For Paul, the idea that a Christian would still want to live in sin is paradoxical.  Our very justification has given sin a death blow.  There is a real sense in which as a Christian, I am no longer enslaved to sin.  God has through the blood of Jesus redeemed me and has given me an identity as a righteous and perfect person.  In this sense, no real Christian is an antinomian. 

Theology becomes a dangerous weapon when its terms become rhetorical arrows with which to shoot adversaries instead of tools that are supposed to lend clarity to whatever topic is under discussion.  Antinomianism is perhaps one of the most abused terms in theological discourse.  It is meant to be a characterization of a theological position, but it often becomes a word employed to call in question one’s ethical or spiritual condition as well.

Sadly, those who often use the term “antinomian” do so to cast a suspicious shadow over those who hold theological positions regarding ethics and holy living differing from their own.  Where such an expression as “antinomian” is accurate, then no harm is done, but where it is inaccurate, one has not only misleadingly described an opponent’s theological position but what is worse has slandered the position’s bearer.  Whatever else can be said in favor of the use of the term antinomian, it must be insisted upon that it is never a term to be thrown around casually.  For unlike other theological labels such as antitrinitarian or Arminian, the term “antinomian” is intentionally or unintentionally calculated to create a false perception of an individual’s character who may hold that believers under the New Testament dispensation are not under the law.  To be clear, no Christian who takes Scripture’s constant injunctions to holy living seriously has much credibility if he insists that those who belong to Christ are exempt from living a holy life because they have been saved by the grace of God.

With any aspect of Christianity under discussion, participants have an obligation to be as rhetorically varied in their approach as Jesus was when He taught.  Observing the different ways in which Jesus approached people is one of the most instructive lessons we can glean from the Gospels.  He reserved His most inflexible statements of judgment and condemnation for the self-righteous and not for those who knew that they needed a physician.  Rhetorical sensitivity might serve the Church well if more of her teachers exercised it with the caution required for properly shepherding those under her care.  Such is surely the case with the important topic of antinomianism.

Antinomian literally means against the law.  In a Christian context, someone is an antinomian if he believes that the claims of God’s law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments for example, are no longer binding on him as a Christian.

“Christ has kept the law for me, so I therefore have no further obligation to obey it.”  John of course in his first letter warns anyone who makes such a profession that a self-conscious exemption from keeping the commandments of God excludes one from being able to say truthfully that one knows God (1 John 2:3-4).

James tells his readers that those who claim to have faith apart from works have a dead faith (James 2).  John and James take it for granted that Christian faith is faith that produces action, tangible action in fact.  James writes: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lack in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (2:16).  This is just one example, but it illustrates the high premium placed on treating human beings well, in this context, fellow Christians, if one’s faith is to pass muster as the genuine article and not to be reduced to mere prattling.

Lest anyone thinks that James is unique in his emphasis on works as a necessary evidence of genuine faith in Christ, Paul reiterates the point in Romans 6.  Paul outlines justification more fully than any writer of the New Testament.  We are justified, made right with God through faith in Christ alone.  Such justifying faith places us in a state of peace with God (Romans 5:1).  Such faith is the gift of God; we do not earn it, and nor are we saved (justified) on the basis of how good or bad we have been (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Read More