Intro to Three Uses of the Law | Theocast

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Hi, this is John, and today on Theocast, Justin and I are continuing our conversation on understanding the law from a biblical perspective.

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Last week we did the law and the gospel distinction, and today we're talking about the three uses of the law.

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And this is important to understand because we often collapse the first and third use, meaning that we treat the believer as if they're an unbeliever and we call their salvation into question.

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So it is really important that we understand biblically the three different ways the Bible uses the law and that we use them rightly.

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We hope this is encouraging for you. Stay tuned. If you'd like to help support Theocast, you can do that by leaving us a review on iTunes and subscribing on your favorite podcast app.

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You can also follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Plus, we have a Facebook group if you'd like to join the conversation there.

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Thanks for listening. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ, conversations about the

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Christian life from a Reformed, confessional, and pastoral perspective. Today your hosts are

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Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, and I'm John Moffitt, pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

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This is part two of a series that we're doing on the law, and if you've not heard part one, you can go back and hear that's law and gospel.

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Today we're going to be talking about the three uses of the law. This is a little bit different for Justin and I.

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We normally do one episode per week. We do one regular and one SR, but today we're going to double up and do two just to try and get caught up and ready for the summer.

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In that case, Justin, go ahead and just jump right into it, my friend. John, we're on the efficiency train today.

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We are absolutely slinging it in terms of podcast content, trying to create it. Hopefully it's encouraging for people.

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All right, yes, so the three uses of the law, just to tee up this conversation for us, and then we're off and running.

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You maybe have never heard of these categories. If you haven't, this podcast is for you. If you have heard of the uses of the law, we hope you're encouraged.

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So there is, just go ahead and caveat this and just sort of footnote here before we begin. Depending on which tradition in the

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Lutheran or Reformed streams that you are a part of, there might be a difference in number one and number two in terms of the first and second use of the law.

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Pretty much everybody agrees on the third use piece. So just, I'm acknowledging that reality out of the gate before I lay out use one, two, and three as we understand it.

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I would say just give a brief explanation of why this distinction is so important before you give them.

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In terms of the uses of the laws, of the law themselves. Right. I think it would be helpful just so before you start that, because it's a little bit of technical, but I think people need to understand that this is extremely important.

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So the question effectively that we're answering today in considering the uses of the law is why did

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God give the law? And that's a million dollar question, you know, and obviously there's language in the scriptures.

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We're going to talk about Paul in particular from Galatians three and Romans five here in just a minute. But why did God give the law?

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What is the purpose of the law? Well, there are multiple reasons that God gave the law. And so that's effectively what we're getting at today.

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And so I trust you're already interested. We're going to assume a little bit of interest here. That's good. We're going to assume you're hooked. That's good. Why did God give the law?

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All right. So the first use or a way that we'll sometimes frame it, the first and primary use of the law is to show us the depth of our sin and drive us to Christ, the

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Savior, who kept the law for us in terms of fulfilling its requirements and who also fulfilled its penalty on our punishment.

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And so this is a Galatians three and Romans five situation where Paul makes it very plain. Like, why then the law?

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It was given because of trespasses, he'll say in Galatians three. Romans five, it was given to increase the trespass.

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But what does that mean? He means that it was given to do this very thing, to quite literally crush us in our sinfulness so that we would not look unto ourselves for righteousness because we don't have it and we are not able to keep the law perfectly.

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And we would look unto the one who has kept it for us and fulfilled its penalty for us, namely Jesus Christ.

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That is use one, the first and primary use of the law. The second use of the law is sometimes referred to as pedagogical teaching.

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It sometimes is referred to as civil for these various reasons. It is because this second use of the law applies to all men in terms of revealing a standard of what is good and bad and what is right and wrong.

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And God teaches these things not only by revealing the law's precepts and also the prohibitions, but he also attaches sanctions to the law.

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If we break it, we can expect this kind of punishment. Also, uniquely situated within the covenant he made with Israel, which is next week's episode, he also promised blessing for keeping it.

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You can expect things to go well for you in one sense if you obey the law.

