In matters of doctrine, you will find orthodox congregations frequently change to heterodoxy in the course of thirty or forty years, and that is because too often there has been no catechising of the children in the essential doctrines of the gospel. For my part, I am more and more persuaded that the study of a good Scriptural catechism is of infinite value to our children, and I shall see that it is reprinted as cheaply as possible for your use. Even if the youngsters do not understand all the questions and answers in the “Westminster Assembly’s Catechism,” yet, abiding in their memories, it will be of infinite service when the time of understanding comes, to have known those very excellent, wise, and judicious definitions of the things of God. If we would maintain orthodoxy in our midst, and see good old Calvinistic doctrines handed down from father to son, I think we must use the method of catechising, and endeavour with all our might to impregnate their minds with the things of God. It will be a blessing to them— the greatest of all blessings— a blessing in life and death, in time and eternity, the best of blessings God himself can give.
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/a-promise-for-us-and-for-our-children/#flipbook/
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There has been much confusion over the relationship of the Law of God (the Ten Commandments) to the believer throughout church history and especially in our day. There are antinomians who, in one way or another, deny the Law of God, whether it is by crossing out the 4 th Commandment, or by saying that the Law was only for the Jews and has no place in the Christian’s life, or by declaring that God broke his Law in order to love (as one famous heretic
recently said). On the other side, there are legalists who put believers back under the Law as a covenant of works. They use the threat of judgment in order to effect change. They suspend believers’ justification and keep the threat of condemnation possible until believers strive to produce an undetermined amount of holiness (which they are always left guessing and which only the pastor or preacher can determine) in order to keep people incentivized to pursue holiness. In all of this, there is great confusion over the relationship of the Law to the believer.
               A helpful pedagogical tool that the Reformers used is called the three uses of the Law. They get this from the Apostle Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 1:8 where he says, “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.” Obviously, the Law is good no matter what, but what Paul is talking about here is good versus bad uses of the Law. The Law is good in relationship to a sinner only if it is used lawfully (that is, correctly). Thus, the issue is the right or correct use of the Law.
            So, then, how does one use the Law lawfully or correctly? Well, based on
taking into consideration the whole counsel of God (that is, all the Scriptures and drawing non-contradictory, accurate conclusions from it) the Reformers give three correct uses of the Law.
               The first (sometimes enumerated differently) is that the Law is referred to as the pedagogical use - that is, the Law teaches us the greatness of our sin and misery in order to lead us to Christ. This comes from what Paul goes on to immediately say in 1 Timothy 1:9: “understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…” The Greek word for “laid down” means “laid or placed upon.” The sense of word comes across in our saying, “I’m going to lay down the law!” When we say this, we are referring to someone who has already done something wrong and needs to be confronted with their wrong-doing. This is what Paul is referring to here. The Law is laid down or laid upon sinners. That is, it shows them the greatness of their sin and misery and therefore their need for Christ. It is meant to lead them to be justified only through faith in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:19-24).
         The second use of the Law is what is referred to as the civil use - that is, it restrains evil in the civil realm. There are laws against murder and stealing in every society that come with penal consequences in order to deter evil. This does not actually produce a true righteousness from the heart; rather, it merely restrains certain expressions of the evil heart through consequences. Disciplining our children is another example of this use. Our discipline does not
actually regenerate their heart and make them truly obedience with a heart of faith and repentance; only the gospel can do that. Rather, it merely restrains or deters their disobedience by teaching them that there are consequences for their actions.
          The third use of the Law is that it is the rule of life - that is, it is the rule for how we or to live our life; it guides us in how we are to live out of gratitude to God for saving us. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Law of God (the Ten Commandments) expresses God’s will for our life (Rom. 2:18). After spending eleven chapters declaring to us God’s glorious gospel and how he has saved us, he then goes on to tell us to keep the Commandments because this is how we love our neighbor as ourselves (Rom. 13:8-10). He does the same in Galatians 5:13-14. So, Paul’s conclusion to us being saved is not that we set aside the Law or have no use of it any longer, but rather the exact opposite: that we keep the Law because we have been saved by Christ’s death and resurrection from both the penalty and power of sin. While we are not saved by keeping the Law, yet one of the purposes for us being saved is in order to keep the Law. So, the issue is not the Law itself, as if it must now be set aside, but rather in the use of the Law. We must use it lawfully.
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originally posted 4/13/2021
Brian Onstead is pastor of Trinity Bible Church in Powell, WY (https://tbcwyoming.com/). He was born and raised in Omaha, NE where he was saved and met his wife Jackie. He then spent three years in San Diego, CA where he attended Westminster Seminary California and the Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies. After graduating in 2015, he moved to Montana where he pastored a church for 4 years. In 2019, he moved to Powell, WY where he currently resides. He and his wife have been married for 10 years and have two young children. You can find his sermons on sermon audio and follow him on Twitter (@brianonstead).

