The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum ...The people miscalled Antinomians ?

Mark,

Is a fish free if you take it out of the water? Of course not, for God created it to live in the water. Is a man free it he doesn't have to live according to God's moral law? Certainly not, for God has created him to live with it. Our freedom in Christ doesn't give us a license to sin. Paul writes, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!" (Romans 6:1)

Paul goes on to say, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6:15,16)

My Geneva Study Bible has some excellent theological notes on this topic. I'll include them here and hopefully you'll find they answer not only your questions but also help you to see the purpose for God's law.


The Law of God

Human beings were not created autonomous (that is, free to be a law to themselves) but theonomous-subject to the law of God. This was not a hardship, because God had created man in such a way that grateful obedience would bring him the highest happiness. Duty and delight would have coincided, as they did in Jesus (John 4:34; cf. Ps. 112:1; 119:14, 16, 47, 97-113, 127, 128, 163-167). The fallen human heart hates God's law, both because it is a law and because it comes from God. Those who know Christ, however, find not only that they love the law and want to keep it, both to please God and out of gratitude for grace (Rom. 7:18-22; 12:1,2), but also that the Holy Spirit leads them into a degree of obedience that was never theirs before (Rom. 7:6; 8:4-6; Heb. 10:16).

God's moral law is abundantly set forth in Scripture, in the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), other statues by Moses, sermons by the prophets, the teaching of Jesus, and the New Testament letters. The law reflects God's holy character and His purposes for created human beings. God commands the behavior that pleases Him and forbids what offends Him. Jesus summarizes the moral law in the two great commandments, to love God and to love your neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). He says that on these two depend all the Old Testament moral instructions. The moral teaching of Christ and His apostles is the old law deepened and reapplied to the new circumstances - life in the kingdom of God, where the Savior reigns, and in the post-Pentecost era of the Spirit, when God's people are called to live sanctified lives in the midst of a hostile world (John 17:6-19).

Biblical law is of various sorts. Moral laws command the personal and community behavior that is always our duty. The political laws of the Old Testament applied principals of the moral law to Israel's national situation when Israel was a theocracy, God's people on earth. The Old Testament laws about ceremonial purity, diet, and sacrifices were temporary enactments for purposes of instruction. They were canceled by the New Testament because their symbolic meaning had been fulfilled (Matt. 15:20; Mark 7:15-19; Acts 10:9-16; Heb. 10:1-14; 13:9,10).

The mingling of moral, judicial, and ritual law in the Mosaic books carried the message that life under God is to be seen and lived, not compartmentally, but as a many-sided unity, and also that God's authority as legislator gave equal force to the entire code. However, the laws were of different kinds, with different purposes. The political and ceremonial laws were of limited application, while it seems clear both from the immediate context and from the rest of His teaching that Jesus affirmation of the unchanging universal force of God's law relates to the moral law as such (Matt. 5:17-19; cf. Luke 16:16,17).

God requires the total obedience of each person to all the implications of His law. As the Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 99, says. the law binds "the whole man... unto obedience forever"; it is spiritual, and so reacheth the understanding, will, affections, and all other powers of the soul as well as the words, works, and gestures." In other words, desires as well as actions must be right; Jesus condemns the hypocrisy that tries to hide inner corruption with an outward show (Matt. 15:7, 8, 23:25-28). Furthermore, the corollaries of the law are part of its content; "where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden; and, where sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded."


Wes