John 14:15 declares the God-Breathed words of the Lord Jesus; He proclaims: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Antinomianism means anti-law, or lawlessness. Antinomianism rejects and downplays the importance of God’s commandments in His law in the journey of the Christian believer. Antinomianism is the opposite of the heresy, legalism. The Antinomian cannot possibly and adequately respond to these words of our Lord Jesus. Why would Jesus proclaim that if you love Him, you will keep His commandments, if it is no longer relevant for today’s times? Antinomians interpretation is an interpretation made with human hands. It is purely eisegesis. That is, placing the interpreters’ preconceived notions onto the text. Reformed exegetes engage in exegesis. That is, arriving at the author’s intended meaning of the text. The Antinomian position is fundamentally flawed because it is devoid of the real substance of the actuality of the commandments of Christ. It lacks the scriptural integrity in its position.
Today people are Antinomian. It exists in the Christian church and in the world we live in. Antinomianism denies the Scriptural content that supports the commandments of God. The song of lawlessness goes, “Freed from the law, O blessed condition; I can sin all I want and still have remission.” Their distaste for the law is manifested in numerous significant ways. Because Jesus has freed His people from the moral law, some of the lawlessness ones believe they are not obligated to keep God’s law. These people believe that grace frees us from the curse of God’s law, and it delivers God’s people from the obligation from His blessed law. In turn, the beloved grace God’s people know, becomes a heinous means of disobedience, and license thereunto.
To the lawlessness ones, I declare in conformity to the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:16, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” Peter clearly teaches that free men in Christ ought not to use their freedom as a covering for evil or cloke of maliciousness. Do you use your freedom for evil? Beware! Repent and believe the gospel! Peter says “but.” Here is the word that makes all the difference. Peter proclaims Christians to be “bondslaves of God” or “servants of God.” Bondslaves or servants are not people of lawlessness. Rather they are people of lawfulness and there are god-designed characteristics of a bondslaves of Christ from the divine Scriptures. Acts 4:29 speaks of bondslaves as speaking God’s Word with all confidence; Preaching His Word includes the law of God. Psalm 119:97 declares, “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Again, Psalm 119:113 declares, “I hate those who are double-minded, but I love Your law.” Psalm 119:163 proclaims, “I hate and despise falsehood, but I love Your law.” Yet again, Psalm 119:165 declares, “Those who love Your law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.” Declaring God’s message of God-appointed law is essential for the justified sinner in sanctification to grow in grace and to love His law more then worldly things! Loving your neighbor is the fulfillment of the law as stated in Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8. Who was the man who loved perfectly? And who was the man who did not reject God’s law? How lived his life in complete conformity to His law? It was none other then Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:9 speaks of God the Father speaking to His Son. What does He say to Him? What is the Son’s love toward? Is the Son like man who loves lawlessness and would ague from that standpoint thereof? No, the author of Hebrews proclaims: "YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOUWITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS." If you desire to be conformed to the image of the Son, would you object of Jesus that He loved righteousness (the essence of the moral law is the manifestation of righteousness)? How dare you deny the moral law, the law our Lord loved so dearly and truly. He treasured it, and He came to fulfill not destroy it. Why believe the opposite of divine righteousness instituted by God in the moral law? Even if you do not embrace Antinomianism, how many times have you knowingly sinned? Thus repent and bear fruits with repentance!
Acts 16:17 speaks of bondservants of the Most High God (notice that it is the message of the Supreme Divine Being of Scripture); His people proclaim God’s message of salvation as is plainly recognized by His enemies. The message of divine salvation is barren and empty without the preaching of the law. We appreciate the gospel far more when we see our hopeless ways of keeping His law. The gospel is not a gospel of lawlessness. It is not a gospel of sin. The gospel is unto holiness. Following His Gospel is following righteousness. We are elected unto holiness not that we are not elected unto sin. 2 Corinthians 4:5 declares, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.” Bond slaves do not preach themselves for how can I save you or save yourselves? We are bond slaves for the sake of Christ. We preach Christ, and Him crucified. We could not preach Christ and Him crucified if Jesus believed the law was not relevant. But you will notice, will you not, that Christ fulfilled the law perfectly, and so, why do you avoid the law when Jesus is the Supreme Example of keeping the law in perfect righteousness. Even though we cannot perfectly keep the moral law, we must use it to be obedient to the great King of the Universe. So if we preach Christ we cannot do it without embracing the Gospel truth of saying that Christ lived a perfect life and never violated the law at all.
