and ‘principal’ purpose of the law was ‘theological’ or ‘spiritual’. It is a mighty ‘hammer’ to crush the self-righteousness of human beings.34 For ‘it shows them their sin, so that by the recognition of sin they may be humbled, frightened, and worn down, and so may long for grace and for the Blessed Offspring [sc. Christ]’.35 It is in this sense that ‘the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ’.36 Elsewhere Luther indicates that the law has a third use; we have ‘to teach the law diligently