There once was a rich man who owned a mining company and he had agreed with his workers that a certain share of the gold that they mined would be distributed to them at the end of each week in exchange for their time of labor. A certain laborer's brother had fallen on hard times; he was crippled, both of his legs being broken, and so was incapacitated and unable to work. So the laborer decided he would give his weeks' earnings to his crippled brother. Once the week had been completed and the laborer had earned his wages in gold, he went and gave the gold to his brother. But when the brother's neighbor had heard about this, he went and brought an accusation against the brother. The neighbor argued that the brother had not completed the requisite amount of labor in the mines in order to earn the gold. Upon hearing this, the laborer and his brother stared at the neighbor in shock. "You...want my brother to work in the mines...so that I can give him my gold?", asked the laborer in utter confusion. Seeing then that the laborer's brother was in no capacity to mine, having two legs broken and all, he felt compassion for him and the neighbor then suggested, "Yes, but we should reduce his requisite mining time from a week to only just a day - though he forgot that there would be insufficient gold for only a days work, anyways - At this, the laborer sharply rebuked the neighbor's foolishness, saying, "I, on my part, have worked to earn my wages, but as for my brother to whom I give this freely, no work is required. That which I had to work to earn, I now freely give to him. For no work can be required for that which has already been earned, even as no work can be required for that which is freely given".
This story serves to show the utter foolishness of the neonomians, who mix Gospel and Law, and conflate the Covenant of Works with the Covenant of Grace. We here see two different principles: The Covenant of Works the laborer was under, and the Covenant of Grace that he places his brother in to.
In case it is not already evident, here is the explanation of the story: The rich man is God the Father. The agreement between him and the laborers is the Covenant of Redemption, Christ's Covenant of Works. The laborer is Christ. The laborer's crippled brother is a sinner, whom Christ seeks to make a Christian. His broken legs are his total depravity and sinfulness. The completion of the week is the resurrection of Christ, following his righteous life. The gold is the righteous obedience of Christ and all of its consequent benefits. The neighbor is Satan in the form of a neonomian. His initial error is that of nomism. He wishes to place the brother under a Covenant of Works as the laborer was under. His absurd logic is seen in the shock of the laborer and his brother, for he assumes that in order for a gift to be given to someone, they must, for some reason, have first earned it. His second error following his "compassion" is that of neonomianism. In his lowering of the required standard, he commits the sin of antinomianism, requiring less than a perfect righteousness, which alone is sufficient for justification. And what's more, beyond lowering the amount of labor required so that the gold ends up being insufficient, it is absurd for the neighbor to believe that the brother can provide even a day of labor given his broken legs and incapacitated condition. The transfer of the gold to the brother is the imputation of Christ's obedience and represents, along with the laborer's final rebuke, the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel.
We see then that the neonomian commits a twofold error, both of them being opposites, yet he does so at the same time! First, he commits the error of antinomianism on the part of God in the lowering of the Law to an imperfect and incomplete standard, and in doing so, he also commits the error of nomism on the part of man, forcing him to meet the demands of law in the Covenant of Grace. Believing a "new, more gracious law than that of Moses" to be the Gospel, he subtly turns the Covenant of Grace into a new and deformed Covenant of Works, forcing men back into the bondage of the Law under the guise of "grace".