· Paul and Timothy are described as bond servants of the Lord (Phil. 1:1).
· The apostle John is called a bond servant of the Lord (Rev. 1:1).
· If embracing immorality is a spiritual crime, then shouldn’t that tell us that we must adhere to the law of the Lord (Rev. 2:20)?
· Didn’t Christ say that if you continue in His Word is a clear indication of belonging to Him? Bondservants of the King have His identification on their foreheads.
· Bondservants fear the Lord (Rev. 11:18; 19:5).
· God will avenge His bondservants (Rev. 19:2).
· Bondservants serve Him, and we serve Him not in sin but according to the law in sanctification (Rev. 22:3).
The Bible declares those who practice lawlessness will be accursed. Matthew 7:23 speaks of those who are lawless and Christ says, “You rightly believed the law was relevant to the Christian. Welcome into my kingdom.” No, He says, "…I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” (Matthew 7:23). This does not mean we are saved by our works. Jesus said if you really are His you will continue in His Word. Continue then in His Word and practice what He taught, for if you do not practice what He taught you are not His. Do you see the insanity of practicing lawlessness? It leads to eternal doom. When people think they can practice sin, and do so with impunity, it leads to chaos and eternal harm. Because of this sinful understanding people get seriously hurt and wounded. Christ spoke of the eternal doom of the lawlessness ones in Matthew 13:40-42:
40"So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
41"The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
42and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 23:27-28 condemns the Pharisees as lawlessness, He declares:
27"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
28"So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Romans 2:13 says, “for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 speaks of the lawless one. He is described as the lawless one. Faith alone does not mean a dead, reckless and fruitless faith. Faith is a living, lasting and true faith. Titus 2:14 declared, “…who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Jesus redeemed His people from lawless deeds. After a person becomes a Christian, they have faith and repentance. We repent of our foul deeds but we are no longer to walk in them as we once did for the Spirit says, "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." (Heb. 10:17). We cannot escape the reality of knowing that the essence of sin is insanity because it is against a holy and righteous God. We read in 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.” Why would people want to practice sin and lawlessness? It is wholly displeasing to God and He hates lawlessness and the practice of sin. Practicing lawlessness is not the way the Christian life should be. It is the very opposite understanding of the Christian faith. We are to live in godliness and live lives in the approval of Christ. Live your life in conformity to the moral law. It will guide you and when you break it turn and flee to the Gospel of the King of Glory. You will be forgiven and sin will be remitted but you must forsake your previous life of sin and live for godliness. You must live in gratitude of what the Lord has done, if in fact, He has purposed to save thee. We must do what is pleasing to God for He desires His people to do that. Out of love for Christ we must follow His commands and live in obedience to His ways, for if we love our sin we will cling to ourselves and our own depraved imaginations on what we should follow of the great King, but if we love righteousness we will serve the God of righteousness and the King of Righteousness, none other then Christ Himself. It is explicit insanity to serve sin when you know of the forgiveness of Christ. It is nothing less then rebellion against the Sovereign King if you persist in sin and practice that which He opposes, for He will gather all that which causes sin and cast it not into eternal life but outer darkness and the flames of fire to which symbols speak yet we know it is far worse then to which it points. Grace, sinners of the prince of the air, is a license to sin. You should not be attracted to Calvinism or something because you conceive it could have high potential for sin. Rather you must choose what is righteous, and to say Calvinism is thus is far from truth; it is a straw man and from depraved thinking; foreign to the truth of Christ. There was once a man, perhaps like you, who said, “If I am a Calvinist that means I can do anything I want, right?” My response is, “Do you suppose the Author of the Faith of Christ is opposed to Himself? Do you think He Author of the Sin He condemns, and do you suppose He wants you to continue in sin? Do you think you will get away with what is contrary to His will and revealed law? Continuing in sin will mean judgment and no earthly notion will save thy depraved logic, for in gratitude of Christ we must live and to be holy we must give all our might, for nothing is farther from the truth then to say, “Continue in sin….” What a radically opposite message when compared to His divine message.” Therefore bondslaves of Christ have nothing to do with lawlessness for they have learned obedience and repentance.
