next seem out of place: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your conscience.” (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)

Paul moves so quickly from talking about confidence in the grace of God to talking about fear of God because of the coming judgment. He can do this, not because he is wavering or inconsistent, but because he is fluent in both languages, law and grace. He listens to both daily, and he is able to apply them both while keeping them distinct from one another. He is what Luther would call a true theologian, for Luther said in his lectures on Galatians, “Anyone who can judge rightly between the law and the Gospel should thank God and know that he is a true theologian.”

Now let's look at 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. As Paul describes his longing and confidence, see how he puts a warning right in the middle of it; watch for it, it will be in italics: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality might be swallowed up by life.” (emphasis added)

Paul’s statement here, “if indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked,” is, I think, a humorous way of making a point. Jesus talked this way in Matthew 6:23, when He said, in effect, “If your light is darkness, how great is your darkness.” Likewise Paul is saying, “If you’re naked with your clothes on, how great is your nakedness.”

There is no tent of our own making that can clothe us before God. Either we are utterly naked or we are clothed in His grace by the blood of Jesus. Those who understand this will not shy away from the trumpet blast that is the voice of the law. They will make sure that they hear it clearly, because they know that it will bring them out of every tent that they have constructed for themselves.

Fall on the Earth Like Rain

Arriving Fresh on the Scene

We have been examining Martin Luther’s use of metaphors (and similes) in his lectures on Galatians. Our interest is in those figures of speech that illuminate his teaching on the distinction between law and gospel, and that instruct us on how to put that distinction into practice.

In one such figure of speech, Luther compares himself to rain: “When I have this righteousness reigning in my heart, I descend from heaven like the rain that makes the earth fertile. That is to say, I come out into another kingdom, and I do good works whenever I have a chance.”

This is good imagery because it is understood instantly, and also because it gives us something to think about. We know that when rain falls, it does not come in a single drop, but is in a continuous state of falling. And when rain isn’t falling, it is going through a cycle, getting ready to fall again in due season.

To put this picture into practice you have to see yourself as freshly arriving at a place where you have actually been all along—here on earth. You have to listen to the language of grace until it alone reigns in your heart, and then behave in this world as if you just arrived here from that glorious kingdom where there is no sin and death, and so no need for any law.

In fact, you only have to do the first part, let grace reign. The second part, your arrival on the scene, happens as a result of that reigning, like clouds so full of moisture that they have no choice but to drop it on the waiting earth.

Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind

To fall on the earth like rain is to enter a situation with a cleansed conscience. It doesn’t matter how long you have been in that situation. When your mind is renewed by grace, you are brought into the same old situation with a fresh, heavenly perspective.

So sometimes the answer to the problem you face comes to you from heaven, and sometimes you yourself are the answer. But most of the time, it's both of these. God sends the answer from heaven; and he sends it by renewing your mind, purifying your heart, and shoring up your confidence—all by speaking to you in the language of grace—and then sending you, fresh and new, to solve the problem.

And the problem you solve is whatever problem you are faced with. This is what Luther meant by saying above, “…and I do good works whenever I have a chance.” He goes on to describe these works being fulfilled by people simply doing their jobs, whatever they may be, and asserts that, “whoever is convinced that Christ is his righteousness works cheerfully and well in his vocation…”

Your vocation, your calling in life, comes from God. It comes through solving problems. Do you want to know your vocation? Solve problems. Solve the ones closest to you or most bothersome. Solve especially those problems that nobody else seems too concerned with. For the problems you see most clearly are often unnoticed by others, because solving them is your calling, not theirs.

And when you are stuck for a solution, it may be time to get a fresh set of eyes on the problem. So hear the language of grace, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, get yourself some fresh eyes, and fall on the earth like rain.

The Law as an Empty Tomb

New Creation State of Mind

In the age to come we will listen to the law and it will sound very different to us. It won't be the law of sin and death anymore, but it will still remind us of sin and death's defeat. In this age, we can have a foretaste of what that will be like.

The following passage from Martin Luther's lectures on Galatians vividly illustrates what it's like to tune out the language of the law and to hear only grace:

For example, Christ, having risen from death, is free from the grave, and yet the grave still remains. Peter is delivered from prison, the bedridden from the bed, the young man from the coffin, the girl from her couch, and yet the prison, the bed, the coffin, and the couch are still there. In exactly the same way, the law is abolished when I am not subject to it; the law is dead when I am dead to it. It is still there, but I am dead to it by another law, and thus it is dead to me.

As a Christian, you want to be able to enter into the state of mind in which you hear only grace and no law, and you want to be able to do this often and easily. Every image and idea, therefore, that can help you enter into this state of mind, is useful.

The law of God is eternal and will always be around. But you will not always hear it as an unfulfilled demand. It will not always cause you to question if you’re doing things the right way. In the age to come the law will remain as a completely fulfilled and satisfied witness to Jesus Christ, and we can have of foretaste of what that will be like.

