A Critique of John Colquhoun’s The Law and The Gospel

Section 1 (Pt.1): Is the “moral” law of God as the unchangeable nature of God inscribed on the heart of Man in God’s creation as it was in Adam as the first man?

According to John Colquhoun and his proponents, the presupposition is yes because it is based on their faulty presupposition of the confusion of “natural law” and moral law. Therefore, if the leading presupposition to the equation is wrong, the concluding presupposition is bound to be wrong. So, the answer is no; the moral law is not written on the heart of the “natural” man. When we understand the image as Paul defines it in his letters to the Colossians and Ephesians (Col.3:10; Eph.4:24), we know that it can only apply to the “spiritual” man who has died in the death of the (last) Adam to rise no more as the sinner but is risen in the Lord from heaven as the heavenly man because he is a new creation according to ‘knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.’ The natural man CANNOT possess these characteristics in truth. The “knowledge” or “conscience” that is in them as natural is under the natural law of sin and is not spiritually educated by the knowledge of God (1 Cor.15:34; Rom.8:2-8). The moral law was framed according to the economy of the garden, which was eternal life. This image is only preserved through the Lord from heaven descending into the earth like an incorruptible seed of objective truth (Jn.12:50).

Therefore, I agree with Colquhoun that the “moral” and sufficient power to obey the law was included in the image of God, but again, that was the law as it was framed under the economic condition of the garden. The loss of the garden is the loss of the moral image because the image was according to “Our likeness,” which is the likeness of eternal life according to the economy of grace descended from the economy of heaven. Therefore, since all things come into the world through Adam, only Adam could have sinned according to the economy of that likeness.

Romans 5:14 (NKJV)

14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who [is] a type of Him who was to come.

Notice that the Greek grammar makes Adam the only type of representative of that likeness since it is in the present active voice. Adam stands as that representative who failed. So, he represents the loss of the image according to the likeness of sin, which is imputed to him that he created in the others coming into the world through him according to that fallen likeness.

Romans 5:19 (NKJV)

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

So then, how can that image of the heavenly likeness be written upon the heart of the natural man who sins? How can the moral law abide with the law of sin apart from the regeneration of a new economy that triumphs over the law of sin and death?

Romans 8:6–8 (NKJV)

6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

John 3:6–7 (NKJV)

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Jeremiah 13:23 (NKJV)

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

John 4:24 (NKJV)

24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

How, then, can it be the law “materially” considered inscribed on the heart of the natural man when the natural man does no spiritual good? It certainly isn’t talking about the law formally considered, which comes later as the “whole” law according to the spiritual good of those conformed to the moral law as the spiritual good.

Galatians 5:3 (NKJV)

3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

James 2:10–13 (NKJV)

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Romans 8:28–30 (NKJV)

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

So then, the presupposition of Covenant Theology treats the moral law formally and materially, undermining the economic nature of the moral law that supersedes the natural realm of the economy of sin in the natural man.

For they seek to “change” the law while calling it moral, but if morality is directly associated with God’s unchanging character, then they reduce the moral law down to a nature that is required to change, which is why they excuse themselves for changing the sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of week going beyond what is written. In this, they claim God changed “the seals” of the covenant of grace. However, the ‘weekly’ sabbath was never a seal of the moral image but a shadow created according to the economy of natural law. Such laws Christ was born under, but such laws were not the seal of His moral character.

John 6:27–29 (NKJV)

27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” 28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Therefore, Christ was never under a covenant of works (as a seal) in order to “fulfill” the law and the prophets. While he did not work apart from the law and the prophets, his moral seal was independent from them.

John 10:7–8 (NKJV)

7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.