May I suggest to you that the apostle Paul held to the teaching of the Law! Paul focused upon the difference between law and grace. Paul gloried in the New Covenant of Christ. But even he, the chief of sinners, was diametrically opposed to antinomianism. Romans 3:31 declares, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” Shall we do what Scripture says? Or shall we oppose it and reject what it says because we love are sin ever so much? If you love your sin more then Christ, you must repent and bear fruits of repentance, and if you lack such and continue in sin, where then is the Word of Christ in you? He said if you are Mine you will continue in His Word, and His Word is the Word of Righteousness, not the word of sin. The word of sin is a word of the world that does not save but binds in twisted sin. If you wish to live in iniquity you have forsaken you Lord, and submitted to the ways of Satan; turn then before it is too late to Him who died in the place of His people.
Luther was charged with antinomianism but we know he did not believe it nor teach it. He agreed with James, “faith without works is dead.” A student of Luther believed antinomianism. He denied the law has importance in the life of the believer, and that law prepared God’s people for grace. Luther in 1539 responded to his student’s work Against the Antinomians. Luther’s student later rejected his position, yet the teaching of antinomianism still remains a issue today. If someone believed this false teaching and repented, they are restored, and live a life of obedience to Christ, and thus by repentance and obedience reject antinomianism, for the ways of antinomianism lead to hell. The ship-wrecked children of the gospel who believed continuing sin is essential by forsaking the law are now in the final sense, if believed until they die, children of hell. Once someone is in hell there is no escape. You cannot repent and nothing avails to get someone out of hell. No one has the authority to get a person out of the flames and fires of hell. Hell is a place where lawlessness children of the devil go. Christians must continue in the Word from Above, in the very Word of Christ, the Holy Scriptures, and by that, we can be sure of our calling and election. Regarding Luther, there were Lutheran theologians who believed Luther’s use of the law. The last classical Lutheran statement of faith The Formula of Concord in 1577 spoke of three real uses of the law for the Christian. As Dr. Sproul says, it is to reveal sin, to establish general decency in society at large and thirdly, to provide a rule of life for those regenerated through faith in Christ.
The error of Antinomianism is bewildering justification with sanctification. Christians are to understand we are justified by faith alone; we are justified apart from works. In sanctification all believers grow in grace. We grow in grace by holding to the commandments of God. We do not obey God’s commands by gaining his favor. Out of love for Christ for the grace we have, we do that which is pleasing to God. We ought to seek and love to do what is pleasing to God. We ought to have sincere gratitude for Christ and His work.
People assume that the OT is a covenant of law, and the NT a covenant of grace. The OT speaks greatly of God’s amazing grace. The NT is filled with a plethora of commandments. When we obey the law, we show are love for Him, and we humbly realize that we are not saved by the law. The verse in consideration is John 14:15. Christ says “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Do you keep God’s commands? Have you repented? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Do you obey the Ten Commandments in all that you do? Have you failed, and where have you failed? If you have failed, you must do what God commands, and repent, for it is the way of life. If you reject repentance, you reject God’s way in dealing with sinners. May I suggest to you, that none of us have perfectly kept the commandments of God! This is our deep problem. We are not people of perfection; we are lairs and sinners. Turn to Jesus this day and have forgiveness and be forgiven and sins remitted. Jesus is the Incarnate Divine Eraser. When I say He is the Divine Eraser, I do not mean it in an irreverent way. What I mean is He takes away His people’s sins, iniquities and transgressions. It is remembered no more because Christ has taken it away perfectly. What did the Lion say to Edmond’s family? He said, “What is done is done. You do not have to speak with Edmond about what has happened.” The Lion and the Lamb: this is Jesus Christ and none other. Christ is the Lamb of God; He is the Lion of Judah. He took sin upon Himself to bear a curse for His people so they would be free from sin and free from the curse of sin. What a Savior we have! There is no greater Redeemer nor man in all of history then Jesus Christ; He is the God-man, the all-sufficient Holy One of God and of Israel.