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And so that's the second use. We're taught good and bad and right and wrong, and we are encouraged by God to pursue obedience to the law.

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We are discouraged by God in breaking the law. Second use. Third use is for Christians exclusively, and it is to guide our living in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So the third use of the law is this, that the law is our perfect guide for life in Christ Jesus.

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The law no longer, in this third use sense, is condemnatory in any way. It is no longer threatening to us in any way because Christ has handled all of that.

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But we look to the law to know how to live. We look to the law to know what to pursue. We look to the law to know what we should flee from.

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So if we're ever asking ourselves this question, all right, well, I've been united to Christ. I've been justified, forgiven, and absolved of guilt because of Christ alone.

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How do I now live? That's a third use of the law question. The law guides us in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So that's first use, second use, third use. So now I think we're just going to unpack these a little bit more.

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Inevitably, John, I know we're going to get into some discussion, if not in the regular episodes, certainly in SR, about how these uses are just confused.

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When you don't keep these things in appropriate categories and you keep them distinct, you end up confusing people in terms of how

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God intends the law to be used. Yeah, I know people have taken some qualms with certain words that the

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Reformed tradition has used as means of titles and descriptions. If you've ever read a book and the book doesn't have chapters and titles, it's hard to know where you're at and what the references are.

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This is true of your Bible. There are no technical titles and there's definitely no verses in your

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Bible. In the original, yeah, there's no chapter and verses, but we use them to help.

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So when you say chapter and verse, you know, when Paul wrote verse 7, he didn't write verse 7, he just wrote that sentence.

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So, you know, we're okay with doing that. And I think it's okay for us to do this in general. So sometimes people take qualms with things like covenant of works, covenant of grace, covenant of redemption, three uses of the law, law, gospel distinction.

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So someone would say, well, I don't see anywhere in scripture where it would promote the third use of the law or even the concept of uses of the law.

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And in their mind, they have one use of the law, and that is, you know, the Old Testament, the law, the

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Levitical law, or we would say even the ceremonial law. And that's all that they can really reference.

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So like in Romans, when Paul says you are no longer under law, but you're under grace, when we start hearing language from the

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Reformers saying third use of the law, they're like, no way, man, we're not using the law anymore. We're not under law.

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We're under grace. So I think, Justin, this is where we might want to give some clarity and helping people understand that we aren't putting a new law on people or we're not reinstituting the law as if one is obligated to live under it to find righteousness for themselves.

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We're no longer under the law as a covenant of works. That's right. We're no longer under the law to keep it for righteousness.

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All we're trying to do here is hold together the revelation of the scriptures where Jesus is clear in the

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Sermon on the Mount. Right now, Romans 10, 4, Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. That's easy to understand.

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He has kept the law, has fulfilled its requirements, fulfilled its penalty. And so in terms of righteousness, receive it in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we talked about that last episode in terms of law and gospel. But then we're also trying to uphold, for example,

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Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, after he says he does not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill it.

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He says that not a bit of this is going to pass away. And particularly in view, he's got the moral law that becomes obvious because he's going to talk about adultery and he's going to talk about murder and things.

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And so he is saying that not one bit of the moral law of God is going to pass away until all things are accomplished.

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And we are to teach people to obey these things. Now, again, is he saying obey it for righteousness?

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No, because that's in effect the point of Matthew 5, is you haven't kept the law and I'm coming to fulfill it, right?

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But he is saying we need to teach one another to obey this. So I mean, in one sense, that's a third use kind of category.

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And to use the language of the Reformers, like John Calvin's got a beautiful sentence on how the law in Christ Jesus is our kind advisor.

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It no longer is this exacting taskmaster. But it is now our kind advisor in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. It teaches us and shows us how to go about living life. And people do struggle with these categories.

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I mean, this is where Paul will say in 1 Timothy 1 .8, I believe, he says that we uphold the law as long as it's used lawfully.

