This chapter begins with an overview of the meaning of the term “law,” in order to give background to Lutheran disputes over the term. Starting with the work of J. C. K. von Hofmann, scholars have disagreed over Luther and later Lutherans view of the law. Many suggest that Luther understood the law as God’s call to repentance, existentially experienced, so that it could not be used to teach the good will of God, but only to accuse people of sin, excluding the law from ethics. In spite of the efforts of other scholars such as Werner Elert, who argued that Luther and the Lutheran Confessions are in agreement, resolving the underlying tension over whether the law may be used for instruction requires clarification of the meaning of Christian righteousness, and how the law relates to righteousness.