Overview of the Law
The Small Catechism begins with the Ten Commandments which for Luther is the perfect sum and substance of the Law of God. In considering the broader structure of Luther’s Catechism, it is significant that he chose to put the Law first, though not perhaps for the reason we might initially think. By placing the Law in the first place, Luther is not thereby indicating that the Law is the chief or primary thing for the Christian to be concerned with. Neither does Luther consider the Law something that is terribly unique to Christianity nor the thing that makes Christianity what it is. Rather, God’s word of Law appears first because the Law is the first Word that man encounters, what Werner Elert calls the “primal experience” of man.
Man’s first experience is the terrible reality of being under the Law. All men by nature know, according to St. Paul, that there is a God, that he has a Law, and that they have not lived up to it. The Law always accuses and condemns us. And this is not merely an end times reality, but rather all of one’s life is lived “forensically”, which is to say, in the “forum” of others or “before” others. No man is an island and as a consequence, we live in view of and in the judgment of others. We live our life before God (coram Deo), before our neighbor (coram hominibus), and before ourselves (coram meipso) and all three of these stand in judgment over us. God has the Law, our neighbors have the Law, and we have the Law in our conscience and therefore we find ourselves always judging and being judged; always accusing or excusing.
We could also say then, that the primal experience of humanity is seeking justification—being justified in what we are, what we think, what we say, and what we do. We are all searching to be good, right, and beautiful. And this plays itself out in all manner of smaller ways according to our different stations in life. Whether in education, career, parenting, technology, fashion, food, politics, or romance, all of us are looking for muchness and take our muchness from how well or poorly we perform in these various areas of life and all of these areas of life operate according to their own Law. This is the Law experienced generally.
When we consider the Law strictly, especially God‘s Law as clearly laid down in the Ten Commandments, we can say that the Law functions principally in two ways and in two realms. The first use of the Law is the “civil use” to curb gross outbursts of sin and this it does through threats, coercion, and death. This office of the Law is carried out in the civil realm by civil government and those who hold positions of authority. St. Paul names this the “power of the sword” in Romans and confesses that all who bear the sword do so as God’s representatives for “the maintenance of righteousness and the hindrance and punishment of wickedness,” as we pray in the General Prayer. In this way the Law operates externally over the body by ordering external behavior and actions. Good behavior is rewarded with worldly, bodily benefits and bad behavior is punished with worldly, bodily penalties.
The second function and realm of the Law is “theological use” to expose, accuse, and condemn sin and this it does in the conscience through ecclesiastical authorities. The pastor theologically applies the Law of God to expose and condemn sinful thoughts, words, and deeds (called “actual sins”) and especially the sinful will, mind, and nature of man (called “original or inherited sin”). Thus, the author of Hebrews calls the Law of God a sharp “two-edged sword” that pierces the soul and reveals the thoughts and intentions of man’s heart. Upon revealing sin, the Law’s function is to afflict the conscience, accuse the sinner of guilt, and condemn him to eternal death in hell. For this reason, Paul will often refer to the Law as the “letter that kills” and the “ministry of death”. Luther will likewise say of the Law that it is the most healthful doctrine of life, yet it does not advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather “stands against him.”
This perhaps begs the question, what is sin? Biblically speaking, sin is first and foremost a condition or state of being. It is being turned away from God and to not look to him for security, meaning, and righteousness. It is to be in a broken relationship with God, to not fear, love, or trust in God above all things. From this broken relationship, from this sinful state of being follows all manner of sinful actions that go against or break the Ten Commandments. In the Bible sin is often called “disobedience”, “fault”, “iniquity”, “lawlessness”, “rebellion”, “transgression”, “trespass”, “unbelief”, “wickedness”, and “wrongdoing”. One of the more helpful images that the Evangelist Matthew gives is the image of a tree bearing fruit. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. With Adam’s fall into sin, rebelling against God, and taking the forbidden fruit, all humanity has inherited a rotten or evil root to our family tree and thus we are all born sinful, as bad trees which bear bad fruit.
First Commandment
What is the first commandment?
You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean?
We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
In Luther’s catechism the first commandment has a definite pride of place and this is testified to by the fact that the chief part on the commandments begins and ends with the text from Exodus of the first commandment (“I the LORD your God am a jealous God…”), and all of the explanations to each commandment begin with the explanation of the first commandment (“We should fear and love God so that…”). Theologically, the first commandment is the chief commandment because if you keep the first commandment, you keep all the commandments, but contrariwise, if you break the first commandment, you also break all the rest of the commandments.
This is the case because what the first commandment commands is faith. To have faith is to have God as your God. But all of this perhaps begs the question, “what is a god?” Luther famously answers this in his Large Catechism by saying, “A ‘god’ is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart” (LC I.1). This is a remarkable definition of god because it leaves room for anything or anyone to be a person’s god. One’s god is simply that thing or person to which one flees in a time of need. Parallel to this, Luther will also say that it is suffering and the attack of the devil that truly make a theologian, because there in the crucible is where one flees to God and is forced to rely on him.
But in the midst of suffering, it is often not God to whom people flee. It is often not God from whom people expect refuge and help. In fact, more often than not, instead of looking to God in every time of need, people will look to their own achievements and advancements in technology or medicine. They’ll look to their own personal religious devotion or their wealth and possessions. They’ll look to the pleasures of life like food, drink, sex, sports, or entertainment. They’ll look to family or friends. All of these things and people can become gods if they are the thing from which people expect safety, protection, meaning, and every good thing. If these are feared, loved, or trusted above God then God is no longer God.
With this definition of a god and seeing what can become gods in God’s place, we begin to recognize with John Calvin that the heart of man is a factory of idols. Even if we haven’t set up an image of wood or stone in our living room, we very well might have all manner of gods living in our heart. But this command bids that we fear God’s threats and wrath, that we love him and all his benefits, and that we trust in his gracious promise of forgiveness. And this we must do “above all other things.” This is the first command.
With each commandment, however, hidden under the commandment is also a gift. The gift hidden under the first commandment is that you have a God. God has decided to be your God and he has made himself yours. He has chosen you and has chosen to be your creator and redeemer. You do not have to be your own god or rely on false gods that cannot help you in times of need. God is your God and he has promised that he is “our refuge and strength; a very present help in times of need.”
Prayer: Lord God, author and source of all that is good, give us wisdom to fear your wrath, strength to love you above all things, and faith to trust in your promises alone, that by your grace we may serve you all our days and finally come to inherit your heavenly kingdom; through Jesu Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
-Rev. Philip D. Bartelt