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Well, in order to use the law lawfully, I would contend that you need to have these various uses in view and keep them appropriately distinct because when you start collapsing all of these categories, then you're not going to uphold the law and use it lawfully, you're going to do unlawful things with it and you're going to harm the saints and you're going to confuse everyone, saints and unbelievers alike.

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And if you, I mean, just look at the history of the church and the history of cultural Christianity and everything else in order to see very clearly that that kind of confusion has been prevalent at points.

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Well, this is Calvin in his Institutes 4 .20 .16 when he says, it is a fact that the law of God, which we call the moral law, is nothing else than a testament of natural law and of that conscience which

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God has engraved upon the minds of men. Well, everyone would agree with that.

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I mean, that's Romans 1, right? So the natural law is what condemns everyone. And so when we're talking about the third use of the law, if you, and I say this with a lot of grace, but if you reject the third use of the law, in essence, you're becoming antinomian because antinomian means no law, no obligation to the law.

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Or against the law. Or against the law, right. So there's a difference. The reason why I love the word guide is that that's not an obligatory, in other words, do this and live or under condemnation.

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There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But the church does practice church discipline for those who reject holiness and righteousness, right?

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So if you disagree with God on righteousness and what it is, then you are against God's moral law.

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And so if you hear third use of the law, you should never hear one can be condemned or one is obligated to obey to earn righteousness.

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It is the standard. It's almost this way, Justin. Do you have rules in your home that govern your home to keep everyone safe and reflect love?

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We do. If your child disobeys that, are you kicking them out of the family? We are not.

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That is how it should be understood, is that the third use of the law guides our sinful hearts when at times we war against the flesh, it becomes that guide showing us this is what it means to reflect the nature of God.

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It is not a means to earn his favor, forgiveness, or righteousness. And we are living lives of continual, ongoing repentance, where we are agreeing with God about the truth regarding our sin, and we are siding with God against it.

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We talk in these terms all the time. And those are third use of the law categories as well. And I'm going to read a little bit from the 1689

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London Baptist Confession, John, because there's a couple of paragraphs in chapter 19 on the law of God that are really helpful here.

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Paragraph five is brief, just to kind of underscore some of the things that we've been saying about the moral law.

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And when you hear moral law, we're going to talk about this more next week. But when you hear moral law, think the law of God that he requires for righteousness as summarized in the

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Ten Commandments, written into humanity and creation, given to Adam in that sense, but then given to Moses in two tablets of stone.

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So 19 .5 of the 1689 reads this way. The moral law forever requires obedience of everyone, both those who are justified as well as others.

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This obligation arises not only because of its content, but also because of the authority of God, the creator who gave it, nor does

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Christ in any way dissolve this obligation in the gospel. Instead, he greatly strengthens it. So this is where we would look to, again,

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Matthew five, to understand that the moral law is still a thing. And now here's the deal.

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This is where 19 .6 is so helpful. And I think this paragraph, in some senses, John, is a beautiful summation of the conversation that we're trying to have today in its entirety.

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So I would commend this to people. I'm sure there's very similar language in the Westminster Confession in its congruent chapter.

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So 19 .6 of the 1689, I'm just going to read this. I may comment briefly, but I don't want to take too long. True believers are not under the law as a covenant of works to be justified or condemned by it.

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So that's critical. We've already acknowledged these things. Yet it is very useful to them and to others as a rule of life that informs them of the will of God and their duty.

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It directs and obligates them to live according to its precepts. It also exposes the sinful corruptions of their natures, hearts, and lives.

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As they examine themselves in light of the law, they come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred of sin, along with a clearer view of their need for Christ and the perfection of His obedience.

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The law is also useful to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions because it forbids sin.

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The punishment threatened by the law shows them what even their sins deserve and what troubles they may expect in this life due to their sin, even though they are freed from the curse and undiminished severity of it.

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The promises of the law likewise show them God's approval of obedience and the blessings they may expect when they keep it, even though these blessings are not owed to them by the law as a covenant of works.

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If people do good and refrain from evil because the law encourages good and discourages evil, that does not indicate that they are under the law and not under grace.

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Beautiful paragraph. It's so good. Super helpful, man. Therein, you kind of see a little bit of first, second, and third use as it would apply to the saints.

