Why is Sunday our day of worship if the Ten Commandments state, "remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy" and the Sabbath Day is Saturday?
Questions Listed Under Law and Gospel
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The law of the Sabbath declared the seventh day of the week (Saturday) a day of mandatory abstention from all forms of work. This law was part of the Old Testament ceremonial law, which was a "shadow of the good things that are coming" (Hebrews 10:1) when the Messiah would arrive. Now that Christ has come, this law has run its course and served its purpose,
The New Testament specifically tells us that we are no longer obligated by the Sabbath law (Colossians 2:16-17). For this reason, Martin Luther in the Small Catechism re-applied the Sabbath law for Christians as a command not to neglect the Word of God, but to "hold it sacred, and gladly hear it and learn it."
It seems that Sunday became the Christians' meeting day very early in history (John 20:19, Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, Revelation 1:10). There was a very good reason. In addition to being the day of Pentecost and the day on which creation began, Sunday was the day our Lord rose from the dead.
We gather on Sundays because that is the day the Church has freely and appropriately chosen for its worship, not because observing a particular day is a commandment from God (Galatians 4:10, Romans 14:5-6).
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How do Lutherans biblically arrive at their understanding that pastors are to preach the law and the gospel? Scripture doesn't explicitly say to preach the law and the gospel.
You have asked a question near and dear to the hearts of Lutherans. But you are right, if we can't prove from Scripture why we preach law and gospel, then we don't have a leg to stand on!
First, let me grant that there is no single verse that says point blank: "When you stand in the pulpit, be sure to emphasize law and gospel!" Part of the answer however is understanding what we mean by preaching "law" and "gospel." Preaching the law doesn't mean that we must somehow relate every sermon to one or more of the Ten Commandments per se. While the Ten Commandments are a very helpful summary of God's law, as you rightly hinted, his law is everything he created us to be (or not be) with every thought, word, or action. It is perfect love for God with heart, mind, soul, and strength and perfect love for neighbor as ourselves that Jesus outlines for us in Matthew 22:37-40. The law is everything that our perfect Creator created his perfect people to be. Everything therefore that shows me to be anything less than God created me to be has the function of "law" even though I may make no reference to the Ten Commandments as such. As Paul says in Romans 3:19,20, "We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." Notice: everything that makes me aware of my sin and stops me from boasting of my own personal holiness before God is functioning as "law." That helps clear up what we mean by preaching "law."
Of course, by the gospel, we mean the same thing Paul was talking about in Romans 1:17 when he defined the gospel by saying, "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'." We are preaching gospel whenever we point sinners to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ that was all done in our place. We are preaching the gospel whenever we proclaim the forgiveness of sins won by his blood for the world (1 John 1:8-2:2), or the perfect holiness of Jesus' life that has clothed us like a beautiful white garment (Galatians 3:26,27), which was given to us at our baptism. We preach and teach that gospel as the chief part of every message for the same reason John made that the heart and core of his whole gospel. What did he say was the purpose of everything he wrote in his book? "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).So, in other words, when we say we preach law and gospel, we mean this: we preach sin and grace. To put it another way we preach human sinfulness that has earned hell and divine grace in Christ that has given us heaven. That is at the heart of what Lutherans mean when say we preach law and gospel.
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I've read that the law has three uses: to serve as a mirror for everyone, to serve as a curb for the unbelieving world, and to serve as a guide for believers. These descriptions still have me confused. Can you explain it a little differently?
The law shows everyone that they are sinners because they have not kept God's law perfectly. We often refer to this as the law serving as a mirror. Just like a little boy may not believe that he has some dirt on his forehead, and Mom tells him to go look in a mirror so that he can see for himself, so the Law shows anyone who compares their life to it that they are sinful.
The law has the threat of God's punishment hanging over anyone who doesn't keep the law perfectly. Everyone has God's law written in their heart, and God has also given everyone a conscience. Unless a person has sinned against conscience so often that the conscience is hardened, a person's conscience will tell a person when they sin against God's law that the sin deserves punishment. This threat of punishment serves like a curb in many people's lives. A curb keeps a car from going off a road unless a person deliberately runs over the curb. In the same way the threat of punishment for not keeping God's law often keeps people from sinning openly and flagrantly against God and against others.
A Christian living in a sinful world can't look at the example of nearby people and see how God wants Christians to thank him by living a life in accord with his will. The one sure guide for a Christian shows how to live according to God's will is God's law. So like a person following a guideline through a snowstorm in order walk a straight line from one building to another instead of wandering off and getting lost, so God's law serves as a guideline for a Christian surrounded by sinful people in the world to show how he or she can live according to God's will in order to thank God for his grace and forgiveness. Since an unbeliever has no desire to thank God for anything, we say that the law serves as a guideline only for a Christian.
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