What need now of Christ? What need now of the Spirit? We have now found a passage which stops the mouths of all; not only does it clearly assert the freedom of the will, but it clearly teaches also that keeping the commandments is easy! What a fool was Christ, who shed His blood to purchase for us the Spirit, Whom we do not need, in order that we might be able to keep the commandments with ease, when we are so already by nature! Luther, Bondage of the Will
Luther is responding to Erasmus who quotes Deuteronomy and states that it is easy to keep the commandments. With sarcasm dripping from his pen, Luther demolishes Erasmus’ thought and along with it the teaching of ‘free-will’ as well. True enough it may not be obvious at first glance, but with a little thought it will easily be seen. The position of Erasmus was essentially that of the Pelagian position, that if the Bible commands you to keep the commandments then you have the power to do so. The passage in question, Deuteronomy 30:14, tells us that “the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” Erasmus made the deduction that since the word is in you and it is in you that you may observe it that the will must be free to do so. But Luther went in a different direction and in doing so makes a very powerful point.
If the will is already free enough to keep the commands of God and that without salvation, then what need do we have of Christ and the Spirit? Galatians 3:13-14 makes the point that Christ died that believers would have the Holy Spirit: “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE “– 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” This is very important and we must pay close attention to it, especially when we link the teaching of Romans 8:3-4 with Galatians: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Galatians 3:13-14 teaches with clarity that Christ died so that believers would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Romans 8:3-4 teaches us that what the Law could not do (holiness, power to keep the Law) that God did. God sent the Son to be an offering for sin, but one reason He did so is so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in His people. The power of these verses demonstrates to us that our will is not free to keep the Law since it took the death of Christ to purchase the Spirit who alone can fulfill the Law in the people of God. The will does not have the power to keep the Law or be holy, but instead it takes the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the soul of a human being to fulfill the Law.
There are many teachings that these verses shed light on. One, they show quite clearly that the will of human souls is not free and does not have the power to keep the Law apart from the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In fact, to assert the freedom of the will in this context is to denigrate the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Second, this teaching shows that the Law of God has not been abrogated. Not only does Christ not do away with the Law of God, but He died in order to purchase the Holy Spirit who would work in human souls so that He could fulfill the Law in and through them. This shows the great error of those who are teaching the so-called New Covenant teaching today. The Law has not been done away with, but instead it is worked in the heart and life of believers by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of grace alone is not that the Law has been done away with, but instead in accordance with the true teaching of the New Covenant God works in the souls of His people that they may fulfill it.
We see the so-called ‘free-will’ put to the test here by Luther. If the will is free enough to keep the Law now, then there was no need for Christ to have gone to the cross and suffered in order to purchase the Spirit so that believers could have the Law fulfilled in them. The will is utterly powerless to keep the Law until Christ Himself and His Spirit are in the soul working love for God and His people in them. The Law was not given in order that we may keep it, but to be a tutor to lead people to see their utter inability to keep it and so teach them their need of Christ and the cross. But that also teaches us the need of the Spirit to keep the Law. Today we have people asserting the power of the will and trying to do away with the Law of God. Both, at the very least, are very dangerous teachings. Both are opposed to the true work of Christ in purchasing the Spirit and in the work of the Spirit in working obedience to the Law in the souls of His people. The Law teaches that we must have Christ in us now.
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