Even though Christ takes away sin, it is never safe nor sound nor reasonable in any way to say that since this is true, we ought to sin and sin more because we will be forgiven. I cannot think of a more offensive way to incur the judgment of God. If you are really His, I would questions whether or not you belong to Him by your insistence on sinning. Where is your love for God’s commands? Where is your devotion to His ways and abstaining from the ways of death and ruin? What did Jesus say to the person he healed? He said in John 5:14, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” If you sin, there will be consequences. Consequences will follow. I do not say “consequences may follow” no I say, “Consequences will follow.” And as you sin you heap shame upon yourself. Oh say, “No one is watching. No one is listening. I can do as I please.” No, God is watching. God is listening. You cannot do as you please. If you want to do as you please, be pleased to follow His righteous commands. Do you think God wants you to follow unrighteous ways and ways of immorality and lust? No, God sees your sin and He hates it, and you shame yourself and the Christian faith by your rebellion. Stop. Repent. Turn to God and ask Him that you would bear fruits of repentance. Obey His Word and it will lead to life. The way of life is not the way of lawlessness. But the way of lawlessness is the way of ruin and death, and I tell you, it leads to second death. There is some truth in saying that Christianity is not a list of dos, and don’ts, and it is not a list of rules. Christianity is far more then a list of rules. Christianity in its essence is a true relationship with Christ. The NT includes dos and don’ts. It is not a way of sin. You do not have the right to do what you want. If you think Christianity gives you the right to wrong, you are badly mistaken not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God. I say this as Paul did, “Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” And Peter speaks of the damned, “With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!”
Romans 6:1-2:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
There are a corrupt people who say that we must sin so grace may abound. It is a heinous sin to believe such a vain philosophy. It is nothing less then a false philosophy of the world, a philosophy of Satan. It has nothing to do with Scripture and God’s people; I urge you, flee from this kind of spiritually irrationality. It is then less then abominable in the sight of God. It is the height of rebellion and it is the lowest of ways to sin. To have abounding grace is the consequence of the SURE wrath of God. It is not a favorable thing to have abounding grace. If you want grace to sin more, you are under God’s real wrath, and you could be yet in your sins. You should want grace to sin less and to keep you from sinning. Grace means freedom from sin but not license to sin. To be in sanctification means license to be holy not license for utter wickedness. If you are looking for ways to sin, and to quote unquote “have fun”, you have fallen badly, and you must turn from it, for it is the way of experiencing the wrath of God, and the way of ruin. Antinomianism is nothing less then the doctrine of Satan and it is wholly contrary to all the doctrines of the sacred Faith of Christianity. What will you say before Christ when He judges you to hell for sinning against Him and then using Him for evil? Have you not read what Peter wrote? He wrote, “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” The KJV says “using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness.” So the Scripture is consistent in its message: obey the law of God, do not continue in sin and do not use your liberty or freedom as a cloke or cover-up for evil. To sin that grace may abound is the thinking of the reprobate mind. This type of thinking is the thinking of the reprobates. The reprobate will never cease from finding ways to indulge his sin. To indulge in sin, and to do it greatly, is the motto of the reprobate. It might as well be posted on their foreheads for this is what they believe. They delight in sin whereas God delights in righteousness. That is why God gave us His moral law. The moral law is the opposite of Antinomianism, and Antinomianism is the opposite of the moral law. So, then, submit to the moral law, for without it the gospel seems empty and without value. The law shows us our sin, and it directs us to obey God.