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I'll just go ahead and say this now because it's on my mind and we're just having a conversation. The first use of the law to crush us and show us the depth of our sin, to crush us in our sin and drive us to Christ.

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Of course, this is how God uses the law to bring people to regeneration, repentance, faith, and conversion.

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Of course, God does that in uniting people to Christ. He uses the law that way. But it's good that we would preach the first use of the law even to all of us on Sundays in this sense.

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We all need to be reminded, John, weekly that we can't keep the law for righteousness because we always tend to revert back to the law in some way.

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We always tend to confuse the issue as though our obedience to the law contributes something, and we need to be reminded, no brother, no sister, no beloved,

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Christ has done it all. The law exposes the depth of your corruption that actually still remains in your flesh.

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What you should then do is not despair, but look unto Christ anew and if anything, marvel anew and be more grateful for what he's accomplished for you.

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Let's again cast ourselves upon his mercy. So there's that piece. But then you also saw a little bit of the second use.

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God discourages good, he discourages evil by revealing rewards and punishments that we could expect in this life, even though we're not under the law as a covenant of work.

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Then he also talks about how the confession talks at great length and in beautiful words about how the law guides our living and we seek to follow its precepts.

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It tells us what our responsibilities and our obligations and our duties are. We're not under the law, we're under grace.

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Just because we seek conformity unto the law doesn't mean that we're under the law as a covenant of works to be kept for righteousness.

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Very helpful language from saints who have gone before. Just another reminder of many that people have taken the

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Bible seriously in previous generations. That's right. We are not the first to have the empowerment of the spirit, to have it illuminated to us as Charles Spurgeon so wisely said.

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I think looking at Hebrews 12 is a good example of this understanding third use of the law as well. Looking unto

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Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. What do we do? We lay aside the weight and the sin.

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How do we know what sin to lay aside? The law is that guide telling us what sin we need to be laying aside.

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That's why it's the guide. We're not laying aside the sin to gain salvation or to gain righteousness in the eyes of God.

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We're looking to Jesus for that. Then the law comes in and reminds us of what it is to love

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God and to love neighbor. I think we quote this a lot, but I think it's helpful.

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Second Peter one is a great example of this. He gives us a gospel and then the outflow of the law.

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These are the things that you add to your faith and they're all commands because you have to remember commands are law going back to the first episode we did on this.

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So what does Peter tell the church to add to it? Godliness, gentleness, meekness, patience, forbearance, long suffering.

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These are all commands of things that they should do. What I love is when he says, and if you're not doing them, the reason that you're not doing them is because you've forgotten that you've been cleansed.

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The motivation is not do this and live. It is you are alive, so do this.

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All right. You're not earning, you've received. One more other passage would be Philippians, right?

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If there's any comfort, if there's any fellowship of the spirit, right? He says, then what is it?

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He gives you law at that point. He says, you need to lay your life down. Consider others more significant than yourself.

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So it's always gospel and then it's done. Now here's what you need to do, right?

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If you're new to Theocast, we have a free ebook available for you called Faith vs. Faithfulness, a primer on rest.

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And if you've struggled with legalism, a lack of assurance, or simply want to know what it means to live by faith alone, we wrote this little book to provide a simple answer from a

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Reformed confessional perspective. You can get your free copy at theocast .org

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slash primer. Yeah. A couple of examples that come to my mind on how to use the law when speaking to or writing to believers.

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I could pick umpteen examples in this first category, but I'll just use the low hanging fruit of the letter to the

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Ephesians wholesale, right? You get beautiful promises of the grace of God in Christ and in the early chapters of Ephesians, and then

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Paul pivots to a number of exhortations. I mean, like streams of thought in terms of writing to these people about how they're to live together as the saints in the body of Christ.

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Well, all of that in terms of how they're to live, it's not threatening. And it is grounded in the objective work in their place and the salvation that God has given them by grace received through faith.

