So the words of the law are spoken, not to assert the power of the will, but to illuminate the blindness of reason, so that it may see that its own light is nothing, and the power of the will is nothing. ‘By the law is knowledge of sin,’ says Paul (Rom 3:20). He does not say: abolition, or avoidance, of sin. The entire design and power of the law is just to give knowledge, and that of nothing but of sin; not to display or confer any power. The knowledge is not power, nor does it bring power; but it teaches and displays that there is here no power, and great weakness….It is from this passage that I derive my answer to you; that by the words of the law man is admonished and taught, not what he can do, but what he ought to do; that is, that he may know his sin, not that he may believe that he has any strength. (Luther, The Bondage of the Will)
In this passage from Luther we see a great dividing point. While the Pelagian (and differing forms of semi-Pelagianism) see that God gives the law and that man must have some ability or God would not give the law to them, Luther derives his answer from Scripture. It is true that the Pelagian answer is from so-called common sense, yet it is common from a fallen soul. Human beings fell into pride and self-sufficiency, so the Pelagian answer is really the answer of the proud and self-sufficient soul. The Pelagian answer says that what God commands a person to do what a person has the ability to do, but that it is simply the presupposition of a proud and fallen soul. Luther builds his case on Scripture.
In Romans 3:20 Paul tells us that “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” With a little of the context this is seen with even more clarity: “19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3).
In verse 19 the Law has something to say and the reasons that it speaks is given. The Law speaks so that “every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” This passage gives the purpose of the Law. It is not given so that those with ability may or may not choose to keep it, but so that every mouth would be closed. The Law was not given so people can keep it and be justified in the sight of God. So the Law was not given as a way for sinners to justify themselves, but it is given as a means to know sin. Notice the correlation between knowing sin in verse 20 and the shutting the mouth in verse 19. That is what the Law does when it is understood.
Paul also gives us the same thought in Romans 7 as he shows us what this looks like: “7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.” It is not that the Law just gives a bare knowledge about what sin is, but when applied by the Spirit the Law comes pierces and sin comes alive and the person sees that the Law speaks to the sin in the depths of his or her heart.
The command to believe is not to show us what we can do, but what needs to be done. The command to believe does not tell us that we can believe, but that we must believe if we are going to be saved. This points to an awful reality that is so widespread today. Human beings have taken the Law that is supposed to show them their sin and break them from their self and self-will and instead they use it as a means of self-righteousness. People take the command to believe and instead of falling on their faces and crying out for hearts that can believe they think they have it in their own ability to do so. This shows us the self-sufficient and blinded hearts of so many today. They rely on themselves (free-will) and use that which God has given to break them from themselves as a way to attain righteousness in their own eyes.
Romans 3:19-20 and 7:7-9 are very clear. The Law has a purpose and it is not to be a path for people to follow to obtain righteousness. The Law is to show people that they cannot keep it and to shut their mouths toward God and His righteous judgment of condemnation on them apart from Christ. The Law is used by the Spirit to pierce the soul and to lay open the depths of the heart and the intents of it. When it does that, no one can claim to be worthy of anything but eternal damnation and to look to nothing but sovereign grace to save. When the Law is preached there will be animosity in the unregenerate soul and it will hate what it hears. But maybe the mouth will be shut.
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