Second Use of the Law
Conviction and Despair
Law and Gospel · 6 verses
The Spirit employs the law to produce conviction of sin and despair of self-salvation, essential prerequisites to genuine conversion. This legal despair is not the end but the necessary beginning, not punishment but preparation. The law must slay all hope in human righteousness before the gospel can raise hope in divine mercy. This is severe mercy—the crushing that precedes healing, the emptying that makes room for filling, the death that issues in resurrection.
Scripture References
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”
“For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”