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And so all of that kind of Ephesians four through six stuff is third use of the law stuff, you know, that you are the redeemed, you are saints in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, this is the mystery of God. That's been hidden for ages. That's now been revealed. Like God is doing this in the church and you're a part of it.

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And now live together this way. It's a great example of the third use of the law, you know, where he exhorts people to love and forbearance and patience and humility and unity, seeking and pursuing unity in the spirit and the bond of peace, and here's how we're to live together and build one another up in love unto maturity in Christ Jesus.

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Put off the old man, put on the new man stuff, right? And here's how you're to talk to each other.

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Like all that is good. So then the other text that comes to my mind is a slightly different, this is more of a first use of the law to the

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Christian. This is first Corinthians six, nine to 11 pointedly. But the context there, if people remember in first Corinthians five,

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Paul writes to the church, the entire church in Corinth and writes about a dude that is having relations with his step -mom and he's like, look, even pagans know this is whack.

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And yet you guys seem to be celebrating this as a kind of expression of Christian freedom, like you're arrogant. And instead, what you should do is remove this person so that he might actually be saved.

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He might be restored. And then in the early portion of chapter six in first Corinthians, Paul's writing about like, guys, this is a dumpster fire.

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Like you're suing each other and like all kinds of bad things are happening here. For brief insertion.

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Every time people kind of foolishly will look at me or, you know, a pastor somewhere and be like, you know, we need to go back to the golden age of the early church, you know, we need, we need to go back to the first century, you know, to the first century church.

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Cause those were the days when they were murdering each other. And I want to be like, and I want to be like, bro, have you read the same new

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Testament letters I'm reading? Cause the church in the first century is just like the church now. I mean, it was comprised of sinners, you know?

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Anyway, that's another, I mean, how foolish, right? We so romanticize things in ways that don't help.

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So those people were just like us, but Paul is writing them. Like, here's this thing with this guy. This is really bad.

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Here's this, like, you're suing each other and just like bludgeoning each other to death in the, in the

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Gentile courts. I mean, this is just terrible. And then he says to them, do you not know that anybody who participates in a following like list of sins, like will not inherit the kingdom of God, full stop.

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Like that's a first year, like anybody who does these things is worthy of death, condemnation, wrath. And then he says this, and such were some of you, such were some of you, but you have been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been cleansed, right?

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In the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a kind of first use of the law application for the saints where he says effectively, why would you knowingly and willingly participate in things for which the wrath of God is coming?

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Right. And, but he's still not telling them that they're condemned. He's telling, he's like, you used to be this.

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You're not anymore. Why would you do this? You know, and this is who you are now.

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Yeah. So that's beautiful. Yeah. John, I think. Yeah. I think a good thing to go to now is how some of these categories are confused and maybe we can illustrate this.

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And I would just add to that. James is dealing with this very issue when he talks about holding to the faith impartiality. He is, he is, he, and he goes in and he uses the law as an example of this.

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When you, you fail in one area of the law, you're guilty of it all. That's first use. And then he does carry it over to the third use saying that, okay, now you need to speak and so act as one who has been liberated from the law.

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Right. So this is a theme that's almost in every New Testament epistle. When you think about it. Galatians six.

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I would contend that it is. Yeah. Galatians six or Galatians all together, but Galatians six is a great example of this as well.

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You're using the law to pulse one out of sin. Or how do you know, identify that they're in sin? Right. We have to use the law to do that.

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So yeah, I think the next section that we're going to spend probably the next, you know, five to 10 minutes on is Justin, something that we.

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We've observed before. Right. We speak of often. And I think now that you have a law gospel distinction from episode one, now you have the three uses of the law understanding, we'll spend time now in an

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SR explaining how if you mix the first and the third use in particular, you will create all kinds of legalism and all kinds of pietism and you will rob people of assurance.

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And I was going to say, you're either going to create in the, in the hearts and minds of some, a very wicked prideful self -righteousness.

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That's right. And, and I would argue in the hearts and minds of most, you're going to end up producing despair and fear and it's just not good.

