The First Use of the Law of God

"[The proper use of the Law] consists of three parts. The first part is this: while it shows
God's righteousness, that is the righteousness alone acceptable to God, it warns, informs,
convicts, and lastly condemns, every man of his own unrighteousness. For man, blinded and
drunk with self-love, must be compelled to know and to confess his own feebleness and
impurity…. The second function of the law is this: at least by fear of punishment to restrain
certain men who are untouched by any care for what is just and right unless compelled by hearing
the dire threats in the law. But they are restrained not because their inner mind is stirred or
affected, but because, being bridled, so to speak, they keep their hands from outward activity, and
hold inside the depravity that otherwise they would wantonly have indulged…. The third and
principal use, which pertains more closely to the proper use of the law, finds its place among
believers in whose hearts the Spirit of God already lives and reigns. For even though they have the
law written and engraved upon their hearts by the finger of God (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 10:16), that is,
have been so moved and quickened through the directing of the Spirit that they long to obey God,
they still profit by the law in two ways." – John Calvin