The gospel way versus natural religion
June 30, 2009
The end of the parable of the prodigal son and the joyful Father examines the older son, the one who remained at home and served his father, thinking his service merited his father’s love. In other words, he was a legalist.
These few lines from the Puritan Thomas Boston capture the natural tendency of sinful human nature toward legalism:
“In the way of the gospel, the sinner must stand before the Lord in an imputed righteousness, but corrupt nature is for an inherent righteousness; and, therefore, so far as natural men follow after righteousness, they follow after ‘the law of righteousness’ (Romans 9:31-32), and not after ‘the LORD our righteousness.’ Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some ground for boasting, but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting (Romans 3:27). The sum of our natural religion is, to do good from and for ourselves (John 5:44); the sum of the gospel religion is, to deny ourselves, and to good from and for Christ (Philippians 1:21).
–Thomas Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State (emphasis added)