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Yeah. So this is something we've observed before that a lot of times in our contemporary context. And I think this is certainly true amongst like serious sort of Calvinistic types, um, maybe more prevalently, uh, or at least in a more exacting way.

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This is done right. Uh, the first use of the law and the third use of the law are kind of collapsed and muddied and the third use of the law, at least how it should be communicated to guide our living in Christ is preached in a very first use, like you've got to do this, you know, or you're going to die kind of way.

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You know, and go ahead, John. So the perfect example of this is James chapter two. This is where this is done all of the time.

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So James comes in and he's dealing with people who are not living according to their status.

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They are confused. They're being persecuted. They're being selfish. And so James comes in and he says, listen, you're claiming to be a

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Christian. And if that's the case, you need to be living this way, showing you're showing partiality, you're, you're, you're treating each other horribly.

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The way you're using your tongue is absolutely ungodly. And what's interesting is that in the first chapter, he says brothers seven times before he gets to chapter two.

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And he starts chapter two saying my brothers, this ought not so to be. So he is not using first use.

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He's not calling into question their salvation. When you start collapsing those two down, you are in essence, collapsing law and gospel again.

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So it's, it's, um, if I'm dealing in a, like I have church, I have congregants right now that I'm dealing with that they're entangled in sin and they're, they're trapped in it.

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And so I'm going to them and I'm preaching them to the gospel. This is the freedom and this is how you're violating it.

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And I am calling them to restoration in the trust and faith in Christ. I am not going to them with the first use saying, since you have failed here, you're now, your, your faith is now in question.

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Um, I, I think the greatest example of this are two, James five, he says, if you're spiritually sick and you're not doing well, have this person confess their sin, he doesn't call into question their salvation, again,

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Galatians six. If one is caught in sin so much, so they can't get out.

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You don't go to them and question their salvation. You go to them and what you restore them with the spirit of meekness and gentleness, we're using the gospel as means of restoration.

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This is so important, but what happens in modern day, I would say revivalistic slash

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Calvangelical preaching is that we get up and we call people's salvation to question.

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And if you're speaking to believers and you're doing that with the first use and you're not backing it with the gospel, that is shameful.

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No, I agree. So like the first use of the law to be very clear is preached to the saints every week in my church.

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But the way we do this is again, it's by way of law, gospel reminder, like beloved, here is

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God's standard in the law and we have failed to attain to this. And thereby, let us all look unto

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Christ who has done it for us. We need to be reminded of that. That's an appropriate application of the first use of the law to the saints.

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The very exacting first use of the law is preached to those outside of Christ. Like you think you're okay and you're not, like you think you've done what

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God requires, you are deluded because you don't understand the holiness of the law. And let me help you understand the holiness of the law, that you might be crushed in absolutely despair of yourself so that you might then go look unto

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Christ. Right? That's how we preach it to those outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But sadly, what happens so often in our context, like you said, is there's the first use of the law minus the gospel.

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Like, let me just crush you with law, you know, and, but I don't really give you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. I just cause you to despair of yourself.

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And then it's just like, no, you need to do better, you know, and you need to try harder, is sort of the conclusion.

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It's a gross application of the first use of the law, and it's masquerading as the third use of the law, supposedly to guide us in our living, but instead we're condemning everyone, and we're calling everybody's salvation into question, we're telling people that, hey, you know, you may very well not have any reason to think that you're amongst the redeemed, and that's just kind of how we do it, because we're trying to smoke out the fakers and smoke out the nominal.

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I want to give two biblical examples in a second, but go. Yeah, I just want to say, go back to our critique of John Piper's Sermon on Holiness as a great example of confusing the first and the third use.

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He approaches the congregation using the first, and he doesn't give them the gospel as the means of doing the third.

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He's preaching the first use of the law, but not then giving gospel. He's preaching the law as a threat, supposedly, to guide our living, and there's just all kinds of category confusion going on, not just in that one message, but we would humbly suggest in a lot of preaching in our land, sadly.

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Good examples of this and how these passages are taught, and we've expounded on these before, so I don't need to do this at length, but if you don't understand these uses of the law, you're going to butcher passages like the

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Good Samaritan and like the Rich Young Man. Here's how we do this. We collapse law and gospel, and we confuse the way the law is supposed to be used rightly.

