Believers are perfectly and irreversibly justified, and therefore, though their iniquities deserve eternal wrath, yet they can no more make them actually liable to that wrath. It is the peculiar privilege of believers only, who are already justified and so set forever beyond the reach of condemnation, to be under the law in the hand of Christ. But were a threatening of eternal death annexed to the law as a rule in His hand, every time that the believer transgressed this law it would lay him anew under condemnation, and as he every moment falls short of perfection in his obedience, he must inevitably be every moment under condemnation to eternal wrath. But instead of this, he always continues in a state of justification and “shall not come into condemnation” (John 5:24). “Whom [God] did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.… Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:30, 33–34). “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 8:12).”
John Colquhoun | A Treatise on the Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 37.
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Tony Phelps
Tony grew up in Rhode Island. He was educated at BA (University of Rhode Island) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He worked in the insurance industry for ten years. He planted a PCA church in Wakefield, RI where he served for eleven years. In 2015–18 he pastored Covenant Reformed Church (URCNA) in Colorado Springs. He is currently pastor of Living Hope (OPC). Tony is married to Donna and together they have three children.
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