Legal Axioms - What Every Antinomian Needs to Hear

John Gerhard’s On Interpreting Sacred Scripture is a master work of theological clarity and comfort that takes no shame in articulating every bit of Christian teaching from the Bible alone. One of the fruits of this endeavor are various theological axioms that Christians should keep in mind as they read and interpret the Bible. The devil wants us to go our own way in making up a novel interpretations in service to sinful desire. That’s why we need Gerhard’s axioms. These axioms are not invented or contrived. They are drawn from the clearest passages of Scriptures, the same passages that articulate the Creed, what Lutherans sometimes call, “the Rule of Faith.”

***

These are the axioms for the article on the Law.

(1) Whatever accuses and condemns sin belongs to the Law whether it comes from the New or Old Testament.

(2) The forensic and ceremonial laws have been abrogated in the New Testament.

(3) The moral Law was not first given on Sinai but was engraved in the hearts of human beings before the fall.

(4) The regenerate are not under the curse of the Law and yet are not free from its obedience.

(5) Moral laws include under the sin they restrict by name all sins of the same kind and their causes, occasions, incentives, and opposing virtues.

(6) The rule and measure of obedience in the positive commands is “You shall love God with your whole heart” [Deut.6:5]; in the negative commands it is “You shall not covet” [Exod. 20:17].

(7) God commands not only the hand and our external members but the whole man.

(8) The promises and threats attached to the Law must be understood conditionally. The former have the condition of perfect obedience; the latter have the condition of repentance.

(9) The promises given to the devout in this life must be understood with the exception of the cross.

-John Gerhard, Theological Commonplaces I-II, “On Interpreting Sacred Scripture and Method of Theological Study,” translated by Joshua J. Hayes, edited by Benjamin T.G. Mayes, (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2017), 119-120.

***

Here are a list of passages that match each of the axioms.

(1) Galatians 3: 10-11, 21-22; Romans 3:19-20; 2 Corinthians 3:6

(2) Hebrews 9:13-14; Galatians 5:6; Acts 15:10-11

(3) Romans 2:14-15

(4) Romans 6:1; 1 John 3:18; James 1:22; 1 Peter 2:11-12

(5) Matthew 5:27-28

(6) Romans 13:10; Matt. 22:34-40; Col. 3:5

(7) Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30; Matthew 15:18; Matthew 18:35

(8) Ezekiel 33:11; Luke 10:28; Luke 13:3; 2 Peter 3:9

(9) Matthew 16:24

***

By the way, I don’t think it’s too late for the pastors out there to sign up for Dr. Mayes class this August.