As an evidence that all unregenerate persons are under the dominion of the law as a covenant of works, the natural bent of their hearts in all their views respecting the means of salvation is to the way of that covenant [of works]. They all desire to be under the law of works. All who have embraced either one or another of the false religions that are in the world agree at least in this principle: it is by doing that men are to live. Hence, when the Lord opens the eyes of a man to see that horrible gulf of sin and misery into which the first Adam plunged him, he is strongly inclined to exert himself for deliverance in the way of the covenant of works. He struggles hard to forsake his sins and to perform his duties, hoping that by his own performances he will become so righteous as to pacify the wrath of God and to procure for himself eternal life. Ah, ignorant, proud, vain attempt! This, however, he resolutely persists in doing until he is made to despair of ever being able to procure salvation for himself in the way of that covenant. Indeed, this natural bent of the depraved heart toward the way of the law as a covenant, together with deep ignorance of the high demands of the law in that form, is the source of all the self-righteousness that is in the world. To take sinners off from this to a cordial reliance only on the righteousness of the second Adam for all their title to salvation is a special part of the Holy Spirit’s work in conviction and conversion, and to do it requires a greater exertion of His almighty power than even to create a world.
John Colquhoun | A Treatise on the Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 41–42 (emphasis added).
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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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Angela, I am reading the 2024 reissue Two Cities, Two Loves: Christian Responsibility in a Crumbling Culture by James Montgomery Boice. This is a sort of current application of Augustine’s The City of God, to help Christians discern “how [Christians should] relate to the world in which they live . . .” I commend the entire book, but of particular relevance and help is Part 2: The Two Cities Today. The first chapter speaks directly to your comment above and is beautifully lucid and decisive, even though the book was first published in the 1990s. If I may riff on that fact, this illustrates for me that heresy is never new, never creative because it cannot be, and wisdom is timeless.
Thanks for the great suggestion.
This is such a timely quote, in view of the covenant nomism of the Wilson and the CREC who advocate a conditional covenant of grace, where final justification depends on the life lived in faithfulness and obedience. False religion is any religion that does not trust completely in Christ’s sacrificial death and perfect obedience for our justification. This is the hinge on which the church stands or falls, according to the Reformers.