Our society has cast off God. One very obvious result is that we have lost what it means to be human. The nature of God and the nature of mankind may be the two most important questions of our time. The Bible teaches that human beings are God’s images (Gen 1:27; 9:6). That means God created us to reflect His likeness in and through our human natures. Our natures have two parts: soul and body. Classical Christianity said that the soul is the “form of the body,” meaning that the soul is the animating, organizing, and forming principle of the human body. It is made for the human body. As such, the soul is not made to exist without the body, even though it can do so temporarily, if the body dies. Without the body, the soul is an incomplete human. This is why when Christ returns, He will rejoin our souls to glorified bodies, and we will live forever in the new heavens and the new earth, body and soul together (1 Cor 15:42-44; Phil 3:21). If the soul is the form of the body, then the body, as God made it, must be very important to imaging God. We should not toy around with it. 
Today’s Heresy

II. The second proposition is, that the way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded.
‘If ye continue grounded and settled.' The Greek word for grounded is a metaphor which alludes to a building that has the foundation well laid. So Christians should be grounded in the essential points of religion, and have their foundation well laid.

Here let me speak to two things:
[1] That we should be grounded in the knowledge of fundamentals. The apostle speaks of ‘the first principles of the oracles of God.' Heb 5:12. In all arts and sciences, logic, physic, mathematics, there are some praecognita, some rules and principles that must necessarily be known for the practice of those arts; so, in divinity, there must be the first principles laid down. The knowledge of the grounds and principles of religion is exceedingly useful.

(1.) Else we cannot serve God aright. We can never worship God acceptably, unless we worship him regularly; and how can we do that, if we are ignorant of the rules and elements of religion? We are to give God a ‘reasonable service.' Rom 12:2: If we understand not the grounds of religion, how can it be a reasonable service?

(2.) Knowledge of the grounds of religion much enriches the mind. It is a lamp to our feet; it directs us in the whole course of Christianity, as the eye directs the body. Knowledge of fundamentals is the golden key that opens the chief mysteries of religion; it gives us a whole system and body of divinity, exactly drawn in all its lineaments and lively colours; it helps us to understand many of those difficult things which occur in the reading of the word; it helps to untie many Scripture knots.

(3.) It furnishes us with armour of proof; weapons to fight against the adversaries of the truth.

(4.) It is the holy seed of which grace is formed. It is semen fidei, the seed of faith. Psa 9:10. It is radix amoris, the root of love. Eph 3:17. ‘Being rooted and grounded in love.' The knowledge of principles conduces to the making of a complete Christian.

[2] This grounding is the best way to being settled: ‘grounded and settled.' A tree, that it may be well settled, must be well rooted; so, if you would be well settled in religion, you must be rooted in its principles. We read in Plutarch of one who set up a dead man, and he would not stand. ‘Oh,' said he, ‘there should be something within.' So, that we may stand in shaking times, there must be a principle of knowledge within; first grounded, and then settled. That the ship may be kept from overturning, it must have its anchor fastened. Knowledge of principles is to the soul as the anchor to the ship, that holds it steady in the midst of the rolling waves of error, or the violent winds of persecution. First grounded and then settled.

