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

Hardly Pete. Scripture is very clear that sin will have dominion over us if we are under law, but doesn't because we are not under law but under grace. Take a look at your own life Pete, the thoughts and lusts within your heart and be honest with yourself - the law isn't quenching them is it? They are still there. In fact the more you tell yourself "Thou shalt not commit adultery", the more your mind starts to lust after women, the more the law condemns you. It brings no life Pete, no deliverance. As Paul found out in Romans 7, the law only fires up the sin within.

You see it is what comes out of the heart that defiles a man Pete. It is in the inward parts, in the heart, in the mind, that sin in the flesh springs up. You can put on a fair show of religion outwardly using the law. Before other men you can appear very holy, but what are you like within? Are the sinful thoughts and desires still there? As Christ said unto the Pharisees:


Likewise Paul speaks in 2 Timothy 3:5 of those who have "a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof". Outward conformity to the law isn't enough. What of the inward parts? God desires truth in the inward parts, and the law doesn't produce that, it cannot produce it, in fact it simply stirs up sin within us. It demands righteousness but produces the very opposite because of the sin which is in our flesh - believer or unbeliever. The law exposes the sin which is within us, even reaching to the thoughts and intentions of the heart but it provides no ability to alter those thoughts and intentions. It just condemns us.

Only the Gospel produces this righteousness which is not only outward, but inward. It is entirely the work of God. As David knew, and wrote of in Psalm 51:


What we need Pete, what we long for, what we desire is more than a form of godliness, more than outward appearances. No, we want the real thing. Truth in the inward parts. Deliverance from sin, and the dominion of sin. In the mind, the thoughts, the affections, the heart. True Godliness in the inward man, producing Godly conduct outwardly as a result.

Now listen to Paul, a better man than both myself and Spurgeon, a man who wrote as inspired by the Holy Spirit, who gives us this Godly wisdom, to lead us unto Godly lives:-