Jesus visited with His disciples forty days after He was raised from the dead, before He ascended into heaven. At any time during those forty days He could have revisited the empty tomb. He didn’t have to worry that it might somehow suck Him back in. It had served its purpose and was harmless. It had been used by the Lord of life so it was of no use to death anymore. It served only as a reminder of death’s defeat.

Paul said that, “the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). But now the law has been fulfilled by Christ, and has already, in Christ, punished sin to death. It is of no use to death anymore. Sin and death cannot speak to you through the law as they once could. Where grace reigns the law is silent, not because it is powerless and overcome, but because it is satisfied.

Moses on the Mountaintop Had No Law

What do Moses and Superman Have in Common?

Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, gave this advice to his students about keeping the distinction between law and gospel: “Thus the gospel leads us above and beyond the light of reason, into the deep secrets of faith, where the law and reason have nothing to do. Still, we must also listen to the law, but in its proper place and time.”

To illustrate his point about the proper place and time for the law, he then added: “Moses, while he was on the mountain where he talked with God face to face, had no law, made no law, ministered no law. But when he came down from the mountain, he was a lawgiver and governed the people by the law. So the conscience must be free from the law, but the body must be obedient to the law.”

He also illustrated the same point with a picture from everyday life: “The bridegroom must be alone with the bride in his private room, and all the servants and family must leave them. But afterwards, when the door is open and he comes out, then the servant may return to serve them.”

Both of these illustrations use the imagery of location: the mountaintop, the bedroom. Superman had the Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole, to use a modern day example. He could go there to get away from the world for a while, and also to remind himself about his true home.

So Different, Yet So Close Together

In principle the line between law and grace is easy to draw. As concepts, they are not hard to distinguish, but it is hard to keep them apart in real life. Martin Luther warned his students about this later in the same lectures, saying, “Although these two things are different, they are combined in one heart. Nothing is more closely joined than fear and trust, the law and the Gospel, sin and grace; they are so united that one is swallowed up by the other.”

It is the human heart that makes it difficult to distinguish the language of grace from the language of law. It is nothing inherent in the languages themselves. That is why, if we want to regularly hear the language of grace, we have to hear it on purpose. If we want grace to have practical effects in our lives, we need to practice listening. That means to practice hearing the grace of God speak to you with no distractions, hearing grace and only grace, with no hint of shame, uncertainty, anxiety, unworthiness, or any of the things that come from hearing the law.

So the imagery of location really designates a state of mind. Being on the mountaintop, or in the Fortress of Solitude, means being in this state of mind of listening exclusively to the gospel. And since we can’t live in that place our entire lives, and are not meant to, we need to know how to go there quickly and often.

That may mean that you set time apart, or even actually go to a specific place, to hear the language of grace, to, as Luther said, “learn to be ignorant of the law, and to live before God as if there were no law.” Again, you can’t live like this always—and Luther wasn’t implying that you can—for you also need to hear the law. But you are not going to live like this by accident either, you have to do it on purpose. This blessed ignorance of the law is a learned ignorance.

On the Limits of Analogy

We have been studying Martin Luther’s use of imagery in his lectures on Galatians. Throughout the lectures, Luther’s concern for his students is clear. He wanted them to be able to receive God’s grace in its purity without turning it into another law.

He wanted them to be able to distinguish grace from law, not only when they analyzed a biblical text, but when they prayed, when they worked, when their minds wandered, and most especially, when they were distressed or discouraged.

Luther sometimes used the imagery of a certain place where only grace is heard. For example, although the law was given to Moses when he was on Mt. Sinai, he didn't need it there. On the mountaintop he was in fellowship with God. The law was for when he came back down the mountain.

Such illustrations can give the impression that the life of a Christian is spent sometimes under law and sometimes under grace, going up the mountain and coming back down repeatedly. You can’t be two places at once, so it stands to reason that law and grace will have to take turns with you until Jesus returns.

This is where the illustration breaks down. For although you can’t be two places at once, you can hear both grace and law make claims on you at the same time.

Luther more often spoke in terms of the conscience and the flesh. Throughout the lectures he exhorted his students to throw the law out of the conscience, vividly depicting Christ as moving in and replacing Moses.

There are a couple of problems with this analogy as well. One is the New Testament usage of the word conscience. The New Testament supports this picture in places but also teaches other things about the conscience.

Your conscience needs to hear the law. The conscience hears both the language of the law and the language of grace, and the conscience must distinguish them. Luther understood how hard this could be, for the conscience is not just the sanctuary in his imagery, it is also the battlefield.

The other problem is that it divides a person into parts in a way that grace does not. Any scheme that tries to align human anatomy with the law/grace distinction will eventually break down. The language of grace is not just for some invisible part of you. Both law and grace demand the whole person.

The terms Spirit and flesh are scriptural, so they work well, but not as describing different parts of a person, but different influences on a person. Influences at war with one another. Unrelenting war. And ultimately it is the fog of war that makes this matter so complicated.

From the Author

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May God bless you and magnify Christ in your life.