Melanchthon on Christian Liberty

[GHansen]

Now I shall reply to the principal question. We have been liberated from the curse of the moral Law because the Son paid the ransom, and for the sake of the Son we are received by God. God’s eternal and immutable order remains in force, that the creature is to render obedience to God the Creator. The Law does not accuse or condemn those who have been reconciled but the order or arrangement remains in the mind of God and in our mind that we are to render obedience to God. In regard to this statement it is said: the Law has been abrogated as it pertains to the curse but not as it pertains to obedience. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is given, in order that emotions may be truly kindled in our hearts which are in agreement with the Law of God, as it says in in Cor. 3[:18] “We with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord and are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

From these points it is possible to understand the statement of Paul [Rom. 6:14], “You are not under the Law but under grace.” Because the punishment has been transferred onto Christ, believers are liberated from wrath and now for the sake of Christ are righteous and have been accepted by God, even if the remnants of sin by which they contend against the Spirit still cling to them. This is said [1 Tim. 1:9], “The Law was not laid down for a righteous person,” where it is clear that Paul by this statement is speaking about discipline, and is saying that the Law was laid down for the unrighteous, adulterers, murderers, etc., so that they might be held in check by it, accused, and punished. By this discipline and this forcible control the righteous man, that is, the person who has been born again of the Holy spirit, is not to be held in check, but he is governed by the Holy Spirit, through the light of the word of God, to whom he understands that the rational creature has been placed in subjection. And in this passage by Paul, the stress is on the words “laid down.” The Law does not press down or run over a righteous man.

Melanchthon, Phillip, Loci Communes, 1545, trans. J.A.O. Preus (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1992), 243.