ANTINOMIANISM

In our last article, we saw how the Moral Law of God is stillapplicable today for both Christians and non-Christians. We also saw that theLaw has three principle uses: Firstly, the Theological use, which paints the righteousness ofGod and reflects our own unrighteousness; secondly, the Pedagogical use, which restrains especially theunregenerate from giving full expression to their depravity and at the sametime drives them to Christ; and thirdly, the Moral use, which lights the path for theChristian’s journey and prods him along the way.

Not everyone, however, will agree with everything we say. CharlesC. Ryrie who represents the majority of Dispensationalists today, for example,insists that "The law was never given to Gentiles and is expressly doneaway for the Christian" (Balancing the Christian Life, [MoodyPress, 1969], 88). Moreover, Dispensationalists normally drive a sharp wedgebetween justification and sanctification, so that a person can be justifiedwithout being sanctified. This is well illustrated in the book by Zane Hodges,entitled The Gospel UnderSiege. Under such a system of theology, a person can be regenerated but notconverted. He is a "carnal Christian," and he will be saved as byfire. Thus, for the Dispensationalist, even if the Law is still applicable,obedience is not necessary for salvation. Sanctification is obtained byobedience to some biblical instructions; sanctification is optional, therefore,obedience is optional.

The appropriate term to describe such kind of teachings would be‘antinomianism.’ This word comes from two Greek words, (anti), meaning‘against,’ and (nomos), meaning ‘law.’ The classical Dispensationalistis a theological antinomian. No Reformed and truly Calvinistic person can be atheological antinomian. I hope that none who reads this bulletin is atheological antinomian, for the Lord said: "Whosoever therefore shallbreak one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall becalled the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teachthem, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:19).

Having said so, however, experience teaches us that we live in aday when many a professing Christian is a practical antinomian: affirming thata Christian must obey the Law, but yet often circumventing the Law. Let mesuggest five ways in which this is commonly done. Let us be reminded of thewicked devices in our hearts. Let us repent where we have failed; and let us becareful not to persist in circumventing the Law lest we be hardened through thedeceitfulness of sin (see Hebrews 3:13). It is true that many of us couldcircumvent the Law not only on account of the corruption of our natures, butalso on account of ignorance. But let us bear in mind that no one who ignoresthe Law of God or circumvents it as a matter of conscious practice can crediblycall himself a Christian. No one ought to claim to be a child of God who doesnot have a desire to obey Him, and so to consciously choose obedience ratherthan to enjoy the pleasures of sin. It is my hope, therefore, that as you readthe five points, you will not only be instructed as to what is involved in anobedient Christian life, but you will see the real state of your soul.

Narrowing the Scope of theLaw

The Lord Jesus, in His exposition of the Moral Law of God, made ita point to correct this error. Thus He taught His disciples that the sixthcommandment is not only about bodily murder but also about hatred and slander(Mt 5:21–22); and in the same way, the seventh commandment is not only aboutillicit physical relations but also lust of the eyes and heart (Mt 5:27–28).

At one time, after I became a Christian, I totally disregarded thefourth commandment. Sunday was time for shopping and extra time for study. I knewthere is a fourth commandment, but it never occurred to me that it had anythingto do with me since I was studying and not working (or so I thought).Similarly, it never occurred to me that I could break the eighth commandmentwithout committing shoplifting or breaking into someone’s house to steal. I waseven employed once by a lecturer of the Computer Science department of theuniversity to break the protection scheme of an expensive ArtificialIntelligence program. I was successful and even bragged about it. That was fiveyears after I made profession of faith! It never occurred to me that thePsalmist is describing a Christian when he says that "his delight is inthe law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps1:2). Never did I meditate on the law, nor did I know that the Westminsterdivines expounded on the Law in the catechisms (not that I knew there was sucha thing as the Westminster Assembly—although I was baptised in a church thathas the Westminster Confession of Faith as her doctrinal standard).

What about you? Are you also ignoring the Law by failing to seeits larger scope? Or worst, do you know, for example, the expositions of theLaw in our Catechisms, but are simply ignoring the fine points in yourChristian life? Realise that, for you who know the requirements of the Law,your failure to take heed to it is exceedingly sinful, for our Lord says,"But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall bebeaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall bemuch required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask themore" (Lk 12:48).

