Antinomianism comes from two Greek words. Anti mean “against” and nomos meaning “law”. So the literal meaning of the word is “anti-law” or “against the law”. In theological terms antinomianism is the view that Christians are not obligated to follow moral, religious, or social laws. The Bible teaches that the observation of the moral law of the Mosaic Covenant does not bring salvation. Christ fulfilled the demands of the Old Testament law when he died on the cross. It is important to point out that Christians are not under the Mosaic Law.
The Bible teaches that Christ is the end of the law to all who believe. Romans 10:4 says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” The teaching that there is no moral laws for Christians is both false and unbiblical. We are required to obey the laws of the land in which we dwell in and we are subject to the law of Christ.
The apostle Paul addressed the topic of antinomianism in Romans 6:1-2. One of the attacks on salvation by faith through grace is that it is a licence to sin. The view that salvation and grace gives us a freedom to sin is false and unbiblical.
The Bible’s teaching is that we should use our freedom to please God and to do good works for the glory of God. Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Antinomianism is unbiblical as it has a wrong view of the grace of God.
God commands us to obey the law of Christ. Matthew 22:37-40 says, “And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” We are under the law of Christ as Christians. The law of Christ does not merit or maintain salvation. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
God expects Christians to live a life of morality, integrity, respect, and peace. The life of the Christian is one of honour to God and to each other. Christ has freed us from the burden of the Old Testament law of sacrifices.
We are to strive to live a life of holiness and righteousness before God. 1 John 2:3-6 says, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Christians are under grace, not law. Which means that salvation and living a Christian life is through God’s grace rather than through strict adherence to a legalistic system of rules, focusing on faith in Christ and His sacrifice rather than works.
Antinomianism. An ethical system that denies the binding nature of any supposedly absolute or external laws on individual behavior. Some antinomianists argue that Christians need not preach or practice the laws of the OT because Christ’s merits have freed Christians from the law. Others, like the early Gnostics, teach that spiritual perfection comes about through the attainment of a special knowledge rather than by obedience to law. Generally, Christian theology has rejected antinomianism on the basis that although Christians are not saved through keeping the law, we still have a responsibility to live uprightly, that is, in obedience to God’s law of love in service to one another (Gal 5:13–14) as we walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:16) who continually works to transform us into the image of Christ the Creator (Col 3:1, 7–10).
Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling
Antinomians. Strictly, those opposed to the inculcation of good works from a perverted view of the doctrines of grace; but the term is also falsely applied to those who know themselves free through the death of Christ from the law as given by Moses. Rom. 7:4; Gal. 2:19. One has but to read carefully the epistle to the Galatians to see that for Gentile believers to place themselves under the law is to fall from grace; and Paul exhorted them to be as he was, for he was (though a Jew by birth) as free from the law by the death of Christ as they were as Gentiles. They had not injured him at all by saying he was not a strict Jew, Gal. 4:12: in other words, they may have called him an antinomian, as others have been called, whose walk has been the most consistent. To go back to the law supposes that man has power to keep it. For a godly walk the Christian must walk in the Spirit, and grace teaches that, “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” Titus 2:12. On the other hand, there have been, and doubtless are, some who deny good works as a necessary fruit of grace in the heart: grace, as well as everything else, has been abused by man. See LAW.
A Concise Bible Dictionary, George Morrish of London 1899
Law. The subject of ‘law’ is not restricted in scripture to the law given by Moses. God gave a commandment (or law) to Adam, which made Adam’s subsequent sin to be transgression. Where there is no law there is no transgression (Rom. 4:15), though there may be sin, as there was from Adam to Moses: “until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed [or put to account] when there is no law.” Rom. 5:13. This doubtless signifies that specific acts were not put to account as a question of God’s governmental dealings, when there was no law forbidding them. Men sinned, and death reigned, though they “had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Rom. 5:14), for no definite law had been given to them. The nations that had not the law were however a law unto themselves, having some sense of good and evil, and their conscience bore witness accordingly. It is not a true definition of sin, to say that it is “the transgression of the law,” as in the A.V. of 1 John 3:4. The passage should read “Sin is lawlessness:” that is, man doing his own will, defiant of restraint, and regardless of his Creator and of his neighbour.
‘Law’ may be considered as a principle in contrast to ‘grace,’ in which sense it occurs in the N.T., the word ‘law’ being often without the article (though the law of Moses may at times be alluded to in the same way). In this sense it raises the question of what man is for God, and hence involves works. “The doers of [the] law shall be justified,” Rom. 2:13; but if, on the other hand, salvation be “by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.” Rom. 11:6. The conclusion is that “by the deeds of [the] law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” None can be saved on that principle. In opposition to it “the righteousness of God without [the] law is manifested.” The believer is “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3:20-24. ‘Law’ a principle stands also in scripture in contrast to ‘faith.’ “The just shall live by faith: and the law is not of faith; but the man that doeth them shall live in them.” Gal. 3:11.
The word ‘law’ is also used for a fixed and unvarying principle such as ‘a law of nature:’ thus we read of the ‘law of faith,’ ‘law of sin,’ ‘law of righteousness,’ ‘law of the Spirit of life,’ etc.; cf. Rom. 7:21.
The term ‘law’ is occasionally used in the N.T. as a designation of other parts of the O.T. besides the Pentateuch. The Lord said, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ?” when the quotation was from the Psalms. John 10:34: similarly 1 Cor. 14:21.
A Concise Bible Dictionary, George Morrish of London 1899
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