Antinomianism

Antinomianism (Gr. anti, 'against,' and nomos, 'law'), the doctrine or opinion that Christians are freed from obligation to keep the law of God. It is generally regarded by advocates of the doctrine of justification by faith, as a monstrous abuse and perversion of that doctrine, upon which it usually professes to be based. From several passages of the New Testament, as Rom. vi. and 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19, it would seem that a tendency to antinomianism had manifested itself even in the apostolic age; and many of the Gnostic sects were really antinomian, as were probably also some of the heretical sects of the middle ages; but the term was first used at the time of the Reformation, when it was applied by Luther to the opinions advocated by John Agricola (q.v.). Agricola had adopted the principles of the Reformation; but in 1527 he found fault with Melanchthon for recommending the use of the law, and particularly of the ten commandments, in order to produce conviction and repentance, which he deemed inconsistent with the gospel. Ten years after, he maintained in a disputation at Wittenberg, that as men are justified simply by the gospel, the law is in no way necessary for justification or for sanctification. The 'Antinomian Controversy' of this time, in which Luther took a very active part, terminated in 1540 in a retraction by Agricola; but views more extreme than his were afterwards advocated by some of the English sectaries of the period of the Commonwealth; and without being formally professed by a distinct sect, antinomianism has been from time to time reproduced with various modifications. It ought, however, to be borne in mind that the term has no reference to the conduct, but only to the opinions of men; so that men who practically disregard and violate the known law of God, are not therefore antinomians; and it is certain enough that men really holding opinions more or less antinomian, have in many cases been men of moral life. It is also to be observed that the term has been applied to opinions differing very much from each other. In its most extreme sense, it denotes the rejection of the moral law as no longer binding upon Christians; and a power or privilege is asserted for the saints to do what they please without prejudice to their sanctity; it being maintained that to them nothing is sinful; and this is represented as the perfection of Christian liberty. But besides this extreme antinomianism, than which nothing can be more repugnant to Christianity, there is also sometimes designated by this term the opinion of those who refuse to seek or to see in the Bible any positive laws binding upon Christians, and regard them as left to the guidance of gospel principles and the constraint of Christian love. Antinomianism usually originates in mistaken notions of Christian liberty, or in confusion of views as to the relation between the moral law and the Jewish law of ceremonial ordinances.