Use one: See the reason why so many people are unsettled, ready to embrace every novel opinion, and dress themselves in as many religions as fashions; it is because they are ungrounded. See how the apostle joins these two together, 'unlearned and unstable.' 2 Pet 3:16. Such as are unlearned in the main points of divinity are unstable. As the body cannot be strong that has the sinews shrunk; so neither can that Christian be strong in religion who wants the grounds of knowledge, which are the sinews to strengthen and stablish him.
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Use two: See what great necessity there is of laying down the main grounds of religion in a way of catechising, that the weakest judgement may be instructed in the knowledge of the truth, and strengthened in the love of it. Catechising is the best expedient for the grounding and settling of people. I fear one reason why there has been no more good done by preaching, has been because the chief heads and articles in religion have not been explained in a catechistical way. Catechising is laying the foundation. Heb 6:6: To preach and not to catechise is to build without foundation. This way of catechising is not novel, it is apostolic. The primitive church had their forms of catechism, as those phrases imply, a ‘form of sound words,' 2 Tim 1:13, end ‘the first principles of the oracles of God,' Heb 5:52. The church had its catechumenoi, as Grotius and Erasmus observe. Many of the ancient fathers have written for it, as Fulgentius, Austin, Theodoret, Lactantius, and others. God has given great success to it. By thus laying down the grounds of religion catechistically, Christians have been clearly instructed and wondrously built up in the Christian faith, insomuch that Julian the apostate, seeing the great success of catechising, put down all schools and places of public literature, and instructing of youth. It is my design, therefore (with the blessing of God); to begin this work of catechising the next Sabbath day; and I intend every other Sabbath, in the afternoon, to make it my whole work to lay down the grounds and fundamentals of religion in a catechistical way. If I am hindered in this work by men, or taken away by death, I hope God will raise up some other labourer in the vineyard among you, that may perfect the work which I am now beginning.
 

1. A Preliminary Discourse To Catechising
'If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.' - Col 1:23.

Intending next Lord's day to enter upon the work of catechising, it will not be amiss to give you a preliminary discourse, to show you how needful it is for Christians to be well instructed in the grounds of religion. ‘If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.'

I. It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith.
II. The best way for Christians to be settled is to be well grounded.

I. It is the duty of Christians to be settled in the doctrine of faith. It is the apostle's prayer, I Pet 5:10, 'The God of all grace stablish, strengthen, settle you.' That is, that they might not be meteors in the air, but fixed stars. The apostle Jude speaks of ‘wandering stars, in verse 13. They are called wandering stars, because, as Aristotle says, ‘They do leap up and down, and wander into several parts of the heaven; and being but dry exhalations, not made of that pure celestial matter as the fixed stars are, they often fall to the earth.' Now, such as are not settled in religion, will, at one time or other, prove wandering stars; they will lose their former steadfastness, and wander from one opinion to another. Such as are unsettled are of the tribe of Reuben, ‘unstable as water,' Gen 49:4; like a ship without ballast, overturned with every wind of doctrine. Beza writes of one Belfectius, that his religion changed as the moon. The Arians had every year a new faith. These are not pillars in the temple of God, but reeds shaken every way. The apostle calls them ‘damnable heresies.' 2 Pet 2:2. A man may go to hell as well for heresy as adultery. To be unsettled in religion, argues want of judgement. If their heads were not giddy, men would not reel so fast from one opinion to another. It argues lightness. As feathers will be blown every way, so will feathery Christians. Triticum non rapit ventus inanes palae jactantur. Cyprian. Therefore such are compared to children. Eph 4:14. ‘That we be no more children, tossed to and fro.' Children are fickle sometimes of one mind sometimes of another, nothing pleases them long; so unsettled Christians are childish; the truths they embrace at one time, they reject at another; sometimes they like the Protestant religion, and soon after they have a good mind to turn Papists.

[1] It is the great end of the word preached, to bring us to a settlement in religion. Eph 4:41, 12, 14. ‘And he gave some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the edifying of the body of Christ; that we henceforth be no more children.' The word is called a hammer. Jer 23:29. Every blow of the hammer is to fasten the nails of the building; so the preacher's words are to fasten you the more to Christ; they weaken themselves to strengthen and settle you. This is the grand design of preaching, not only for the enlightening, but for the establishing of souls; not only to guide them in the right way, but to keep them in it. Now, if you be not settled, you do not answer God's end in giving you the ministry.

[2] To be settled in religion is both a Christian's excellence and honour. It is his excellence. When the milk is settled it turns to cream; now he will be zealous for the truth, and walk in close communion with God. And his honour. Prov 16:31. ‘The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.' It is one of the best sights to see an old disciple; to see silver hairs adorned with golden virtues.