Hypocritical Obedience

The second way in which we circumvent the Law is by a failure toobey wholeheartedly and with the right reason. The Pharisees during the LordJesus’ days were adept at this. They saw the Law only in terms of its externalrequirements and so they went about strictly fulfilling it to the letterexternally, to gain righteousness or to show off their righteousness. Theyreceived the severest of the Lord’s indictment: "Woe unto you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and haveomitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: theseought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Mt 23:23).

How does this apply to us? Do you honour your father and mother bygiving them a regular allowance, but shrink from giving of your time to helpthem with some chores they require to be done? Do you appear genial and lovingbefore your brethren in church but are full of anger and unreasonablenessbefore your subordinates at work? "It is a sad thing to be Christians at asupper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets" (StephenCharnock).

Spurgeon wrote of an occasion when he was in Venice and, since itwas his last day there, he wanted to buy some souvenirs to bring back. To hisdismay, he discovered that all the shops were closed because it was a RomanCatholic saint’s day. His regret however soon vanished when he peered into oneof the shops and discovered people inside. Then he discovered that the frontdoor was close to give the appearance that the owner of the shop was observingthe saint’s day, but the shop was really opened and customers could get in bythe side door. He could buy all the souvenirs he needed.

Does this speak of you too? That outwardly, many see you as a veryrighteous person, but inwardly there are all the dead man’s bones. Are you thewhite-washed sepulchre that our Lord spoke about? Has the Law become youroutward façade so as to render you exceedingly sinful? For their hypocriticalreligiosity, Israel and Judah were called Sodom and Gomorrah by our Lord (Isa1:9–15). Hypocrites do not inherit the Kingdom of God. Their portion includesweeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 24:51), not "everlasting joy." Letus therefore be especially watchful against this sin in our lives.

Minimising the Severity of 
Breaking the Law

The third common way of circumventing the Law is by minimising theseverity of breaking it. This happens when a person, who has transgressed theLaw, thinks that his sin is minor; such as is evident when someone who liedsays: "I only told a small lie"; or when someone who pilfered fundsentrusted to him says: "It was only a couple of dollars!" Thisattitude is fuelled by several decades of evangelical preaching that emphasiseslove without holiness or justice; and forgiveness without repentance. It istrue that there are degrees of severity in the Law: murder, for example, iscertainly more severe than lying. However, we must not fail to realise thatevery sin against an infinite God is of infinite severity and deserves nothingless than eternal damnation. This is why only the Son of God and no one elsecould pay for our sin. Thus, the severity of breaking any of God’s laws must beappreciated and, often, drastic actions must be taken to counteract habitualsins and strong temptations to sin.

Our Lord teaches us: "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck itout, and cast it from thee," and "And if thy right hand offend thee,cut it off, and cast it from thee" (Mt 5:29a, 30a). Does this appear toyou as unnecessarily harsh and unchristian? If so, you have not reallyappreciated the demands of the Law, and cannot really appreciate the value ofChrist’s death, and are possibly still foreign to Christ.

Sin must be recognised for what it is. It is an affront againstGod. And sin by a believer is nothing less than rebellion against our King andLord. Thus, drastic actions may be called to fight against sin and temptation.Is your television a cause of your sloth and lack of time for the Word of God.Get rid of it! Are there some materials in your house that is a source oftemptation to you? Burn them! Is your relationship with an unbeliever causingyou to sin against God? Cut off the relationship before it is too late!"It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and notthat thy whole body should be cast into hell" (Mt 5:29b, 30b). The Lord isof course not teaching that we are saved by keeping the Law, or that we couldloose our salvation by breaking the Law, but He is saying that one whocontinues to minimise the severity of sin and continues to sin cannot possiblybe a true believer.

Now then, let us seek not to allow the deceitfulness of sin tolull us into thinking that there is such a thing as a harmless sin. A littlecut on the toe may be a small thing for most people, but it has resulted in thenecessity to amputate the entire feet for countless diabetics. The ‘littlesins’ in your lives, tolerated by a attitude of thinking that "[God] isaltogether such an one as thyself" (Ps 50:21), may become a full blowngangrenous infection which shows itself on the Day of Judgement.

Applying the Law Relatively

The fourth, and one of the most common, way of circumventing theLaw is to interpret and apply it relatively.This was the problem of the Pharisee who prayed: "God, I thank thee, thatI am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as thispublican" (Lk 18:11). This Pharisee was blind to his own sins because hefelt that he was doing well since others were worst than him. He failed to seethe blackness of his heart because he had a preconceived idea of what is blackand then he looked at himself against the deep blackness of his preconception.

