Antinomianism, Legalism, and the Gospel

Antinomianism:

This is the fancy word for the concept of believer’s being free from the demands of the law through God’s grace.

We arrive at this concept through a couple things. First, God has indeed forgiven us all our sin. Second, especially here in America, love grants tremendous license. Because God is love, surely He doesn’t require all the extra?

The apostle Paul argues in Romans 6:1

Romans 6:1 NASB95

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

We are set free from specific, cultural aspects of the law; the mosaic law was intended to be a specific morality for a specific people group. What we are not set free from is obedience, since Christ Himself says in John 14:15 ““If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

God’s grace is not free, it came at great cost.

Legalism

Legalism is the view directly opposite antinomianism. This view says we, and others, must have strict conformity towards moral and religious laws.

Essentially, this view believes you earn God’s favor through moral exertion. The better you perform in keeping biblical commands, the more God favors you.

See, legalism suffers the same problem as its cousin, antinomianism, just on the opposite end of the pole. That problem is it’s not good transformative.

Paul acknowledges in Gal. 2:20-21

Galatians 2:20–21 NASB95

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

Simply, your righteousness does not come from the law. Neither does it come from how many bible stories or verses you can memorize.

The Gospel

So what do we do? Grace isn’t free, which means I can’t behave however I want. But keeping the commands perfectly, or imperfectly, doesn’t curry any extra favor. What’s the deal with that?

Between these two camps is the gospel.

Jesus dies on the cross and rises again on the third day; pretty classic. But there’s more here.

Why did Jesus have to die?

Isaiah 53:5–6 NASB95

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Gen. 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.””

What does His death accomplish?

Rom. 5:8-9 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

Romans 6 NASB95

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The gospel tells us that Christ died for us. God’s grace applies to us because Christ bore the penalty of our sin; and now His new life is imparted to those who believe.

For the legalist, this means your efforts didn’t earn God’s favor, Jesus’s did.

For the antinomian, this means your grace was not free, and that in identifying with Jesus’s death and life you must now live as He lives. Rom. 6:12-18

Romans 6:12–18 NASB95

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.