{"id":6315,"date":"2023-08-22T02:13:21","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T02:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2023-11-22T01:37:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T01:37:05","slug":"autumn-2023-freedom-from-the-law-and-the-experimental-third-use-by-steven-paulson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/?p=6315","title":{"rendered":"Autumn 2023 Featured Essay &#8211; Freedom from the Law and the Experimental &#8220;Third Use&#8221; &#8211; by Steven Paulson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stephen-paulson.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6320\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stephen-paulson.png 200w, https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stephen-paulson-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A third use of the law was a thought experiment that appearedas a side issue in annotations on scripture from the great Preceptor\u2014Philip Melanchthon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His students, who composed nearly the whole second generation of Lutherans, took the formula from the school into the  congregation and applied it to living sinners to determine what it would do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Would it guide them to align their wills with God\u2019s will in the form of  the pure, perfect law? The reports varied and one would have to conclude the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do \u201cthe reborn,\u201d  who still have flesh clinging to them, need a \u201csure guide\u201d to orient and conduct their lives? No doubt they do as far as the old creature is concerned.   Whether or not the reborn\u2014as new creatures\u2014are improved by this guide is open for debate, as the Formula of Concord VI acknowledges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet the  question remains: is the law in this particular formulation \u201cto be urged upon the reborn Christians or not?\u201d1 The only sure conclusion is to reject  any thought of preaching law only to the unbaptized; Christians (including those who truly believe!) must also hear the law.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/02_LUT_37-3_Paulson_268-289.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong> to Read the full article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A third use of the law was a thought experiment that appeared as a side issue in annotations on scripture from the great Preceptor\u2014Philip Melanchthon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6315"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6419,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6315\/revisions\/6419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutheranquarterly.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}