[3] Such as are not settled in the faith can never suffer for it. Sceptics in religion hardly ever prove martyrs. They that are not settled hang in suspense; when they think of the joys of heaven they will espouse the gospel, but when they think of persecution they desert it. Unsettled Christians do not consult what is best, but what is safest. ‘The apostate (says Tertullian) seems to put God and Satan in balance, and having weighed both their services, prefers the devil's service, and proclaims him to be the best master: and, in this sense, may be said to put Christ to open shame.' Heb 6:6. He will never suffer for the truth, but be as a soldier that leaves his colours, and runs over to the enemy's side; he will fight on the devil's side for pay.

[4] Not to be settled in the faith is provoking to God. To espouse the truth, and then to fall away, brings an ill report upon the gospel, which will not go unpunished. Psa 78:87, 59. ‘They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.' The apostate drops as a wind-fall into the devil's mouth.

[5] If ye are not settled in religion, you will never grow. We are commanded ‘to grow up into the head, even Christ.' Eph 4:15. But if we are unsettled there is no growing: ‘the plant which is continually removing never thrives.' He can no more grow in godliness, who is unsettled, than a bone can grow in the body that is out of joint.

[6] There is great need to be settled, because there are so many things to unsettle us. Seducers are abroad, whose work is to draw away people from the principles of religion. I John 2:26. ‘These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.' Seducers are the devil's factors; they are of all others the greatest felons that would rob you of the truth. Seducers have silver tongues, that can put off bad wares; they have a sleight to deceive. Eph 4:14. The Greek word there is taken from those that can throw dice, and cast them for the best advantage. So seducers are impostors, they can throw a dice; they can so dissemble and sophisticate the truth, that they can deceive others. Seducers deceive by wisdom of words. Rom 16:68. ‘By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple.' They have fine elegant phrases, flattering language, whereby they work on the weaker sort. Another sleight is a pretence of extraordinary piety, that so people may admire them, and suck in their doctrine. They seem to be men of zeal and sanctity, and to be divinely inspired, and pretend to new revelations. A third cheat of seducers is, labouring to vilify and nullify sound orthodox teachers. They would eclipse those that bring the truth, like black vapours that darken the light of heaven; they would defame others, that they themselves may be more admired. Thus the false teachers cried down Paul, that they might be received, Gal 4:17. The fourth cheat of seducers is, to preach the doctrine of liberty; as though men are freed from the moral law, the rule as well as the curse, and Christ has done all for them, and they need to do nothing. Thus they make the doctrine of free grace a key to open the door to all licentiousness. Another means is, to unsettle Christians by persecution. 2 Tim 3:12. The gospel is a rose that cannot be plucked without prickles. The legacy Christ has bequeathed is the CROSS. While there is a devil and a wicked man in the world, never expect a charter of exemption from trouble. How many fall away in an hour of persecution! Rev 12:2. ‘There appeared a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns; and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven.' The red dragon, by his power and subtilty, drew away stars, or eminent professors, that seemed to shine as stars in the firmament of the church.
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To be unsettled in good is the sin of the devils. Jude 6. They are called, ‘morning stars,' Job 38:8, but ‘falling stars;' they were holy, but mutable. As the vessel is overturned with the sail, so their sails being swelled with pride, they were overturned. I Tim 3:3. By unsettledness, men imitate lapsed angels. The devil was the first apostate. The sons of Sion should be like mount Sion, which cannot be removed.
Thomas Watson: Body of Divinity - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

​“The law is the same law, but it has lost its hold of us, its power over us. It cannot cease to challenge perfect obedience from every being under heaven, but to us its threat and terror are gone. It can still say “obey” but it cannot now say, “Disobey and perish.”” - Bonar p. 57.