Ask an average unbeliever if he is a sinner, and he is likely totell you that he has never committed robbery or murder. Do you wonder why hedoes not simply say ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Yes, the answer lies in the fact that thegodless man will always think relatively that he is not really bad. It is amark of unbelief not to view oneself against the absolute Law and holiness ofGod, but against the sin of others.

But beloved, is this not also your problem, when you reason thatyou are not so bad although you are late for work, because your colleagues areall later than you? Or do you bring your office stationery home for yourprivate use and take no notice of it because everyone else does the same? Wouldnot you be practically taking God’s Law into your own hands and determining howyou ought to be judged? O, the sinfulness of sin that exalts the sinner to theplace of God!

Let us be particularly careful to detect this manifestation ofantinomianism in our lives. Beware! It appears in many guises. It may appear ina holier-than-thou attitude in your conversation with those you perceive to beless stringent in their view of the Law or less disciplined in their Christianlife. But conversely it also appears when someone confesses a sin to us, and wetry to ease the other person’s conscience by saying "It’s alright, I haddone the same myself too." And again it appears when you hear a sermoncondemning sin, and you straightaway imagine in your heart that the preacher isreferring to someone else without considering if it is true of you too.

Applying the LawSituationally

Finally, perhaps the most common way in which the Law iscircumvented is by applying it situationally.This was the problem with King Saul, when he tried to excuse himself for hisfailure to wait for Samuel to offer the sacrifice, by blaming it on the factthat the people were dispersing from him and he could not wait (1 Sam13:11–12). On another occasion, he failed to obey the Lord’s command to destroythe Amalekites entirely and tried to excuse himself by claiming that the peoplehad kept the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord (1 Sam 15:15).

Are we sometimes like that too? I once heard a lecturer of a Biblecollege suggesting that it is permissible to use pirated software at home,whereas in the office, only originals should be used. When I asked him what wasthe difference between using it at home and in the office, and pointed out thatusing pirated software is a breaking of the eighth commandment, he went into along discourse on how unfair Americans are to sell their software at such highprices so that poor Asians cannot afford them. But what about you? Have you notalso interpreted the Law of God situationally, to your favour, and to yourconvenience? Have you used your office photocopier to copy materials for use inchurch and explained it away by reasoning that it is for God’s work? Sadly, Idid just that—until I heard my conscience screaming and I had to pay back whatI owed as I repented before the Lord.

Let us also watch carefully for the manifestation of this attitudetowards the Law for it appears most subtly in many ways. It is probablyoperative when the first thought that comes to mind when sin is indicted is anexcuse. In other words, when the word "BUT" is the first word thatcomes to mind when someone points out a sin you had committed, or when yourconscience troubles you about something you had done: "But he started itfirst"; "But I did not hurt anyone"; "But I had nochoice—my father would kill me if he finds out"; "But it was for thesake of the company’s reputation"; "But she never told me the trutheither"; etc., etc. It is operative also when we read some Puritanexpositions of Law and, finding that we are unable to live up to the biblicalstandards propounded, begin to excuse ourselves by charging the Puritans ofbeing legalistic or outmoded.

Beloved, let us remember that the Law of God is in heaven foreversettled fast (Ps 119:89). Let none of us re-interpret the Law to suitourselves, or we become, for all intents and purposes, not just antinomians butatheistic ‘Christians.’

Conclusion

Beloved, how do you fare? Do you see yourself pictured in theportrait of the antinomian painted above? Could this be the reason why yourChristian life has been miserable and stunted? Is it because of sin,—which islawlessness? Listen to the words of Isaiah: "Behold, the Lord’s hand isnot shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins havehid his face from you, that he will not hear" (Isa 59:1–2). And listen tothe words of the Lord through Jeremiah: "Your iniquities have turned awaythese things, and your sins have withholden good things from you" (Jer5:25). If you are not enjoying God and the blessings which in this life doaccompany your salvation (WSC 36),it is almost certainly because of your sin. God does indeed accept us asrighteous in His sight for the righteousness of Christ imputed on us, but anyof us who sins habitually and knowingly has no right to claim justification. Noone who is antinomian in his Christian walk ought to claim eternal security inChrist. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath notseen him, neither known him" (1 Jn 3:6). Sanctification must necessarilyfollow justification.

Weep, O you who are out of Christ, for the misery that sin willinflict upon you in this life and the life to come is unimaginable. Call outunto the Saviour before it is too late. Let not Satan and sin have the finalvictory over you for then shall you be cast into "everlasting fire,prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41).