The “three uses” of the law is now carved into stone, and so firmly that to question it is like bringing a live grenade to the cocktail party

The 16th century Protestants understood the Christian gospel to simply say that we do nothing; God does everything. We add nothing to the sufficiency of God’s saving work, not even our faith. “Just lift your sorry heads and look at the bronze serpent held high in the crowd of sick and dying people and you will be saved” (Nu 21:6-9)! Five hundred years ago, when they began to read the Bible, the original ad fontes source, they quickly discovered the Bible’s central teaching: justification by faith. What this means, of course, is justification by Grace received by faith.

The Bible is not a rulebook or a catalogue of good examples to keep us in line, but primarily the overarching story of God’s saving grace in Jesus. Reformation Anglicans join the English reformers in recognizing that God’s word speaks in two ways: law and gospel. Law is the portion of Scripture that commands, prescribes, and exposes our guilt.