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We don't do it, so we'll go to the Good Samaritan, and we will acknowledge the context in some sort of cursory way.

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There's this guy asking what he needs to do in order to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus says, well, what's in the law?

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How do you read it? He says, love God and love neighbor, and Jesus says exactly, do that and you'll live, and then the man doubles down.

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Well, okay, well, who's my neighbor, because I want to make sure I'm doing this kind of thing, but then here's what we end up doing with the

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Good Samaritan. We effectively just unsettle everyone and condemn everyone for not loving neighbor well enough.

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We don't then give them the good news, and we tell them to go and try harder if they're going to legitimately be a

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Christian, and I'm just like, man, that's so bad on so many levels because the first use of the law there, which is,

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I think, Jesus's main point, is that nobody has loved neighbor this way. Nobody's kept God's law, and thereby, you need to look somewhere else than your own righteousness, one.

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Then third use, kindly, secondary takeaway in the Lord Jesus Christ, hey, beloved, we have been given everything in Christ.

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Ought we not seek by grace in the spirit to sacrificially love each other? Philippians 2.

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I mean, there it is. Rich young man, same thing. Category confusion. This young man thinks he's kept the law.

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He says, I've kept the commandments, and then Jesus turns the temperature up. He says, okay, if you effectively paraphrase, all right, then prove it.

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Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, follow me. Young man can't do it. How do we often hear that communicated?

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Surrender all for Christ, and if you're not at least willing to surrender all for Christ, you're not legit.

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Terrible exegesis. The point of all that is, to the young man, first use of the law, hey, homie, you think you've kept the law?

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You have not. You have not loved God and neighbor. If you had kept the law, you could do this.

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Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and follow me with no difficulty whatsoever. The reason you can't do this is because you have not kept the law, nor are you able to, right?

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And so then gospel, we should say, look unto Christ. The one who is standing right in front of the man is his salvation, right?

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I mean, this is gospel. So then third use takeaway. If we're going to think this through, we can then talk about how we want to live lives of faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and how we don't want to store up treasures on earth or something. I mean, that's entirely legitimate to say, but to tell people to go have a yard sale and get rid of everything they own and be willing to do this, that, or the other in order to be a legitimate

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Christian is not a right application of that passage. And just a brief observation, the word willing is nowhere to be found there.

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I mean, it's all just Jesus says, do this, but yet we introduced this willingness category because we collapse law and gospel and we collapse the law and its uses in order to make it work.

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I tell my wife that every day. I'm willing to sacrificially love you, even though I don't. I'm willing to do it.

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Anyway, man, it's crazy. These are just examples. Yeah. I've got some more examples like take up your cross and follow me.

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We can talk about how, what category does that fall into? We'll do this in Semper Firmata. So for those of you that are listening, if you haven't got a chance to listen to episode one,

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I encourage you to go do so. In our notes, we have multiple episodes, are great examples of first and third use confusion.

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Take up your cross and follow me. Following Jesus is not the gospel. How pietism rooted in good works.

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All of those episodes will be down there. We encourage you to listen to those. Justin and I record a second podcast every week of a week, and it's part of our program called

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Semper Firmata. This is for those who love to continue to have conversations with us, but also want to support our ministry financially.

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And so this is what allows us to continue to produce the podcast. And we have an app and a whole entire community in there.

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We are producing books. Justin and I are finishing up a book called The Basics Introductions to Reformed Theology.

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We try to finish that thing. Hey, it's in process. So we're just encouraged by all of that.

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And because of our members, we've been able to start a church planning network called Grace Reformed Network. You can go to gracereformednetwork .org

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to learn more about that. If you'd like to learn more all about all that, just go to our website, theocast .org.

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And for those of you that are going to be joining us next week, stay tuned because next week we are going to be covering the third part, which is understanding the different parts of the law.

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So the three different parts of the law as far as ceremony, civil, and I'm having a brain freeze.