A Great entry! Hello nodelink. Thanks and since I am not a fan/adherent of anything Sproul, can you post the excerpt of his error from his book?
Longer excerpt is shown below...
90. ANTINOMIANISM
There is an old rhyme that serves as something of an antinomian theme song. It says, “Freed from the law, O blessed condition; I can sin all I want and still have remission.”Antinomianism literally means “anti-lawism.” It denies or downplays the significance of God’s law in the life of the believer. It is the opposite of its twin heresy, legalism.
Antinomians acquire their distaste for the law in a number of ways.
Some believe that they no longer are obligated to keep the moral law of God because Jesus has freed them from it. They insist that grace not only frees us from the curse of God’s law but delivers us from any obligation to obey God’s law. Grace then becomes a license for disobedience.
The astounding thing is that people hold this view despite Paul’s vigorous teaching against it. Paul, more than any other New Testament writer, emphasized the differences between law and grace. He gloried in the New Covenant. Nevertheless, he was most explicit in his condemnation of antinomianism. In Romans 3:31 he writes, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
Martin Luther, in expressing the doctrine of justification by faith alone, was charged with antinomianism. Yet he affirmed with James that “faith without works is dead.” Luther contested with his student Johann Agricola on this issue. Agricola denied that the law had any purpose in the life of the believer. He even denied that the law served to prepare the sinner for grace. Luther responded to Agricola with his work Against the Antinomians in 1539. Agricola later recanted his antinomian teachings, but the issue remained.
Subsequent Lutheran theologians affirmed Luther’s view of the law. In the Formula of Concord (1577), the last of the classical Lutheran statements of faith, they outlined three uses for the law: (1) to reveal sin; (2) to establish general decency in the society at large; and (3) to provide a rule of life for those regenerated through faith in Christ.
Antinomianism’s primary error is confusing justification with sanctification. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works. However, all believers grow in faith by keeping God’s holy commands—not to gain God’s favor, but out of loving gratitude for the grace already bestowed on them through the work of Christ.
It is a serious error to assume that the Old Testament was a covenant of law and the New Testament, a covenant of grace. The Old Testament is a monumental testimony to God’s amazing grace toward His people. Likewise, the New Testament is literally filled with commandments. We are not saved by the law, but we demonstrate our love for Christ by obeying His commandments. “If you love Me,” Jesus said, “keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
Sproul, R. C. (1992). Essential truths of the Christian faith. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
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