so much with what a text is or means or with its relative position in the canon of Scripture as with what it does to its hearers. When the Reformers used the words law and gospel, they were actually observing how God’s Word works on hearers or, even better, how God uses commands and promises on us.7 Turning first to the law, the Reformers came to realize that God uses it in two distinct ways. The first, or civil use of the law, has to do with how God uses the law to maintain order and restrain evil