1 John 2:3-6:
3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
If you know Christ, you will keep His commandments. His commandments are to believe and repent; love your neighbor; the Ten Commandments. The characteristic of knowing Christ is to keep His very commandments. If someone does not keep His commandments (and we all fall short) it is reason to repent, and to say we fall short is not a reason to give in to sin, or to give up altogether. Rather, we must submit to the Laws of Christ, and if we do, we walk through the pathway of life, and rightful obedience. People that do not know Him do not follow His commands. That is why lawlessness is so dangerous, and it is also destructive. Why would a sinner who knows of God’s wrath in gage in more sin? It is because people are reasoning in a flawed way, and their sin has overcome them, and they speak deceit to themselves, and delight in wickedness. The thinking of the sinner is how can I find ways to sin and get away with it? To think about finding ways to sin is the very opposite of the sacred faith. The sacred pages reveal that God commands His ways because it is pleasing to Him and because, chiefly, it is the right thing. Why are you trying to find ways to sin? It is wrong, and you must stop. Second, you will never get away with your sin. God will surely chasten you if you are His. Why delight in sin for a time? Be like Moses who did not delight in the pleasures in sin, and fled to the ways of righteousness. Cling, then, to the ways of righteousness, for it is the right thing, and it must be done if you are consistent. If you know God you must understand that you know Him intimately, and thus, you will continue in following godly commands of Christ. When you sin, you repent and you strive as following God’s commands; you do not put them aside, no, you live by them. So, then, continue, and examine yourselves, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
If you claim to know God and do not keep His commands you are nothing less then a lair. It is because you say one thing and do another. If you practice sin, you are lawlessness, and devoid of the grace-enabling grace of God to keep His commands. If you are found a liar, you do not have the truth in you. Jesus if you do not eat His flesh and drink His blood, you have no life in you. This undoubtedly refers to believing Jesus as Augustine believed. So, Jesus Who is the Truth, does not abide in you, for He is the truth, and there is no truth in the liar; the lair is devoid of the gospel, and the Person Who is the Truth, Christ Jesus Himself.
The Scripture says, “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.” If you keep His Word, you are His follower, and friend. Jesus said continue in my Word, and by this, you will know if he is his disciple. If you keep His Word the love of God is perfected. Out of gratitude for His love, God’s love is made complete, and then, we follow His commands. Whoever abides in Christ must believe and do His commands. And we are to walk as He walked. We are not saved by the law. But we are to follow the Laws of Christ to walk as He did. If we use Christ as our Example we would never conclude that His commands are no longer relevant. Christ is the Perfect Picture of keeping the law for He lived a perfectly sinless life. He needed to do this for our sake and God the Father accepts what He did for us for His sake alone. He walked sinlessly and blamelessly. There was no deceit found in Him, for Pilate saved of Him he found no fault in Him. What a true statement! He found no fault in Him because He was without fault; He was and is sinless. Christ did not put the law aside. He did not believe God’s law was irrelevant. If He did we would not have a perfect Savior. The perfect Savior is our model to follow for He is the ultimate Picture of Goodness, Righteousness, Holiness and Obedience. Turn to Christ, then, to live as He lived; to obey as He obeyed; to speak as He spoke; to think as He thought and to do good deeds as He richly accomplished. Of course, we are fallen sinners and we do not have the ability to keep God’s law perfectly. But that is our very problem as was noted before. The gulf between God and man is eternal. Man cannot earn favor with God; he is guilty and in sin. He is the picture of what we ought not to be. Fallen, depraved, and radically corrupt; man is in desperate need of a Redeemer, for he cannot save himself. Men try all sorts of things, but they all end in dust, and none avail. Each man thinks his plot to enter heaven will avail, and escape hell, but these are folly and have no spiritual substance or reality to it.
1 John 5:1-3:
1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
To be born of God is to have the ability to believe and repent. If someone truly believes and repents, it is evidence of being born again. These are the fruits of being born again. To have these fruits is the way of godly living. If someone loves the Father, he loves the person born of Him. If you love the children of God, we ought to love God and keep His commands. By the love of God we keep His commandments. Out of sheer love and gratitude we follow His commands. God’s commands are not grievous! To the sinner it may appear to be grievous; but we know by God’s grace, we are to follow His commands, but even when it is by grace, this obedience does not form in any way the grounds for justification. We are to be obedient to God out of our deep love for Him, and we find, that His ways are not a burden. To follow His commands is the way of godly living. The Psalms speak of the law; let’s listen to what the divine Word says:
Ps. 19:7: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.” Ps. 37:31: “The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.” Ps. 40:8: “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." Ps. 78:10: “they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law.” Ps. 94:12: “Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law” Ps. 119:1: “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.” Ps. 119:29: “Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law.” Ps. 119:34: “Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” Ps. 119:39: “Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.” Ps. 199:52: “I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them.” Ps. 119:53: “Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law.” Ps. 119:72: “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.”
So then, I conclude, may all glory, honor and worship be to God alone. Amen and amen.