Our new relationship to the law is that of Christ Himself to it. It is that of men who have met all its claims, exhausted its penalties, satisfied its demands, magnified it, and made it honorable. For our faith in God's testimony to Christ's surety obedience has made us one with Him. The relation of the law to Him is its relation to us who believe in His name. His feelings toward the law ought to be our feelings. The law looks on us as it looks on Him; we look on the law as He looks on it. And does not He say. "I delight to do thy will, 0 my God; yea thy law is within my heart" (Psa. 40:8)? - Bonar p. 58

​God speaks in two words: the law and the gospel. There is a danger in either confusing or separating them. The law commands and the gospel gives. The law says, “Do” and the gospel says, “Done!” Both are good, but God does different things through them. – Horton, Core Christianity
 
            The law is everything in Scripture that God commands. The gospel is everything in Scripture that makes promises based solely on God’s grace to us in Christ. When it comes to how we receive the promises, law and gospel are opposed, for we are saved apart from the law. The law condemns us, while the gospel is the good news that announces our justification that we are free for the first time to embrace God as our Father rather than our Judge. Lutheran and Reformed traditions distinguish three uses of the law: to expose our guilt and drive us to Christ, a civil use to restrain evil, and to guide Christian obedience. - Horton Core Christianity, 128. 

The basic principle in application is to know whether the passage is a statement of the law or of the gospel. For when the Word is preached, the law and the gospel operate differently. The law exposes the disease of sin, and as a side-effect, stimulates and stirs it up. But it provides no remedy for it. However the gospel not only teaches us what is to be done, it also has the power of the Holy Spirit joined to it…A statement of the law indicates the need for a perfect inherent righteousness, of eternal life given through the works of the law, of the sins which are contrary to the law and of the curse that is due them… By contrast, a statement of the gospel speaks of Christ and his benefits, and of faith being fruitful in good works (The Art of prophesying, 1592, repr. Banner of Truth Trust, 1996, 54-55). - William Perkins      ​

We know that you must earn money to spend money. You cannot spend what you do not have. It is a good point about stewardship of our resources, but it helps us understand this distinction about Christ’s work. Christ is spending his resources from heaven now. First, he earned those blessings in what we call impetration while he lived a perfectly righteous life on earth and when he bore God’s curse for our sin, especially as he died on the cross. He earned forgiveness and life for all who believe in him. Then, he rose from the grave. His ministry did not end at the resurrection because he ascended to heaven to intercede for us. To connect the dots, Christ Jesus is speaking in defense of, in favor of, all who trust in him right now before the throne of heaven.
Who has more reason to criticize than the perfect Jesus Christ as he looks on sinners? Could he not say, “You are such a failure! You keep defying me! You cannot get it right”? If anyone has good reason to offer criticism, it is Jesus for his people. If anyone has reason not to set aside his complaints about you, it is the Lord Jesus.
But what does Jesus do instead? He intercedes for you. Jesus Christ did not just live, die, and rise from death for you. He is speaking words of encouragement over you and about you right now. He is doing for you, on the supernatural scale, what Barnabas did for Saul.
Consider richly what it means that Jesus focuses on the good things he can say about you. He focuses on defending you and feeding you, entreating the Father to remember always that he earned heavenly blessing for you. Beautifully, Jesus is the reason why he can speak encouraging things about you. His entreating for you is not because you deserve it but because Christ has set his love on you in full grace. We speak words of encouragement to and about one another because Christ lives to speak the same for us.

In What Does The Law Differ From The Gospel? by Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583)

Zacharias Ursinus was the primary author of the Heidelberg Catechism. This short extract is taken from section four of Ursinus' exposition of question and answer 92 in his Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (english translation by G.W. Williard, Columbus OH, 1852; reprinted by P & R). The electronic edition of this text was scanned and edited by Shane Rosenthal for Reformation Ink. It is in the public domain and may be freely copied and distributed.

In What Does The Law Differ From The Gospel?
The exposition of this question is necessary for a variety of considerations, and especially that we may have a proper understanding of the law and the gospel, to which a knowledge of that in which they differ greatly contributes. According to the definition of the law, which says, that it promises rewards to those who render perfect obedience; and that it promises them freely, inasmuch as no obedience can be meritorious in the sight of God, it would seem that it does not differ from the gospel, which also promises eternal life freely. Yet notwithstanding this seeming agreement, there is a great difference between the law and the gospel. They differ,
1. As to the mode of revelation peculiar to each. The law is known naturally: the gospel was divinely revealed after the fall of man. 2. In matter or doctrine. The law declares the justice of God separately considered: the gospel declares it in connection with his mercy. The law teaches what we ought to be in order that we may be saved: the gospel teaches in addition to this, how we may become such as this law requires, viz: by faith in Christ. 3. In their conditions or promises. The law promises eternal life and all good things upon the condition of our own and perfect righteousness, and of obedience in us: the gospel promises the same blessings upon the condition that we exercise faith in Christ, by which we embrace the obedience which another, even Christ, has performed in our behalf; or the gospel teaches that we are justified freely by faith in Christ. With this faith is also connected, as by an indissoluble bond, the condition of new obedience. 4. In their effects. The law works wrath, and is the ministration of death: the gospel is the ministration of life and of the Spirit (Rom. 4:15, 2 Cor. 3:7).

