In “Faces of Antinomianism,” Sinclair Ferguson said, “We learn in the gospel that we need to be delivered from the way in which the law beats us and condemns us.” Yet it often happens that the way in which people seek to deliver themselves is by denying that the law of God, the commandments of God, have any significant place in the Christian life. “That is antinomianism. And it comes in various shapes and sizes.”
The term antinomianism comes from the word “anti,” “against,” and “nomos,” “law.” It is a view that suggests there is no place in the Christian life for the Old Testament law of God. This view came into the Church during the time of the Reformation. Initially, Martin Luther understood the law of God as the instrument that had crushed him to death. So, in his earlier ministry he had a tendency to see the law of God as his enemy.
One of Luther’s disciples, Agricola, began to teach the law was an unnecessary carry-over from the Old Testament and too similar to the Roman Catholic emphasis on good works. Agricola said: “The law has nothing to do with the Christian believer.” After Agricola’s denial of the significance of the law to Christians, Luther realized his own error and opposed what he called “antinomianism.” Luther even writing a treatise, “Against the Antinomians.” Afterwards, Luther’s theology began to change and in Ferguson’s view, became more biblical.
Ferguson said there were at least four kinds of antinomianism. The first kind appears in a doctrinal form. This error can be seen in the lives of individuals whose personal Christian experience is otherwise praiseworthy and who are known as model Christians. In the seventeenth century there were several well-known antinomian individuals, men such as John Eaton and Tobias Crisp. They had been deep-seated legalists who thought the only way they could be free from the condemnation of the law was to take Paul’s teaching that we are free from the law as applying to the totality of life.
“All that we do now is trust in the Holy Spirit.” Contrasting the old covenant and the law, they said the key thing in the Christian life is the indwelling of the Spirit. “And if the Spirit indwells us, then we will be safely guided by the Spirit as to how to live for God and for His glory.” In other words, by relying on the Holy Spirit, we can live by the exhortations of the New Testament. “The problem with that, of course …, is that it didn’t take account of the way in which the New Testament speaks about the commandments of the law still being relevant to the Christian life.”
One example is In Ephesians 6, where Paul referred to the commandment for children to honor their parents as the first one with a promise. Paul seems to assume here the Christians in Ephesus will keep the Ten Commandments. “And so, it’s important for us to see that while God in Christ delivers us from the condemnation of the law, what He does is actually turn the condemning law into our friend rather than our enemy.” Another example, noted later on, is in the Sermon on the Mount.
Today, there is a kind of exegetical antinomianism. Often scholars argue that whereas the Ten Commandments were important under the old covenant, they are no longer significant under the new covenant. Agricola believed the Ten Commandments belonged in the courthouse, not in the pulpit, saying: “To the gallows with Moses!”
In contrast, the Westminster Confession of Faith said the law has three dimensions in the Old Testament. It has a moral dimension, it has a civil dimension in the Old Testament, and it has a ceremonial dimension. The Westminster Divines thought through Jesus Christ, the ceremonial law was fulfilled, so we no longer need to keep the Old Testament liturgical rights. The civil law was given to a particular people rather than intended to be applied to all peoples. Apart from the fact that we can still learn from its principles, the civil law is also abrogated.
But the moral law, the Ten Commandments, they continue because they were given by God as a design for our lives in this world.
Exegetical antinomians argued that the law was the law. It was all one law without facets or dimensions that could be separated. When the New Testament tells us the law of Moses has gone, it meant that we are no longer under the law. Pointing to Scriptures like Romans 6:14 and Galatians 5:18, they argued that the law of Moses was ended. “We live now by the teaching of the New Testament.” We shouldn’t turn back to the teachings of the Old Testament, particularly to thinking that Christians should live by the Ten Commandments.
Ferguson astutely said if you ask scholars that hold this view, “Which of the commandments can I forget?” It becomes obvious they don’t really want to discard the Ten Commandments. “The problem here is the Commandments in Exodus 20 are actually the design that God wrote into the hearts of Adam and Eve at creation.” When that law was broken, God rewrote it for them. “Their fuzzy minds needed the law to be written down for them.”
There may be elements in the Ten Commandments that are not relevant to us today, but the basic principles are surely the very principles that Jesus expounds in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not saying there you can forget about the Old Testament law. Rather, he is saying, “I want you to understand what that Old Testament law really said, because it went far deeper than the teachers you have actually say today.” In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Then there is a kind of antinomianism that comes with an experiential face. This is seen with Christians who seem to think that because they are Christians, they can live fast and loose to the law of the land. “And if they live that way with respect to the law of the land, it’s highly probable they’re living that way with respect to the law of God.” Their attitude is that their sins are forgiven. “Experiential antinomianism manifests itself in a life of sin that presumes upon the work of Christ in our forgiveness and freedom from the law, as well as presuming upon the work of the Holy Spirit.”
In effect, they say: “I made my decision, so it really doesn’t matter what happens thereafter.” Ferguson said what is tragic about this is, not only does it fail to understand the law, it also fails to understand how the gospel works.
In Romans 8:3-4 Paul said God did in Christ what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. According to Ferguson anyone who says they don’t need the Ten Commandments because they walk by the Spirit, they live in the Spirit, they have the Spirit, has not really read Romans. What experiential antinomianism doesn’t grasp is that the object of Christ’s work is to transform us into His image and to enable us to live godly lives in accordance with the law by His Spirit. Experiential antinomians have not appreciated the beautiful harmony that the New Testament teaches between the law of God and the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
There is a fourth kind of antinomianism that is really a form of experiential antinomianism, but it comes in a particular form. People frequently say, “God loves me the way I am,” so, they stay just the way they are. There are two things wrong with that kind of thinking. The first thing is God loves you despite the way you are. “So long as I think that God loves me the way I am and because I am the way I am, I have no sense of His love whatsoever.”
The second thing wrong with saying God loves me just the way I am is that because He loves you, God doesn’t mean to leave you the way you are. That’s not what love does. “Now what we see is not only a misunderstanding of law, and a misunderstanding of grace and gospel and Christ, we see a misunderstanding of love.”
Love is so loving it will never want us to remain the way we are, because it’s not good for us to be the way we are. And so when we are loved with God’s everlasting love and embraced into His family, His love wants to make us like Himself.
So, what is the relationship between the law and the gospel, the law and the Spirit? “The law is the train tracks on which our life runs. The Holy Spirit is the engine that drives the train forward to live for God’s glory.” When we see these things, we will be delivered from the fear and possibility of antinomianism.
This article has been based on “Faces of Antinomianism,” the 7th video in Sinclair Ferguson’s teaching series, The Whole Christ, from Ligonier Connect. Here is a link to Ligonier Connect. The video series is itself based upon his book of the same name. You can review summaries of the Marrow Controversy here and here. If the topic interests you, look for more of my ruminations under the link, The Whole Christ.
