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

Ian Potts,

Let me summarize the relationship between the law and the gospel for you. To be "under the law" in one sense (Romans 6:14) excludes a person from the enjoyment of the grace which the gospel imparts; to be "under law" is the opposite of being "under grace" and means that the person is the bondslave of the condemnation and power of sin. In this sense, therefore, it is by the gospel that we are delivered from the law (Romans 7:6) and put to death to the law (Romans 7:4)- "we died to that wherein we were held" (cf. Galations 2:19). The gospel is annulled if the decisiveness of this discharge is not appreciated. In that event we have fallen away from the grace and Christ becomes of no effect. (cf. Galations 5:4).

Ian I think you understand that first paragraph but this is not the whole account of the relation of law and gospel. Paul said also in the heart of his exposition and defence of the gospel of grace, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (Romans 3:31). As a believer he writes that he consents unto the law that it is good, that he delights in the law of God after the inward man, that with the mind he serves the law of God (Romans 7: 16, 22, 25), and that the aim of Christ's accomplishment was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). When we look for an example of the law he had in mind we find it in Romans 7:7. And no doubt can remain that in Romans 13:9 he provides us with concrete examples of the law which love fulfills, showing thereby that there is no incompatibility between love as the controlling motive of the believer's life and conformity to the commandments which the law of God enuniciates. The conclusion is inescapable that the precepts of the Decalogue have relevance to the believer as the criteria of that manner of life which love to God and to our neighbor dictates. The same apostle uses terms which are the same effect as that of being "under law" when he says, "being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ" (I Corinthians 9:21). In respect of obligation he is not divorced from the law of God, he is not lawless in referrence to God. And this is validated and exemplified in his being bound to the law of Christ.

The reason for this sustained appeal to the law of God as the norm by which the conduct of the believer is to be judged and by which his life is to be governed resides in the relation of the law to the character of God. God is holy, just, and good. Likewise "the law is holy, just, and good" (Romans 7:12). The law is, therefore, the reflection of God's own perfection. In a word, it is the transcript of God's holiness as the same comes to expesssion for the regulation of thought and behavior consonant with His glory. We are to be holy in all manner of life because He who has called us is holy (I Peter 1:15,16). To be relieved of the demands which the law prescribes would contradict the relation to God which grace establishes. Salvation is salvation from sin, and "sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4). Salvation is, therefore, to be saved from transgression of the law and thus to conformity to it. Antinomian bias strikes at the nature of the gospel. It says, in effect, let us continue in sin.

A believer is re-created after the image of God. He therefore loves God and his brother also (I John 4:20,21). And because he loves God he loves what mirrors God's perfection. He delights in the law of God after the inward man (Romans 7:22). Obedience is his joy, disobedience the plague of his heart. The saint is destined for conformity to the image of God's Son (Romans 8:29) and he is re-made after the pattern of Him who had no sin and could say, "yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 90:8).


Wes