This article was made available on the internet via REFORMATION INK (www.markers.com/ink). Refer any correspondence to Shane Rosenthal: ReformationInk at mac.com (connect and write as @mac.com -- when I connect them I get a lot of junk mail). яяя

                                           Martin Luther
Luther: The Law And Gospel Are Found Throughout Scripture. 
But you might say, “Isn’t there also much Law in the Gospels and in the Epistles of Paul, and again many promises in the books of Moses and the prophets?” Answer: There is no book in the Bible in which both are not found. God has always placed side by side both Law and promise. For He teaches by the Law what is to be done and by the promises where we are to receive that. But the New Testament is especially called “Gospel” above the other books because it was written after the coming of Christ, who fulfilled the divine promises, brought them to us, and publicly proclaimed them by oral preaching, which previously were concealed in the Scriptures. Therefore, hold to this distinction, and no matter what books you have before you, whether of the Old or of the New Testament, read them with this distinction so that you observe that when promises are made in a book, it is a Gospel book; when commandments are given, it is a Law book. But because in the New Testament the promises are found so abundantly, and in the Old Testament so many laws are found, the former is called “Gospel” and the latter, “the Book of the Law.”
Martin Luther | A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther (p. 64–65). Concordia Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Distinguishing between the law and the gospel is the highest art in Christendom, one who every person who values the name Christian ought to recognize, know, and possess. Where this is lacking, it is not possible to tell who is a Christian and who is a pagan or Jew. That much is at stake in this distinction.
Martin Luther, The Distinction between the Law and Gospel,” January 1, 1532, Willard Burce, translator, Concordia Journal 18 (April 1992), 153.

                                          John Bunyan

He that is dark as touching the scope, intent, and nature of the law, is also dark as to the scope, nature, and glory of the Gospel – Bunyan

obedience from wrong spirit - First, then, that man that doth take up any of the ordinances of God--namely, as prayer, baptism, breaking of bread, reading, hearing, alms-deeds, or the like; I say, he that doth practise any of these, or such like, supposing thereby to procure the love of Christ to his own soul, he doth do what he doth from a legal, and not from an evangelical or Gospel spirit - Bunyan, The Doctrine of law and grace unfolded.
 
Further example in prayer.  - for instance, prayer--it is a Gospel command; yet if he that prays doth it in a legal spirit, he doth make that which in itself is a Gospel command an occasion of leading him into a Covenant of Works, inasmuch as he doth it by and in that old covenant spirit. - Bunyan, The Doctrine of law and grace unfolded
 
Saved from – by free grace, by rich grace, by unchangeable grace. And you are saved from the curse of the law; from the power, guilt, and filth of sin; from the power, malice, madness, and rage of the devil; from the wishes, curses, and desires of wicked men; from the hot, scalding, flaming, fiery furnace of Hell; from being arraigned as malefactors, convinced, judged, condemned, and fettered with the chains of our sins to the devils to all eternity; and all this freely, freely by His grace (Rom 3:24) by rich grace unchangeable grace; for, saith He, "I am the LORD, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Mal 3:6). This is grace indeed.
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“from a Gospel spirit, and not from a legal, natural principle” Bunyan

He that is under the law, as it is a Covenant of Works (in the “do this and live” sense), is like the man that is bound by the law of his king, upon pain of banishment, or of being hanged, drawn, and quartered, not to transgress any of the commandments of the king; so here, they that are under the Covenant of Works (“do this and live”), they are bound, upon pain of eternal banishment and condemnation, to keep within the compass of the law of the God of Heaven. – Bunyan The Doctrine of law and grace unfolded

For justice once offended knoweth not how to show any pity or compassion to the offender, but runs on him like a lion, takes him by the throat, throws him into prison, and there he is sure to lie, and that to all eternity, unless infinite satisfaction be given to it, which is impossible to be given by any of us the sons of Adam. – Bunyan.