Assurance & The 3rd Use of the Law - Does Emphasizing the 3rd use hurt assurance?

My friend released a chart last year on twitter that shared tensions she experienced with some Reformed teachings and how Lutheranism helped her to resolve them. You may find the full chart here.  The introduction to the chart states the following: 

"This is a very basic and simple chart I put together to demonstrate some of the implications I experienced with some Calvinistic and Reformed theological teaching. The first column shows some questions that came up for me, and the second column represents the way that Lutheran thought has resolved these doubts. I still love Reformed theology in many ways, but this chart represents a simplified look into why Lutheranism has been comforting to me" 

 I have spent a good amount of time thinking about the implications on her chart. With her permission, I thought it would be a neat idea to try and address her tensions from a Reformed perspective.  I will address one concern at a time. The last post will include some of the resources that helped me to address her concerns from a Reformed perspective. It is not the purpose of this post to address the 2nd column. I do hope that this might be helpful for others who are unsettled.  So now let us settle upon the below implication: 

"The third use of the Law > the second use that shows me my sin – Implication: What happens when I don’t measure up?"

Reformed Response:  The implication seems to presuppose that the third use of the law in the Reformed Tradition is compartmentalized, abstract, and divorced from the promises of the Gospel. The third use of the law is not abstract, but is contextualized within the framework of the New Covenant and should be considered in light of the fact that Jesus has already fulfilled all righteousness for us. It would be a misuse of the third use to preach it abstractly from the wonderful indicatives of the New Testament.

The Gospel is always available to us to believe whether in the third use or the first use (Lutheran – 2^nd use) . The law in it’s third use gives direction and shape in expressing our gratitude as we are transformed into the image of Christ through beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What happens when I don’t measure up? I go back to the Gospel and rejoice and enjoy because the forgiveness of  my sins and imputed righteousness are perpetual. What the law requires of me is also freely given to me in the Gospel . I also remember that my sanctification was sealed for me already through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Sanctification has objective and historical grounds in what occurred 2000 years ago and that gives me great hope in believing that "He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it in the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:9) 

The imperatives in the New Testament are given to us in light of the New Covenant. We have a Mediator who fulfilled the law in our place with His perfect obedience, took on the curse for our law breaking by satisfying the wrath of the Father, rose triumphantly from the dead for our justification, and is now interceding for us at the Father's right hand. We must remember that the Covenant Mediator Christ Jesus who bled and died for us, is the one giving us the commands. We are not receiving them from Mt. Sinai.. We no longer obey to live. It is Christ through His Spirit that says, "Live! Now walk in what has been purchased and declared for you freely".  The Gospel is always necessary for the Christian life because we live in the Already and Not Yet. The law still pricks our consciences because we have been awakened to the vestiges of sin that still clings to us closely. When confronted by the law we are no longer left in crushing despair because we always have the Gospel. We can now run to Christ trusting in His provision for righteousness, safety, and deliverance from the tyranny of sin.  I love what Heidelberg Q&A 114 says about the function of the law in the life of the believer: 

Since no one in this life can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, why does God want them preached so pointedly? 

Answer: First so that all of our life long we may more and more come to know our sinful nature and thus more eagerly seek the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ. Second, so that we may never stop striving and never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we may more and more be renewed after God's image, until after this life we reach our goal: perfection.

 

We can both continue to flee to Christ for mercy, forgiveness of sins and righteousness, and we can also flee to the Holy Spirit for continued renewal into the image of God. We can always approach the throne room of grace to boldly ask for help in our time of need. When we inevitably fall short of the law's commands, we have the Father who listens to our cries, the Elder Brother who intercedes for us, praying that our faith will not fail, and the Holy Spirit who helps us in our weaknesses "with groaning too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). When the Reformed emphasize the third use, it is grounded in all of the New Covenant blessings that we have received by faith alone in Christ. 

Helpful Quotes: 

"For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given, 'if even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.' Indeed so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I tremble with fear'.  But you  have come to Mt. Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to immeasurable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than Abel" (Hebrews 12:18-24)

"The law remains the standard for righteousness, but no more in sanctification than in justification does our obedience to the law become the basis for our righteousness before God. Otherwise, we would place ourselves under a covenant of works again proposing to fulfill the conditions of justification, instead of the covenant of grace, which Christ as the fulfiller of all righteousness for us. We must always bear in mind throughout our Christian pilgrimage that the Christ who commands is already also the one who has taken care of the guilt not only for past failures but for present and future ones - and even for our failure to do anything as fully and faithfully as we ought" - Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology

Lecture Law/Gospel & Biblical Theology